Enterprise Dog Power
July 14, 2019 5:46 PM Subscribe
Your cat is scanning, but is your dog working for you? With N. Potter's Enterprise Dog Power (YT) Treadmill (1881), your dog could be churning butter (YT), grinding stones, and separating cream. A brief history of dogs and treadmills. Previously. #animalsandsurfaces
"Turnspit" is also a lovely and baroque bespoke insult if you're in to that kind of thing, but it's also ridiculously classist as many of these old timey insults go.
posted by loquacious at 6:04 PM on July 14, 2019
posted by loquacious at 6:04 PM on July 14, 2019
Brings new meaning to 'walking the dog'.... but as for the extinct turnspit dog, coudn't hamsters run the wheels just as well? (Honestly, when I heard "turnspit", I thought it'd be some kind of dentist's assistant ... "just turn and spit")
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:06 PM on July 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:06 PM on July 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
I saw one of these in a display on the second floor of the Albany, New York airport.
I tried to tell passengers on the first floor about it, but they looked at me funny.
posted by doctornemo at 6:16 PM on July 14, 2019
I tried to tell passengers on the first floor about it, but they looked at me funny.
posted by doctornemo at 6:16 PM on July 14, 2019
I knew about the Turnspit, and I'm sorry to hear that it's extinct!
In the engraving(?) which illustrates RichardP's link note that the wheel is up near the ceiling, and that a ham hangs just where the dog can stare at it as it runs.
posted by jamjam at 8:26 PM on July 14, 2019
In the engraving(?) which illustrates RichardP's link note that the wheel is up near the ceiling, and that a ham hangs just where the dog can stare at it as it runs.
posted by jamjam at 8:26 PM on July 14, 2019
Stand by for my new genre, steampunk but with dogs.
Dogpunk? Canine-Futurism?
posted by books for weapons at 9:01 PM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Dogpunk? Canine-Futurism?
posted by books for weapons at 9:01 PM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I also knew about the turnspit, but this little Wikipedia anecdote from The Illustrated Natural History (Mammalia) (1853) is great:
“The dogs were also taken to church to serve as foot warmers. One story says that during service at a church in Bath, the Bishop of Gloucester gave a sermon and uttered the line "It was then that Ezekiel saw the wheel...". At the mention of the word "wheel" several turnspit dogs, who had been brought to church as foot warmers, ran for the door.”
posted by deludingmyself at 10:14 PM on July 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
“The dogs were also taken to church to serve as foot warmers. One story says that during service at a church in Bath, the Bishop of Gloucester gave a sermon and uttered the line "It was then that Ezekiel saw the wheel...". At the mention of the word "wheel" several turnspit dogs, who had been brought to church as foot warmers, ran for the door.”
posted by deludingmyself at 10:14 PM on July 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Not the Green Energy Revolution I was hoping for but I'll take what I can get.
posted by mundo at 10:54 PM on July 14, 2019
posted by mundo at 10:54 PM on July 14, 2019
OMG...It's like the Matrix...for dogs!
but as for the extinct turnspit dog, coudn't hamsters run the wheels just as well?
Well, these are mostly powered by the animals' weight (thus the incline), so...not so much. Plus, they had a better use for hamsters (well, doormice, usually) in ye olden times...garbage disposals. There would usually be a few in cages for feeding kitchen scraps to. And when they got all nice and fat you'd roast them in honey. Yum yum.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:45 AM on July 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
but as for the extinct turnspit dog, coudn't hamsters run the wheels just as well?
Well, these are mostly powered by the animals' weight (thus the incline), so...not so much. Plus, they had a better use for hamsters (well, doormice, usually) in ye olden times...garbage disposals. There would usually be a few in cages for feeding kitchen scraps to. And when they got all nice and fat you'd roast them in honey. Yum yum.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:45 AM on July 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
Man, is my dog ever a slacker. Just sitting in the sun when she could be churning butter!! We are going to have to have a conversation.
posted by Gray Duck at 6:01 AM on July 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Gray Duck at 6:01 AM on July 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
Stand by for my new genre, steampunk but with dogs.
Dogpunk? Canine-Futurism?
Steampooch
posted by Thorzdad at 6:15 AM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]
Dogpunk? Canine-Futurism?
Steampooch
posted by Thorzdad at 6:15 AM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]
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posted by RichardP at 6:00 PM on July 14, 2019 [2 favorites]