Vol. LVI. No. 2469. 
NEW YORK, MAY 22, 1897. 
J1.00 PER YEAR. 
A POP-GUN TANK SPRAYER. 
THE HORSES WORK THE WIND. 
Important New Departure in Spraying. 
The R. N.-Y. has referred to the use of compressed 
air in driving machinery or propelling vehicles. In 
New York City, this force is used for driving heavy 
street cars, and in France it seems actually to be 
taking the place of electricity for many purposes. 
We have often thought that this clean and easily- 
handled force would be of great use to farmers if de¬ 
vices were made for handling it properly. 
We now present a new device for spraying invented 
by the inventor of the Farmers’ Handy wagon. The 
picture shows the spraying tank mounted on the low- 
down wagon with the condenser and gearing shown 
below the platform. The wagon shown is known as 
the lawn or park truck. The wheels have six-inch 
tires, the front wheels tracking inside the rear ones, 
thus making a 24-inch tread that acts as a roller in¬ 
stead of a rut maker. On each of the hind wheels is 
a sprocket wheel. From 
these wheels, the power 
is carried by sprocket 
chains to a shaft under¬ 
neath the bed of the 
truck. At the end of this 
shaft, is a crank that 
works a piston in the air- 
condensing pump. This 
pump or condenser is the 
simplest possible con¬ 
trivance, consisting of a 
cast cylinder with an or¬ 
dinary piston that, at each 
stroke, forces a full cylin¬ 
der of air through a check- 
valve the same as a bicycle 
pump. This air is con¬ 
ducted through a hose 
pipe to an inlet shown at 
the left of the pressure 
gage ; this inlet is a gas 
pipe that discharges the 
air at the lowest point in 
the bottom of the tank, 
where all sediment settles. 
This forced air stirs the 
sediment and bubbles up 
through the liquid, thus 
keeping it in perfect solu¬ 
tion. At the top of the 
tank, the air collects and 
produces the pressure 
which forces the liquid » 
out of the exit. Com¬ 
pressed air generates heat, and this heated air pass¬ 
ing through the liquid takes off the chilling effect of 
the water. The outlet pipe receives the liquid from 
the bottom of the tank and allows it to pass out 
through the spraying pipe and nozzle. 
The 10-barrel tank (larger or smaller ones are made) 
is filled at the house or barn, the apparatus thrown 
into gear and, while driving to the orchard, enough 
pressure is generated to spray the highest trees. The 
orchardist stops and sprays a tree ; the air pressure 
furnishes a steady stream. If the drive from the 
house to the orchard be long, sufficient air will have 
been condensed to force out the entire contents of 
the tank without moving the wagon. Driving from 
one tree to another makes good all lost pressure. 
By this system, nothing but dry air comes in con¬ 
tact with the pump or attachment, and as the tank 
has a man-hole cap screwed on top, it is easily rinsed 
or washed out after use, so that nothing can be cor¬ 
roded or eaten by the spraying liquid. The apparatus 
makes a most excellent fire extinguisher, as it can be 
stored in the barn or yard with pressure on, ready to 
throw out 10 barrels of water among the rafters of 
the highest barn, or the straw stacks that ignite during 
thrashing. Its working involves nothing but the long 
tested principle of forcing water by air pressure. 
The first apparatus was built by the inventor in 
May, 1895, and received its initial test at the State 
Agricultural College of Michigan, under the personal 
inspection of the faculty. The apparatus was very 
crude, the tank being a whisky barrel ; yet Prof. L. 
O. Taft concluded from this test that, when perfected, 
it would prove a great help to orchardists. 
We understand that the Farmers’ Handy Wagon 
Company do not intend to enter into the manufacture 
of sprayers ; they have been to all the expense of per¬ 
fecting this apparatus with the intention of adding 
one more use for their farm trucks. The apparatus 
can be built in almost any village, and the company 
issues gratis a permit for any one to build or use it in 
connection with one of their handy wagons. 
