Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Lights on the Farm Berore REC?

Before my time, but I've heard stories about the Delco plants, wind generators, and such.

Any thoughts on the topic?

There was no power here until 1953. Some people had generators Dad said.

I know a lady whose father sold those wind chargers back in the 1930's and 40's. They lived in SE Montana. She said they ran the lights and radio at their place. When she was a kid there was no REA power yet in that part of the country. She didn't remember how many batteries they kept charged but said where they lived the wind always blew so it was never a problem.

Here is a link to one of the companies that made them.

http://windcharger.org/Wind_Charger/Wincharger.html

If you go to the Welcome link after you read the above there is more information on the costs involved back in the early days. There are other manufacturers listed as well in the header of the Welcome section.

No generators here, just lanterns and coal oil lamps.

I've surveyed lots of places that didn't have electricity. With people living on them.

Some out in west Texas. Most in NM.

The people living there get pretty innovative.

Surveyed a powerline extension running to a house outside Pecos once, and those were the happiest people I can remember to see me coming. They had lived there several years before they could pay for the service to reach them.

Last time I checked on getting power out to my windmill, it was about $4000 per span (pole).

My mother didn't have any electricity till after the war...they were it the process of wiring up the grid when the war started. That all stopped to conserve copper...I remember as a kid asking grandma how she went that long without power...she said well I never had it before so really nothing changed...being a kid that hadn't dawned on me...

Lot of farms in eastern CO had acetylene lights The carbide/water drip deal was out in a nearby building and as it produced acetylene ,it was piped into the house for gas light.More than a few places blew up.We never had any fireworks,but we played hell with carbide bombs.They would throw us in jail today

Carbide is good fish bait.....so I've been told.

that's not too bad. When we had our new house built 4 years ago it cost us $6000 per pole, and double if we would've gone under ground.

Dad said they had a wind chargers living up on the high plains of TX right after the depression. Said they could either run their radio, or their light bulb. Not both at the same time.

Mom, born 1938 lived without power until she was 16 or 17.
Married my dad at 18, moved to the farm, no electricity for 3 more years.
Poor people, there were no fancy system for anyone I know of around here.
Coal oil, or hurricane lamps. Wood fired cookstoves.

Richer folk had kerosene stoves.


We have property that's 1/2 mile + from the nearest power, more across out ROW.
Boy, I wish we had built a cabin back when REA would run the line for free.
Our road is high clearance 4wd only.
Getting power, a decent road, a well, and sewer would blow $100k or more.
It would be a great place to live, but not remotely feasible.

I dont believe there was anything on my Great grandfather's or my Grandfather's place prior to electricity being run out here.


No evidence of any types of generators and dad never mentioned anything like that.

I lived with my Grandparents when I was in the 2nd grade. We had electricity, one bulb to the room and 2 outlets in the house, but grandma had a butane stove, tank set above ground in the yard. No running water and no bathroom. Bathed in a #3 washtub and had a 1 holer out back. Fireplace for heat.

And probably a much simpler, happier life.

Was a butane stove different than a propane stove?


Everything up here was fuel oil and coal.

Years before they found natural gas.


Propane is pretty recent.


Was propane interchangeable with butane?

Different Yes; interchangeable No. These days it mostly matters for Boy Scouts and other groups limited to bottled gas fuels for safety when traditional white gas would otherwise be better but arguably less safe.



There are partial pressure issues with modern gas appliances too. Buddy heaters have an altitude limit as the carbon monoxide safety will trip for low oxygen at altitude.

My memory from visits to the old home places is mostly oil lamps with wicks and wood stoves. Electricity to the barn first for fire hazard. Batteries to run the radio not so much for lights. People I knew who could do well with the internal oven in a wood stove are all long dead today. Later above ground bulk oil then propane. Notice that propane jetting is not the same as natural gas jetting though most appliances can be converted either way. More recently some very nice shiny and gimballed stuff made for a high dollar sail boat market for off grid and vacation living where it's a choice not necessity.

