Historic Hood River
Newfangled Sprayer
8-4-2023
Notes
The wagon may be horse drawn, but the sprayer has a nice little gasoline engine to power the pump. This is a W.F. Laraway image at a Hood River orchard.
It looks like the boy (possibly Thurston Laraway) is about to give the flywheel a spin to start the engine.
kmb
This is basically a slightly different version of the photo that first appeared on 3-18-2021 (with questions as to how many horses there are). I would reference the image number, but these no longer appear in the URL on this new platform. Based on the belt and pulleys we see, it looks like the engine is only turning what appears to be a mixer in the barrel tank. I am wondering if there is a pump somewhere to pressurize the liquid for spraying?
Arthur Babitz
Good catch kmb, this is a repost of https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/time-to-spray/ though I think it was rescanned. You can include links now– no need for the “image number”. Image numbers for the old images work, as the new site includes a translator from the old URLs to the new ones so all the embedded links in posts still work.
L.E.
Charlott would not like it if I questioned the safety of the spray, but…….Thurston died at age 49 of malignant lymphoma of the lungs.
He was an officer in the army, so could have been exposed to something there, or it could have just been bad luck that life ended so young.
I know there were orchardists who lived to a ripe old age. But I don’t think I would have had my child, around that spray.
L.E.
I forgot to add……must have been very calm horses.
I can just imagine a runaway when that engine starts to pop.
Bill Seaton
Nice picture