slgwv's photos with the keyword: 1890s

Bodie, California, USA. Bodie was the first Western mining camp of any size to electrify, in the early 1890s. They built a dam and hydroelectric generating station on Green Creek, in the Sierras, and ran a powerline to Bodie, a straight-line distance of 15 miles or so. The state of electrical knowledge was so primitive that they thought they had to keep the line as straight as possible, because electricity would spill off the corners! This was probably the sort of big motor that ran things like the lathe (next pic) with an external belt.