In article dfb5d459-8f3b-47e1-998f-e7180f0eabf0
@l76g2000hse.googlegroups.com, says...
On Oct 1, 10:53*pm, "Lew Hodgett" wrote:
"Tom Watson" wrote:
I was out visiting my Mom last weekend and I spoke with an old friend
who happens to be of the Amish persuasion. *He has a woodshop that
runs off of a waterwheel and he creates some very nice, albeit
rough,
country furniture. *Emil said to me, "You Englishers seem to be
having
quite a problem with this oil thing. *I hope you all don't finally
decide to use the creek. *It's a small creek and would only support
a
couple of Englishers, although it could probably handle fifty or so
more of us Amish.

Emil has never been a subtle man.

But he has always been truthful.

Sounds like you were in Lancaster County.

Travel 400 miles west and you are in Wayne County, Oh where I grew up
among a very sizeable Amish population.

They were allowed to use internal combustion engines for stationary
power to run saw mills.


I read (IIRC FWW some 20 years ago) that the (some?) Amish are allowed
diesel engines as they do not involve electrical stuff to operate and
start easily with (optionally hand-pumped) compressed air. The article
dealt with a shop which was run entirely on hydraulic motors and air.
The air router they showed intrigued me enough to go chasing after one
until I found out the cost and the insane CFM required to produce 1 HP
on that particular model. It looked like a pretty serious operation
all run off one stationary diesel.

Last spring we bought a couple of rooms of cherry furniture from one
of the local Amish companies (http://www.greenacresfurniture.com/).
They aren't grid connected, rather have diesel generators for their
woodworking and showroom lights. From what I can gather from
talking to them, they aren't allowed to use technology personally
(luxury) but can use it to run their business (necessity). They use
calculators, advertise on the web (and radio), and even use cell
phones for the business.

--
Keith