Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-10-19
COTTON PICKING.
The Various Attempts 10 nnke
Machinery DO the Work.
New York Times.l

New York Times.l
As of special interest in connection
with the Atlanta Exhibition, the
Scientific American has illustrated a
group of ten machines inverted for
cotton picking. The first is not a
picker, but device for assisting IT,
feld hand by partly supporting the
weight of his body as he stoops; it
consists of two poles, one on each
side, to which is attached a broad
belt encircliDg the body; a bag is also
hanging from the belt. No. 2 is a
light wagon, provided with transverse
stats of wire across the top. One man
cuts the plant as if it were grain; the
others take it up in the hand and
detach the cotton by striking the
plant on these wires, the wagon
being driven slowly along How
ever effica cious this mode OF detach-
ing the lint, its success is obviously
destroyed by the fact that the leaves,
stems, pods and all which 60 by the
name of trash, must jar off and fall
in with the lint. Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6 and z
are worked by gearing operated by the
wheels Of the vehicle, somewhat as q
reaper is. In one, a cylinder studded
with bristles like carpet-sweeper,
scratches the lint from the boIls.
which are bent down towards it by a
reel running ahead, and detaches it by
contact with q toothed cylinder be-
hind. THIS machine was patented in
Ohio in 1872, and another one, patent
ed in Louisiana last year, works simi
larly, having on either side of the row
of plants two pairs of vertical revolving
brushes. Another, patented in North
Carolina in 1871 has a number OF
barbed flexible rods which are
alternately pushed up and down;
they detach the lint from one
another by their motion, and it
is taken up by revolving bands.
A New Jersey machine, patented
in 1877, creates vacuum by fan,
and attempts to draw thus the lint
into a wire gauze chamber, after hay.
ing lOosened it from the bolls. A
machine patented in Brooklyn in 1870
has two broad endless rubber belts
travelling vertically, which are excited
electrically by friction, and thus at
tract and carry the lint, loosoned by a
reel. A hand-pieker, patented in
Massachusetts, in 1867, worked by
turning a crank, has a prickly recipro.
eating tongue, which picks out the lint
and delivers it into q sack carried by
the operator. A very simple tool
patented in Louisiana in 1876, con
sists of long glove armed with wire
hooks pointing toward the wrist, the
user freeing it from cotton by drawing
his hand across a brush which is fas-
tened to his waist just above the
mouth of the sack. A Texas device,
patented in 1879, thrusts into the cot
ton continuously moistened spindles
which are rotated, and thus catch the
| lint and wind it on themselves like q
cocoon of silk. A complicated.
locking contrivance, patented ia
Kentucky in 1866, places cup:
over each boil and attempts to suck
the cotton into them and connecting
tubes by an air exhaust. These de-
vices have all failed, and some of then
have nearly or quito run out the tern
of their patent They work, undoubt
ly, in theoretical way, but not prac
tically. The conditions of the prob.
lem are severe. The plant grows from
two to four feet high, and resembles
miniature apple tree in the distribution
of its fruit. The height and spacing
Of the plants vary; the bolls maiur
irregularly; the plant must not b.
injured in the early picking, an,
trash" must not be got into the fiber