Horse power (machine)
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A horse power (also rendered horse-power) is a now largely-obsolete machine for using draft horses to power other machinery. It is a type of animal engine somewhat more sophisticated than a horse mill. A common design for the horse power was a large treadmill on which one or more horses walked. The surface of the treadmill was made of wooden slats linked like a chain. Rotary motion from the treadmill was first passed to a planetary gear system, and then to a shaft or pulley that could be coupled to another machine.
Horse powers were used to power farm implements and industrial processes. Examples of machines that were powered with a horse power include the threshing machine, the corn sheller, pumps and machines for sawing wood. Horse powers were modular in that they could be attached to whichever implement they were needed for at the time, preventing these machines from needing to incorporate power sources into their design. They could also be used interchangeably with other forms of power, such as a hand crank, line shaft, stationary engine, or the PTO shaft or flat belt pulley from a tractor, which eventually replaced them.
The name of the horse power probably predates the name of the horsepower unit of measurement. (For reference the 1864 Webster's Dictionary defines Horse-power as “A machine operated by one or more horses; a horse engine.")
