The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-17
TRIAL OF THE COTTON PICKER .Worswick Machine Is Given a Test. PICKS FOUR ROWS AT A TINE Inventor Claims 2,200 Pounds of Cotton Per Bay is Capacity. Machine Is Improvement over That of Which Demonstration Was Made
 Year Ago In Several
 Resaects.

On the Henderson plantation yes- terday afternoon, before q few invited friends .an exhaustive trial was given the cotton picking machine invented by !. E. Worswick. It is q machine which its friends claim will rcvolu- ttonize the gathering of the cotton crop in the Southern States, which will gather cotton quicker, cleaner and at q lees cost than has heretofore been possible by the Southern planters who have depended upon negro labor in the fields.
 Heraided by such announcements of perfected machine. . few invited friends of the inventor. yesterday af- ternoon were driven out to the plant. ation in automobiles to see the oper- ation of the picker. :
 The trial was declared q success sn every way. The cotton was picked from tho boils--every shred of it---and the picking done rapidly. The machine is declared q great improvement over last years. in that the pipes by which the cotton is drawn from the holis and sent to the receptacle on the wagon at no time became clogged with waste oi cotton.
 The machine was placed in an open cotton patch near the plantation house and ara-n by one mule rapidly picked the hescy staple Sfrcm the open b0is
  same time. The inventor claims that 2,2oo pounds of cotton can Do picked by the machine per day, and that fhn acerage can be greatly increased by speeding the gasoline engine to a high CT velocity.
 Another item of speed. also. is the expertness of the operator of the sue tion tube. At yesterdays test the or dinary field picker was used to handle the suction tubes and the inventor claims that when these men become expert they will pick the cotton from tho stalk much faster.
 Some of the guests yesterday theui- selves took one of the suction tubes in hand and picked the cotton 10: themselves.
 The machine has been described al some length at former trials, when tests similar to yesterdays were made. The principle of the machine of this year is the same as that of last--suc- ton. A gasolene engine placed upon a steel frame runs fan at high rate of speed which forms a vacuum In q tank from which there radiatas rub her tubes about fifteen feet In length
 The end Of this rubber hose. handled by a negro sitting or kneeling on the xround, Is placed in front of tho cotton boil and the suction pulls tho cotton from the boIl with a very small per- centage of waste matter. The cotton is then passed on by the same fan Into . wire receptacle on the front of the wagon.
 While the machine at the test yes terday afternoon was drawn by a mule, the inventor says that this Is a matter of detail. A gear will be constructed from the engine to the wheels of the vehicle by which the whole machine can be made to cover the ground by tfa nxsrr raov,ar. instead of having d team attached.
 But of the tubes which do the actual work of picking the cotton, There are six of these suction tubes attached to the machine on exhibition yesterday. Each one of these tubes is in charge of negro who directs which boil the picker shall touch.
 It is here that the inventor claims that his machine has another point greatly in it's favor. The unopened bolls will not be harmed in the first picking of the machine. The machine itself is high enough from the ground not to touch the top of the cotton stalk The suction tubes do not disturb the stalk, which would kill the plant after the first picking.
 So in the running of the machine 1t is necessary to have a man to handle each one of the tubes in operation and a competent machinist to care for the gasolene engine which furnishes the power. The gasoline consumed in a days running is estimated at from Ave to six gallons, costing about $1.
 Another machine which the inventor did not run yesterday, but which is be- ing experimented upon and to which the visitors attention was called. was a gin in connection with the picker.
 This machine Is little larger than the picker by itself, and in addition to the picker there is small gin which Is run by the same engine which runs the suction fan. This little gin cleans the cotton as fast ns the cotton is sucked from the bolls The cleaned cotton Is thrown into a fine wire box and the seed dropped into a sack for that purpose under the machine.
 The ginner Tn connection with the picker has not yet been completed. but the inventor is working steadily upon both the picker and combination and hopes that the latter machine will soon be in the same state of perfection which he claims the picker demon strated yesterday.