Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1870-09-10
LOUISVILLE CORRESPONDENCE.
A Revolutionary Invention a Gem
nine Field dCOttom-Picker Found and
Perfected at Last.
From the Memphis Ledger.

From the Memphis Ledger
LOUISVILLE, KY, Aug. %, 1870.
have great pleasure In announc-
ing to you. and through you to the
whole planting community of the
South, that field cotton-picker has
been invented at last. The grand
desideratum, long delayed, long and
vainly sought for by those interested
In the cotton production of the South,
has at last turned up here In Louis
vile In the shape OF an exceedingly
simple machine-simplicity being, as
we all know, an invariable character
istic of all great and 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 hundred men engaged in the old,
ordinary way of picking out the cot
ton with the fingers. There is-there
can be--no mistake about 1t this time,
according to the judgment Of hun
dreds of experienced "cottOn men,"
planters, merchants, mechanics and
others, many of whom, after exam
lining the machine, have "backed
their Judgment by buying county
rights, some at 5000 and some at
$4,000 county, according to the
amount of cotton produced In their
respective counties. Within the past
week or two the proprietors lave
sold nine county rights In Louisiana
and Arkansas, three at $4,000 each,
and six at $4,000 each. When prac-
tical, hard-fisted men come forward
and prove their faith by their works,
in this expensive style, 1t Is high time
for the most increllulous of "doubt-
ing ThOmases" to yield the point,
and acknowledge that "impossibili.
ties" 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 remarka-
BILE invention is the offspring of the
brain of Major William Apperly, late
of Memphis, who, in partnership
with Captains John II. Shirley and
John Pearce, owns the patent, issued
August 2, 1S70-the two latter gentle.
men having essentially aided Major
Apperly in bringing this machine to
its presentapproximate, but triumph.
ant degree of perfection.
A working model" of medium
size, of this unquestionahly successful
field cotton-picker, is on exhibition
at the boiler manufactory of Captain
John Pearce, Az West Main street
in this city. 1t Is a four-wheeled ma.
chine, five or six feet long and -four
or five wide, and tall enough to move
astride single row of cotton--theugh
of course, susceptible of indefinite
extension, both in width and hight
so rs to pick two or three, or even
more rows of the most luxuriant cot.
ton at n time, If desired. But the
main, grand feature about this ma.
chine 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 woolen cloths after the
process .Of fulling Imagine, If you
please, l3O columns of these teasles,
each formed and held together by
three slender copper rods, soldered to
gether at each end; imagine 130 col
umns, fastened at the top, at regular
intervals, three or three and hall
inches apart, into wooden or brass
frame, and working up and down
through another, but stationary
frame, filled with other rows of teas
les. Then imagine the machine al
work-the columns of teasles work ed
up and down i'm three seconds by
means of pulleys and weights, and q
couple of ropes in the hands of two
men ut each side of the machine
the upward motion of the columns ol
teasels picks out the cotton: the
downward motion causes the station.
ary teaslcs to strip off the cotton
leaving IL on top of the frame, whence
it Is swept off into bags or boxes pre-
pared for its reception ut each end OF
the machine, and capable Of holding
several hundred pounds.
This, of course, is an imperfect des.
cription Of this wonderful invention
but IL will serve to give your planting
readers II general idea of its construc
ton and mode of operation. A per
fectly clear and complete picture o.
it, in the columns of the Ledger
could only be conveyed by the use o
diagrams and drawings. To he fully
appreciated, in fact, it must be seer
and tested. And when you do see it
you will be struck with the idea al
once that the teasle-which has been
cultivated In various parts of Europe
and Asia for thousands of years as ar
article of commerce, for the use o
clothiers-was intended by Mature
herself for this very purpose, of pick
ing cotton, as well as of dressing
cloth. A wonderful little burr, IL Is
too. You may take and rub one o.
them back and forth with all YOU
strength of hand upon the hardest
wood, for five minutes or longer, with
out impairing its efficiency or blunt
ing its fine needle points. lAgain
you may soak ii in water for months
or boil Il, with the same reoult. Fin,
ally, any farmer can grow them; q
half acre planted with the teasle-seed
contained in these little burrs will
produce enough teasles to supply his
"Cotton-picker" for IA half-dozen
years or longer.
Messrs. Shirley, Apperly & Pearce's
field cotton-picker" is u success
great success-because, first, with II
two men can pick as much cotton in
IA day as fifty.men can in the old way
and, secondly, because every farmer
who plants u hundred, or even fifty
acres of cotton annually, will saw,
twice or thrice the cost OF a machine,
in time and labor alone, not to speak
Of the immense gain in enhanced
prices accruing from his ability with
II to gather his whole crop before Il
has been damaged 10y rains and frost
and by falling on the ground. Be
sides, II is estimated and generally
conceded, that, either size of thest
machines, the larger and more costly
as well as the smaller and cheaper
one, will reimburse its original cost In
actual saving Of labor and money
every ten days that 1t Is used. Mo-
should il be overlooked that this teas
le cotton-plcker will not only pich
out all, or nearly all, the cotton OF