Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-08-24
LOUISVILLE CORRESPONDENCE.
A "RevOIutiOnary" InvenfiOn-A
Genuine field Cotton Picker
Found and Perfected at Last.

LOUISVILLE, MI, august 49, loio.
| have great pleasure in announcing
TO you, and through You to the whole
planting community of the South, that a
field cotton-picker has been invented at
last. The grand desideratum, long de-
layed, long and vainly sought for by
those interested in the cotton production
of the South, has at last turned up here
in Louisville in the shape of an exceed
ingly simple machine-simplicity being,
as we all know, an invariable character
istic of all great aud useful inventions
a machine, too, which, operated by two
to four common field hands, will do the
work of at least from fifty to one hun
bred men engaged in the old, ordinary
way Of picking out the cotton with the
fingers. There is-there can be-no mis-
take about it this time, according 10 the
judgment Of hundreds of experienced
cotton men," planters, merchants, me-
chanics and others, many of whom, after
examining the machine, have backed
their judgment" by buying county rights,
some at $4,000 and some at $4,000 a
county, according to the amount Of cot
ton produced in their respective coun-
ties. Within the past week or two the
proprietors have sold nine county rights
in Louisiana and Arkansas, three at
$4,000 each, and six at $4,000 each.
When practical, hard-fsted men come
forward and prove their faith by their
works, in this expensive style, it is high
time for the most incredulous of doubt
ing Thomases , to yield the point, and
acknowledge that impossibilities > are
not always impossible and that in the
vocabulary of true and determined
Southern men the word fail is at last
utterly obsolete
The groundwork of this remarkable
invention is the offspring of the brain
of Major William Apperly, late of
Memphis, who, in partnership with
Captains John T. Shirley and John
Pearce, owns the patent, issued August
2, lS70-the two tergentlemen having
essentially aided Major Apperly in
bringing this machine to its present ap-
proximate, but triumphant degree Of
perfection.
A working model, Of medium size,
Of this unquestionably successful field
cotton-picker, is on exhibition at the
boiler mandatory OF Captain John
Pearce, AL West Main street, in this
city. Ii is a four-wheeled machine, FIVE
or six feet long and four or FIVE vide
and tall enough to move astride single
row Of cotton-though, Of course, sus-
ceptible Of indefinite extension, both in
width and hight, so as to pick two. or
three OF even more rows Of the most
luxuriant cotton at time, if desired.
But the main, grand feature about this
machine is, the application and use, in
the process Of picking. Of the teasle--a
well known little burr, that has been in
use thousands Of years among fullers to
dress wooden cloths after the process of
fnlling. Imagine, if you please. 80
columns Of these teasles, each formed and /
held together BY three slender eopperrods, /
together az each end; imagine
these 100 columns fastened. at the top. /
81 regular intervals, three OF three and /
half inches apart, into a wooden or brass
frame, and working upand down through I
another, but stationary frame, filed I
nth other rows Of feasles. Then
imagine the machine at work-the