A fine Foy story.

From REA News in 1940….

John L. Jones of Silver Hill makes chairs. His father before him made chairs and his father before him and so on back for more generations than can now be counted; on back to the pioneer days of Tennessee and on back of that to the “ould sod.” But all the generations of Jones chairmakers have used the same lathe. It is known to be at least 250 years old.

[In other words, it was made before 1700.]

The first American Jones brought it across the ocean with him from Ireland. It was operated by a foot pedal belted to a succession of pulleys. For 60 years Monroe Jones pedaled the lathe, turning out chairs to order. He made whatever kind of chair the customer wanted, but mainly a high-backed hickory rocker that became famous over a wide area for solid comfort.

Monroe Jones grew old. His sight became dim. It was time, in keeping with family tradition, for the son to take over. John moved the old lathe from the old house in the hollow to another on the hill and business went on as usual.

Well, the Middle Tennessee Electric Coop at Murfreesboro had threaded its wires over all the area and John L. Jones was one of its members. He bought a 1/3 horsepower motor, did a little tinkering on the lathe, and turned on the current.

Since that time the old lathe – old before ever Benjamin Franklin caught the lightning on the key – has been running by electricity and turning out six chairs a day, about three times its pedaled capacity. Mr. Jones himself makes all parts of the chairs except the seats, which Mrs. Jones weaves from hickory bark.

= = = = = END QUOTE.

Some broader rambling…

Electricity developed about as fast as it could. Serious experimentation began in England around 1700, and spread elsewhere including Franklin. As always, materials are the key to invention. Electrical experiments had to wait until coal and water power produced iron and copper wire in industrial quantities. The experiments led to generators and motors around 1820, and the first city power systems around 1880. Most cities had full power systems by 1920. Farms were slower, partly because city people hate peasants and prevent peasants from succeeding. Even so, most farms had electricity by 1950 thanks to the REA.

By contrast, the history of water and sewer systems is crazy. Large areas of Asia had fully developed sewers in 4000 BC. Those cities continued to maintain and develop their systems. Some cities had gravity-fed pressurized water systems as well. Greece and Rome picked up the tech, maintaining and developing it until Christianity broke everything. In Asia, Islam maintained and developed water and sewer, along with the rest of science and math, from 500 AD to 1500 AD while Christian Europe remained primitive. Finally in 1500 the Christians started learning again.

Now “conservative” scholars give all the credit to Christianity for REdiscovering the science and tech that Islam had been developing. When Culture A maintains and develops science for 1000 years while Culture B destroys and suppresses science for 1000 years, we shouldn’t credit Culture B for REclaiming the work that Culture A never abandoned.