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An animal engine is a machine powered by an animal. Horses, donkeys,
An animal engine is a machine powered by an animal. Horses, donkeys, oxen
An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE, AusE, and IndE), is a male bovine trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration inhibits testosterone and aggression, which makes the ma ...
, dogs, and humans have all been used in this way. An unusual example of an animal engine was recorded at Portland, Victoria
Portland is a city in Victoria, Australia, and is the oldest European settlement in the state. It is also the main urban centre in the Shire of Glenelg and is located on Portland Bay. As of the 2021 census the population was 10,016, increas ...
in 1866. A kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
had been tamed and trained to work a treadmill which drove various items of machinery.
See also
*Experiment (horse powered boat)
''Experiment'' was an early 19th-century boat powered by horses and incorporating the idea of a screw propeller, which was a new idea at the time.
History
''Experiment'' was a horse-powered ferry boat. It was a 12-ton, three-masted boat draw ...
*Gin gang
A gin gang, wheelhouse, roundhouse or horse-engine house, is a structure built to enclose a horse engine, usually circular but sometimes square or octagonal, attached to a threshing barn. Most were built in England in the late 18th and early 19 ...
*Horse mill
A horse mill is a mill, sometimes used in conjunction with a watermill or windmill, that uses a horse engine as the power source. Any milling process can be powered in this way, but the most frequent use of animal power in horse mills was for grin ...
* Horse engine
* Persian well
*Treadwheel
A treadwheel, or treadmill, is a form of engine typically powered by humans. It may resemble a water wheel in appearance, and can be worked either by a human treading paddles set into its circumference (treadmill), or by a human or animal standing ...
* Turnspit dog
Books
* ''Animal Powered Machines'', J. Kenneth Major. Shire Album 128 - Shire Publications 1985. * *References
* Grinding mills Machinery {{livestock-stub