The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1911-02-01
WILL DO THE WORK
THAT IS WHAT Is CLAIMED FOR
THE COTTON PICKER.

Full Description of the Machine
Written for the Technical World
Magazine.
The following description Of the
new Complete Cotton Picking Ma
chine written for the Technical
World Magazine by Carl Crow will
be read with interest by all, as we
are interested in the picking Of cot
5. ton:
I'm my opinion Mr.. Campbell has
| invented a machine that will mean
as much to the cotton producer as
the harvester has been to the grain
producer. 1t will mean that one man
can go into the field and pick as
much cotton in one day as 20 or 80
nlen can pick by hand in one day,
and the total operating expenses OF
the machine in one day, in my opin-
ion. based on my actual experiences,
Will not exceed $40 a day. and the
cost of picking the same amount OF
cotton by hand, figuring on one-half
bale to the acre, would be not less
than SIS.
believe it would not take a Sol.
omcn to see that this difference
would mean net profit of SIS on
one days operation, to say nothing
of the trouble that the producer is
compelled to go to to secure these
hand pickers and to provide place
| for them to live, and many other an
noyances that are familiar to the
man with large cotton acreage
During the cotton picking season
Of 1910 the Price-Campbell Machine
was in almost continual operation in
Texas. moving from one farm TO an
! other. much as the Self-bindei's or
the threshirS machines move in the
Northern States. During the Texas
State fair. which is held in Dallas
during each October, the machine
gave daily demonstrations which
were visited by thousands Of skepti-
cal farmers. many Of them suffering
from misery in the back" because
Of many seasons Of cotton picking
By hand.
a more skept;cal. doubling Jury
was never before empaneied than
This one, yet their verdict was un-
animous in favor of the machine.
| Farmers from hundred cotton
planting neighborhoods visited the
machine every day and went back
home to tell their neighbors that at
last the impossible had been accom-
p!ished with the invention of a ma
chine which would pick cotton.
The machine itself is built on a
chassis of about the dimensions of a
! 60-horsepower automobile. The
wheels are steel traction and the
aXles are high enough to pass over
the cotton stalks without breaking
them. In the places where the dash
board of an automobile would be are
the interlocillng steel fingers which
pluck the cotton from the opened
bolls and a conveyor which carries
the locks to two bins or sacks sUs-
pended from the rear CT the ma
chine. AS fast as filed these sacks
are detached and replaced. In front
sits the one operator with steering
wheel and throttle in easy access.
The engine is mounted just to the
rear of the driver and is connected
by means Of chain drive.
! Many obstacles are found to the
successful operation Of cotton pick
ing machine. In the first place, cot
ton does not ripen all at once, as is
the case with wheat and corn and
other crops. In July the ho1ls which
are nearest the ground and therefore
the farthe5t advanced may be ready
for the pickers. On top Of the same
plant will be many bowers and green
bolls.
1t is important that the picker
take the locks from the ripened bolls
without harnling the flowers, the
green bolls or the plant itself. Again
the cotton plant, though sown in
parallel rows. like corn, has great
lateral growth and ripened bolls
NAV be hidden by the more rapid
growth of branches OF the plant
above. The machine must not only
pick all that is in sight, but it must
do more; its steel fingers must creep
beneath the branches and pick out
that which is hidden.
This the Price-Campbell machine
does. Just now it's flexible steel fin
! gers acquire this almost human
touch I do not understand, though
I have seen. I believe that if Angus
Campbell had invented the cotton
picker 200 years ago he would have
been hanged as disciple of The devil
and his machine burned in front OF
the nearest cathedral
AS l understand it, the Price
Campbell cotton picker does hot en-
body any strikingly novel features
Indeed, every mechanical discovery
had been utilized by former invent
ors. Different ones sought to Sc;
the problem by using magnetism
electricity and pneumatics. One Of
the latter class of inventors pre-
ceded the vacuum cleaner by patent
ing a machine designed on the same
principle.
The contraption provided two seats
in the rear for boys who aimed the
Doint OF the business end Of the sue
ton pipes at the opened bolls, secur.
ing their swift transportation TO the