This is a bit of a follow up to a post that I made a while back when I first got the new livestock treadmill. One of the great things about going to history conferences is you can talk to people about all kinds of miscellaneous trivoids. Being the proud owner of a treadmill I started asking around about the types of attachments that one might commonly see animals working at. My friend Terry said, "I know just what you need." He even sent pictures. In this case the treadmill would operate a butter churn. Terry documented that the Davis Swing Churn company of New Hampshire made these churns from about 1877 to roughly the middle part of the twentieth century. The price for a churn was about $8. For an additional $16 you could get the matching treadmill. How many husbands do you think got this for their wives for Christmas? How thrilling it must have been!? Now imagine your favorite type of dog trying to make this thing go. For some reason a Corgi makes me laugh.
