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REA director John Carmody demonstrating the advantages of electrical appliances during a farm equipment tour, circa 1938.
Credit: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association
In the late 1930s, Rural Electrification Administration director John Carmody (on the right) took his farm equipment tour, better known as the "REA Circus," on the road to demonstrate the use of electrical appliances and farm equipment to rural Pennsylvanians.