Tag: history

  • Celebrating 10 Years of Sprayers101

    Celebrating 10 Years of Sprayers101

    On May 29, 2015, we launched www.sprayers101.com. Actually, that date is practically correct, but not technically correct. To celebrate our anniversary, I thought I’d share the history of how of we got to where we are today.

    2013

    On December 21, 2013, I launched www.sprayers101.com… sort of. Back then, the website was different. I’d just developed a classroom -based course called “Airblast101” to teach applicators how to calibrate, operate and maintain their airblast sprayers. The website was a virtual and self-directed version for those that couldn’t attend in person.

    Screenshot of a template for the original Sprayers101.com website.

    The name “Sprayers101” sounded like a first-year university course, so it seemed an appropriate domain name. I could have called the site “Airblast101” but I had hope that the course might one day expand to include field crop, closed environment and aerial spraying systems. Being generic gave room to grow.

    After the launch, I lurked behind the scenes, addicted to Google Analytics (a diagnostic tool that lets us assess how the site was being used). It was a thrill to see a modest number of people around the Great Lakes and in British Columbia use this new resource. But they weren’t using it the way I’d envisioned. It was designed as an online course, so it was assumed the user would start at the first page and read it in order until they reached the end. Instead, they were jumping all over the place.

    Users would search for key words to find specific information, and once they had what they wanted, they left. This suggested the audience was more interested in a resource library. They were also interested in bite-sized morsels, not a long-term commitment.

    2014

    Around this time, I was fortunate to have been in communication with Dr. Tom Wolf. I took a flyer and proposed that we team up to re-create the website from the ground up. I knew it would benefit immensely from his experience as a global authority on application technology. Happily, Tom agreed and he brought an insight and creativity to the project that helped transform it. We worked for the next six months to develop and assemble new content as well as beta test website designs. Then we re-launched.

    Mock-up of the new Sprayers101.com concept.

    In the 17 months B.T. (Before Tom) I had a total 31,500 page views. Only six months A.T. (After Tom) we gained 70,000 more. We were on to something good. The numbers continued to climb as we added calculators, opinion pieces, research results and invited content from contributing authors.

    2015

    In 2014 Tom encouraged me to explore social media. By 2015 we were deeply involved in Twitter, using it to learn from farmers, discuss their issues and draw inspiration for some of our articles. Our handles “Nozzle_Guy” and “Spray_Guy” were entirely coincidental – seriously. There was another bump in website use in 2018 when we created “Exploding Sprayer Myths”, which are parody-based educational videos for our companion YouTube channel. Incidentally, we’re still hoping to one day find a legit educational reason to blow up a sprayer.

    2021

    In July, 2021 we decided to refresh and relaunch the site. Most of the changes addressed stability, improved smart phone access, and allowed us to cross-reference and re-organize content (an ongoing administrative task). We adopted a cleaner look and lost the drop-down menus to focus on a more powerful search engine to help users access the now 250+ articles.

    2025

    Today, ten years since we reimagined the site, sprayers101.com has grown beyond what might be considered “101”. It receives >250,000 page views annually from users all over the world. Of the 325+ posted articles, our most popular have been viewed more than 20,000 times. We have more than 2,000 subscribers. We’re often contacted by people who tell us how much it has helped their spraying practice, or how it’s been used to train new industrial, agronomic and regulatory staff.

    Our original goal was to provide the best information on agricultural spray application, and that remains true today; from humble backpack sprayers and fundamental skills through to drones and autonomous sprayers with optics, prescription maps and algorithms. The site is, and has always been, entirely impartial to preserve the integrity of the content we offer.

    Our heartfelt thanks to our readers, to our sponsors, and to our contributing authors.

    Happy Spraying.

    2026 ADDENDUM

    Just for completeness, and given that this article is something of a historical record, we relaunched the website in March of 2026. New features include:

    • All-new look and feel, including an animated logo
    • Bulleted, AI-generated summaries
    • Far better search engine with predicative text and the ability to search titles and tags
    • Referenced and printable articles
    • Better layout on mobile devices

    Looking forward to the next ten years.

  • For Sale: Gently Used 1950s Boom Sprayer

    For Sale: Gently Used 1950s Boom Sprayer

    This article isn’t about best practices, or social contracts, or innovative new technologies. It’s just a fascinating bit of history. If it has any moral at all, perhaps it’s to remember where we came from. I wonder where we’ll be tomorrow?

    Let’s be clear – the practices described in this article are anachronistic and while I shouldn’t judge from my 2020 high-horse, they’re flat-out terrible. Don’t see them through nostalgic eyes. Instead, be thankful that sprayers and practices have evolved.

    Here’s the background. A colleague of mine, a grower and well-respected pesticide safety / sprayer expert, recently held a farm auction in Innerkip, Ontario. He sent me a photo of his family sprayer, used in Oxford county in the 50s and 60s. I fell in love with it.

    It was used to control broad leaf weeds in cereal crops. He recollected that thistle was a particularly painful issue. Especially when you had to grab hold of the grain sheaves and stook them. I confess I had to look up the term “stook“. They also sprayed a few cereal acres for neighbours, but never too far from home.

    A 1950s barrel sprayer. The frame would be attached to the front of a Massey Harris 44, suspending the 21 foot wet aluminum booms. The drum was supported on the tractor tongue. When you shut down, you picked up the booms and hung them on the fenders. The booms then leaked all over until they were empty.
    Fortunately, there was clear guidance for the operator. The speed and rate was written on the distribution head. Still somewhat legible.
    A rod would extend from distribution head to the tractor, supported on the steering column. The driver could select the boom: left, right, both or off. The distribution/filter head/pressure gauge (shown here) was supported on front of tractor. On the up side, there was no need for the driver to do a shoulder check. Here the distribution selector is set to ‘off’. The filter, shown here as well, was a metal screen wrapped in a cotton cloth (typically a flour bag).
    This is the line from the pressure side of the pump, entering the distribution unit. The butterfly screws made a tight connection… using canning jar rings as gaskets!
    Both the cotton bag on the filter and the pressure line were sealed with canning jar rings.
    When the broadcast work was done, they would set up a hand boom and spray the fence posts. Bare hands were the order of the day.
    Spraying the fence posts was a two-person job, with a driver in the tractor and a kid aiming the boom. Here’s a close-up of a flat fan nozzle on the hand boom.
    Here is the supply drum with opening for suction hose and screen. It served double-duty as pesticide tank and seat for the person holding the hand boom. Pesticide swished out onto the person sitting on the drum. Getting their butt wet as a matter of course. The drum was filled with a 1/2 inch hose right from the well.

    When the long season was through, it was over-wintered (with whatever spray liquid remained) in the cellar.

    We’ve come a long way.