it, as the entire material culture of the era had been shaped by the limited scale of power that manual labour and small teams of working animals could provide. But once convenient internal-combustion and electric power became widely available, though (via tractors, trucks, rural electrification, electric motors, small appliances, and so on), material culture evolved to take advantage of them. In comparing 19th-century material culture with today's, one can see that the ease of providing multiple horsepower to many different applications that we often take for granted today (such as 5 or 10 horsepower for each lawn mower, or 4 horsepower for a single wet-dry vacuum) would have seemed like a great blessing or luxury then. Many horse-engine houses were built in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Relative to 1-horse and 2-horse powers, they could provide larger amounts of power through larger teams. Powering threshing machines was one of their main applications. They were not portable, but the farm culture of Britain was well suited to their stationary nature, as farming communities tended to be organized around villages. In North America, portable horse powers were more usual, with family farms spread far and wide. Even in cases where equipment was not owned by each farm—for example, owned jointly in co-ops or hired on a custom (job) basis—it tended to be portable, moving from farm to farm over country roads. In the 19th century, even boats were powered by horse engines. Team boats were popular for river ferries. See also Horse mill Horse capstan References External links The Papers of John C. Calhoun - mention horse power machines Photograph of a horse power being used to thresh wheat in southeastern Washington State. From the Garfield County Heritage Collection. Agricultural machinery Engine Animal engines