Jim, I remember when we changed from butane to propane. I must have been in about the 5th or 6th grade and we had to change the jets in the heaters and stove. I was told that they changed because propane was cheaper to produce than butane. Dont know if that was true or not. A stove or heater jetted for butane will burn on propane, but it wont have a good/efficient blue flame. I didn't know about he temp effecting the outside tanks. When I was young, just about all the tanks were above ground. Then they passed a law that all tanks had to be buried. It created quite a fuss when they refused to fill tanks because they were above ground. Then years later, when the underground tanks began to rust and leak, they changed the law again. Now all propane tanks must be above ground. Typical government at work....

Thanks for the info!

My grandparents in west central Kansas had some sort of generator that would power lights. I believe it came on automatically when you turned on a light switch. It was not 110v.
That was rendered obsolete in the early 50s when REA ran power to rural areas.
Prior to that, they had kerosene lamps. Mom (91 years old) tells me of one time a kerosene lamp was knocked over and started a major house fire. She just escaped the fire, but two of your younger sisters sustained fatal burns.
That would have been late 1930s.

Butane was replaced by propane. Butane is heavier than air and will pool in a depression. It settles on the floor and does not dissipate. Propane is lighter than air and will dissipate. Thus, it is less likely to ignite/explode.

I was born in 1947, in a house that my Dad drug about a half mile on logs, with His Ford tractor, to where He could hook up to the electric line. My Sister that is 3 years older than me was born back where the house was originally. Square, 4 room house. Thinking back, that tractor might have been a Fordson. miles

Propane is less dense than butane, but It’s still denser than air. It still settles in low pockets.

How the hell did people survive without weather reports?

Jim, Butane boils at around 32 degrees F and Propane at -44 degrees F making Butane a poor choice for the northern climes.

I understand they still may use Butane in some places down south?

I know this thread is old, but I just related a story to my adult sons that is pertinent.

In the early sixties my grandfather bought a rural piece of property and they were living in a '60s era travel trailer - very small. It was powered only by butane.
Dad and granddad were out doing some work on the tractor and Mom and I were with Granny in the trailer. Granny was making some biscuits for breakfast. She lit the oven with a match and closed the door for it to heat. When she opened it thinking it would be ready for the biscuits she found out it was still cold, so she struck another match.
Dad and granddad heard the explosion and arrived to find the door blown off the hinges, and the rest of the trailer looking like an aluminum can that had a firecracker popped inside of it!

Granny was burned a bit, but we were overall okay. Our ears did ring for a few days after that!

On a neighboring farmstead. now just a cowcamp, they had a Sears and Roebuck house. Parts of their wind generator are still attached to the house, and the glass jars that housed the 8 volt batteries that the charger powered are still there. I am told that they used the power for lights only. On my own place, homesteaded by my grandfather in 1911, before electricity came in 1952 they used kerosene lamps and white gasoline lamps for lights. The gas lamps were like a Coleman lantern sans the globe. The dual mantles were exposed. I still have those lamps in an outbuilding where they were stored after electricity came to the farm. My family were all readers, and think they burned quite a bit of both fuels for light in the evening.

Grandma cooked on the wood/coal range till the 1940s, when "bottled gas" or propane was adopted for a new gas range. I believe 100 lb bottles were used. Parts of the regulator were attached to the house on the east wall of the kitchen when I was a kid in the 60s. When electricity came, the gas stove was replaced by an electric range.

One poster commented on weather reports....indeed a good thing with modern technology. The old timers could read the sky, and their barometer, with skill. But it's not the same as Doppler radar.

I haven't seen butane anywhere in Mississippi in about 20 years. I remember as a kid most people used butane and all the tanks were buried in the ground to keep it from freezing.

When I was a kid, all the butane tanks were above ground. Then they said you had to bury the tanks. Why, I dont know, but they refused to fill an above ground tank. After a few years, they found the tanks were rusting in the ground and leaking, so they changed the rules again. All the tanks had to be above ground, or they wouldn't fill them.

I haven't seen butane in 50 years or more. I remember Dad changing the jets in the stove, water heater, and space heaters, so they would burn the propane like they should. Wasn't many years after they changed to propane that we got natural gas.

I understand butane is good on city busses.

I started working for a Co. in 1977 and one of the older men who lived on a farm a few miles out of town, told me once that he had just gotten electric service a couple of years before.
Another farmer who worked there told me that while he was a child that his family didn't have a well for water... they carried their water from a spring. This would have probably have been 60-70 years ago as he is still living and I see him and his wife from time to time.