ON THIS DAY: 2 January 1877, Charles M. Tinker received U.S. Patent No. 187,881 for a delightfully inventive device: a dog-powered treadmill designed to churn butter.
Tinker’s creation worked by having one or more dogs walk on a slanted tread-wheel or treadmill-style platform. As the dogs walked – or trotted – to keep their balance, their movement turned the wheel. That rotation was then transferred through a system of mechanical linkages to power a butter churn.
In the 19th century, before electricity reached most homes, small domestic machines often depended on animal power. Families enlisted not only dogs but also goats, sheep, and occasionally small ponies to run washing machines, grindstones, sewing machines, and of course, butter churns. Dog-powered treadmills were especially useful on farms that needed a bit of mechanical muscle without the cost or space required for a horse.
Today, examples of these ingenious animal-powered devices – including dog-powered butter churns – can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum, which preserves several patent models from the era.
You won’t find a modern dog-powered butter churn on the market, but you can buy treadmills designed to help keep your dog fit on rainy days. Prices start at around £350, depending on the size of your canine companion.