Frank A. Murphy was a man born before his time.  While his income-producing occupation was farming, his true love was engineering.  Frank was always looking for a new way to mechanize work, to save time and labor for the farmer of his day.  His most famous device was the Celebrated Victor Dog Power.  Thumbnail pictures of of the original sales brochure, complete with testimonials from satisfied customers, can be viewed above. 

Frank saw modern farming (i.e., 1890) as requiring participation by every member of the farm - including the family dog.  His Dog Power machine was a way to put the family dog to work by walking on a treadmill to provide power to churn butter, shuck corn, grind meal, or any of a number of other tedious farm chores.  Frank's dog power was of course not the only one of these machines, but you'll understand my bias.

Two copies of Frank's Dog Power are still known to exist - one in his old barn in Delaware County, New York, and the other in Hannsman's Mills, also in Central New York.

Learn more Frank A. Murphy elsewhere on this site.