Dog-Powered Sewing Machine

Pup, you've got to earn your kibble. In the Nineteenth Century, inventors thought of ways to use dogs to power machinery. Peter Maniate, a professional dog trainer who specializes in training cart-pulling dogs, described the history of these efforts:

Of course some sort of platform was needed to provide rotating or reciprocating energy from a dog walking to a form that could be used by the machine as modified by the gearing. There were three types used: treadmills, wheels and carousel like platforms. Most popular was the treadmill and these were often angled to provide more power as it was the weight of the dog that actually was supposed to be providing the energy. The wheels or drums were like giant hamster cage wheels while the carousel platforms resembled a small merry go-round floor.

Besides the bellows, lathes and butter churns, dogs also pumped water from wells, powered water sprinklers, washed clothes, separated cream from milk, ran sewing machines, grind stones, fanning mills and corn shellers.

You can see pictures of other dog-powered machines at the link.

Link -via Althouse