Water motors - photos

[Altair]

Before electric motors, tap water-driven water motors were used to drive small machines and appliances.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...r_fullsize.jpg





More:

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/P...watermotor.htm


Previously:

Water wheel-powered merry-go-round - video
Water wheel-powered sawmill - GIF
Water-powered handsaw mill - GIF
Water-powered corn mill - GIF
Pelton wheel-powered machine shop - video

[jdurand]

Used for hydraulic elevators, too. City water in to go up, dump water to sewer to go down. No motor needed in the building, only enough power to operate the valves (and I'll bet there's an all mechanical way to do that)

[clavius]

Used for hydraulic elevators, too. City water in to go up, dump water to sewer to go down. No motor needed in the building, only enough power to operate the valves (and I'll bet there's an all mechanical way to do that)

I saw a post on some forum years back of a guy that built a system like that to lift a platform from street level up to the entry to a house. Maybe 6 feet up or so. He built it as a lift for a friend who used a wheelchair. Lifted him straight up as he had no room for a ramp. Essentially just a big piston that used city water pressure to lift, and dumped the water to his garden out back. A pretty slick system really, simple and effective.