[Illustration: Electric Hot Plate]
On the outskirts of the village of Oriskany Falls, in Oneida county,
N. Y., is a farm of about 100 acres, belonging to Mr. E. Burdette
Miner. This community was at one time one of the principal hop-raising
districts of the State. Mr. Miner has been engaged in raising hops for
fifty years, and raised 10,000 pounds of hops on seven acres the past
season. In recent years he has divided his attention between mixed
farming and dairying, keeping from twenty to twenty-five cows.
Before the installation of his water power, not the least of the
irksome tasks about the farmhouse was the daily filling and cleaning
of kerosene lamps and lanterns; and the wood was sawed, and the cream
separator and churn in the dairy room were operated, by hand. Five sons
contributed in no small measure to the prompt disposal of the daily
tasks. But the boys went forth into the world and acquired lines of
activity and interest of their own. Only the oldest son remained to
live on the farm. Another son studied electrical engineering, a third
chose mechanical pursuits, a fourth became a civil engineer, and a
fifth took up commercial work.
[Illustration: Electric Coffee Percolator]
After coming in touch with the outer world and the great modern
achievements of science and invention, especially of a mechanical or
engineering character, the boys quite naturally set their wits to work
to devise some way in which the daily labors of those at home might be
made less burdensome.
Through the farm flows Oriskany creek, which ripples over its gravelly
bed in a channel from twenty to thirty feet wide. The boys said to
their father, “Why not harness the creek and make it do some of the
work?” There was no precipitous fall of the creek on the farm, but
the boys proposed to concentrate at least a portion of the fall by
constructing a dam. This they intended to do primarily for the purpose
of developing enough power to light the homestead and farm buildings
with electricity and to saw the wood and do away with some of the other
tiresome farm tasks.
The elder Miner was not enthusiastic at first, but was finally
persuaded by the boys, who made surveys and plans for a water-power
development, and in October, 1905, with the assistance of three of his
boys and two day laborers, Mr. Miner began the construction of a dam
across the creek. This was to be no ordinary structure. The creek,
while peaceful enough at most times, had a habit, well known to Mr.
Miner, of bursting its bounds every spring and rushing through the farm
in a torrent. So the dam was built in such a way that, while it would
raise the water to a certain height during periods of ordinary flow, it
would not cause the floods to rise perceptibly higher than before the
dam was built. Accordingly, it was designed so that a part of it could
be lowered at flood times to allow free passage for the swollen stream.
[Illustration: Dam of E. B. Miner, Oriskany Falls, N. Y.