California Collector Runs Unique Ag Museum

California Collector Runs Unique Ag Museum AG WORLD Ag World If you ever make a trip to the California Farm Equipment Show near Tulare you may want to schedule extra time to visit the Ag Museum & Fruit Basket about 90 miles away in Merced Calif Charlie Parish welcomes visitors year-round to his museum located on one of the main roads to Yosemite National Park It consists of two large buildings jammed full of rare and unusual equipment including about 80 1-cyl hit and miss gas engines as well as everything from antique washing machines to antique tractors Wives may be interested in his 1920 s beauty salon equipment Parish recently gave me a personally guided tour of the museum I started my collection in 1984 and have added to it every year since then People have arrived from as far away as Europe to visit it says Parish They re particularly interested in my specialty gas engines which represent one of the biggest collections around There are even a few items in my collection that I built my-self My friend Elmer Nelson has helped me keep the museum going Here s what I saw on my tour Engines - The museum has more than 170 engines on display which range from 1 to 150 hp There are 15 side shaft engines which use a shaft instead of a push rod to transfer power Side shaft engines were more expensive than conventional engines and were considered to be the best notes Parish Most of the 80 hit and miss engines run Many of them came from gold mines They re becoming harder and harder to find says Parish He s particularly proud of his horse-drawn Fairbanks Morse 6 hp Z gas engine It came out of Oregon and was used to operate grain elevators The engine was cooled by a water tank and was used to belt-drive a hydraulic pump My model was junked out when I got it I spent more than 300 hours restoring it and made a cart to support it Now it runs nice I also had someone hand paint the letters on the tank Homemade Miniature Caterpillar - Parish s home-built miniature D11N Cater-pillar is only 2 ft high 4 ft long and 14 in wide and equipped with a 32-in wide blade Its 2 hp gas engine is used to chain-drive the tracks which are just 6 in wide There s 14 in of space between the tracks It s a pretty little tractor says Parish Someone sent me a photo of a small Cat that they had built I used the photo to build my own It fires right up and runs like a top I use one lever to put the tractor in gear and another lever to turn it Sometimes I drive it in parades and people love it They re always taking photos of it The tractor is equipped with a small toolbox gauges and a dummy gas tank on back It even has head lights Reel Mower Powered By Gas Engine - In the 1920 s Ideal Power Lawn Mower Co Lansing Mich came up with the idea of motorizing lawn mowers They used their Ideal air-cooled engine to power a reel-type mower The engine belt-drives a pulley that powers the drive wheels and also chain-drives the 22-in wide reel which mounts on front Although these units were quite heavy and clumsy they did save a lot of time and work especially in large areas says Parish The company also offered a larger size mower with a 30-in cut I found the mower last year in Vermont My wife spotted it sitting on a porch at an antique shop I paid $750 for the mower and spent $200 to have it shipped here Gas Engine-Powered Milking Machine - Built in 1918 this portable milking machine was mounted on a 4-wheeled frame The rope start 1 1/2 hp gas engine was used to belt-drive a vacuum pump which operated the milking inflations It pumped milk directly into a milk can If you were able to afford this machine you had a little money in your pocket says Parish There are very few of these machines left Angle Drive Pulley - Patented in 1881 there are only 3 or 4 of these machines left in North America They were made by T R Almond Mfg Brooklyn N Y The machines were designed to power shafts used in black-smith shops wood milling shops manufacturing plants even water wheels etc A steam engine paddle wheel or other power s

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.