Fresno Scraper
Posted by: 
fresgo
N 36° 41.722 W 119° 44.727
11S E 254722 N 4064592
A Fresno Scraper on display at 2907 S. Maple Avenue Fresno, CA 93725
Waymark Code: WM97BG
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 07/08/2010
Views: 2
The Fresno Scraper was an implement invented by several different people in the Fresno area. The model on display and subject of this waymark was that devised by Fresno Inventor James Porteous. This version of the scraper was infamous in early agriculture in Fresno and vicinity as well as the most popular and money maker - it is largely credited with setting the framework for the agricultural "empire" what would Fresno County and the Central Valley become. In nearly every Fresno County History that has been written authors deovte a lot of space in describing its importance to the creation of infrastructure throughout the world.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1991 named the scraper a National Historic Engineering Landmark. In their write up the organization remarked,
"Between 1884 and the advent of tractor-drawn scrapers in the 1910‘s, thousands of “Fresnos” were used in agriculture for canals, ditches, and land leveling; in road and railroad grading; and in general construction not only in California, but throughout the U.S., and in many foreign countries, and on the Panama Canal.
Goto their site for a wonderful presentation. http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5550.pdf
James Porteous was a Scottish immigrant to Fresno in the waning years of the 19th Century. He founded Fresno Agricultural Works as a Blacksmith Shop/Foundry in 1878 and the business still operates today as Fresno AG Hardware. Porteous had received over 100 patents for various ag implements.