The outfit shown in Fig. 144, was made for use in a 
25-acre place at Louisville, Ky., and will be used to 
spray fruit and shade trees, shrubs, vines, etc. The 
only connection between the tank and the trucks is a 
rubber tube, which can be easily removed if desired. 
When the tank is taken off, a truck or wagon for or¬ 
dinary farm work is left. From the shaft under the 
bed of the truck can be taken power for revolving a 
manure-spreader attachment, seeder, corn-cutting 
knives, etc., as desired. 
It seems to The R. N -Y. that this ingenious and 
simple device is sure to become popular. Here is a 
cheap and strong force always ready. You can fill 
the tank two-thirds full, drive around the house 
several times, and thus generate power enough to 
throw a stream to any part of the farm buildings. 
Air is the cheapest and most abundant thing in 
Nature, and this simple device gives us an idea of 
what can be done with it when we learn to harness 
it properly. The same apparatus may pay for itself 
many times over in case of fire, or may be used in 
sprinkling lawns, strawberry beds, or gardens. 
THE BEST SPRAYING PUMP. 
HOW IT SHOULD BE MADE. 
Good and Bad Materials and Mechanism. 
There may be some place where no insect pests or 
fungous diseases work destruction to fruit and other 
useful plant life, but such places are few. The ma¬ 
jority of fruit growers are either waging war against 
the destruction of their crops, or else viewing the 
yearly increasing amount of poor fruit or a total de¬ 
struction of it, from these causes. Many growers (un¬ 
informed as to these insidious foes) talk of what the 
frost, sun, storms or fogs destroyed, when in many 
cases the weather had nothing to do with such losses, 
except to furnish proper warmth and moisture for the 
rapid increase of the pests. Much of such losses 
(thanks to hardworking scientists), any one provided 
with proper material and machinery can prevent. 
Nearly all materials used can best be distributed in a 
liquid form as a spray and by a pump. Pump-making 
for many uses had reached a high degree of perfec¬ 
tion, but a cheap pump 
that would handle clog¬ 
ging and corrosive mix¬ 
tures, all the time and not 
intermittently, bear or¬ 
chard and field use by men 
who knew little more 
about spraying than to 
work the pump handle 
was not to be had but a 
short time ago. What was 
true of the pump was also 
true of the whole appa¬ 
ratus, hose, nozzles, means 
of controlling the supply 
from pumps, elevating the 
nozzle, etc. Good lines of 
spraying machinery are 
now offered, still there is 
room for improvement, 
and some lines are yet far 
from good. Users socn 
found that all iron was 
unfit material for spray¬ 
ing pumps; sulphate of 
copper soon destroyed the 
nice adjustment of the 
working parts. Leather 
valves soon became hard 
and unyielding. Pumps 
for small orchards, say up 
to 50 acres, and intended 
to be mounted on a barrel, 
in« -that position, made 
the whole apparatus top 
heavy and liable to accidents. Too much suction, 
also, was required to bring the liquid into the cylin¬ 
der, when nearly all the work of the piston ought to 
be expended in forcing it. The true position of the 
cylinder, then, is at the bottom of the barrel, im¬ 
mersed in the liquid. There it will have no suction 
until the barrel is nearly empty. The liquid itself is 
a packing then, and does away with gum, candle- 
wicking or any other work-making packing around 
the piston rod, for no packing is needed in the ordi¬ 
nary sense of the term. 
Another serious fault that still exists in some makes 
of pumps is the lack of thorough automatic stirring 
apparatus. This part ought to be so perfect that the 
last spray that leaves the nozzle is just as perfect a 
mixture as the first, as strong and no stronger. No 
return from the pump to the barrel of a portion of 
the liquid can keep up the mix without too large a 
loss of power, therefore loss of what should be effect¬ 
ive spray. This is easily accomplished by paddles 
which work as the pump handle is moved. The pad- 
A NEW SPRAYING DEVICE. COMPRESSED AIR FOR POWER. Fig. 144. 
