The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1911-11-04
COTTON COTTON PICKER PHI H
@HE PRICE-CAMPBELL MACHINE
sEIaals no BE a SUCCESS.

slE19aIs no BE a SUCCESS.
Picks About as Clean as It Can b
Done by Hand as it Present.
The Charlotte Observer says the
Price-Campbell cotton picker, that
mas been giving daily demonstrations
near Charlotte during the past ten
days, Is already practical success
Il Is not perfect, but It approximates
perfection so nearly that its opera
ton in present form removes every
pestige of doubt that the processes
Cor picking cotton are at this mo-
ment revolutionized: improvements
will, of course, be added from year to
yeard. Such is the history of every
form Of mechanism that has been
affted from its crudity to complete
ness.
" With the features that have within
hate years been added, themselves. Of
So vast proportions that the present
Mechanism hardly resembles in &C.
tual form or theory the early types
OF construction put out, the machine
is now able to strsddle the rows of
cotton and lift, perhaps, ninety per
cent of the staple from the holls,
leaving the foliage, the unopened
bolls, the blooms and the stalks en-
tirely unharmed. In achieving this
wonderful feat, the machine verify
!. seems to 'have sense"
Without running into ecstacies
over the promised revolution in cot
ton picking coming about through
the machine, it is certainly not going
too far to comment strongly upon
the wonderful operations it per-
forms. Remembering that it was on
ly a few years ago when the first
mechanism was dreamed of and later
put together that had for its pur-
pose the picking of cotton, we are
bound to admit that the present evo-
luton strongly rebukes our skepti-
cism as to the practical and useful
purposes of the device.
We recall that only about eight
years ago the first successful aero
plane fight was made and even now
it is admitted that scheme has a
long stretch to go before it pertects
flying machine that will serve as
an adjunct to civilization to a suc-
cessful degree. The Wrights were
the victims of universal derision
when they entered into this realm
Of activity and promised the world a
vehicle by which speed could be
accomplished through the regions q.
boYa That was q great day in the
development Of the race when these
inventors put together their first
machine for aerial navigation.
Witness, too, the triumphant, deYel-
ment III the art OF type-setting that
opment- and only q few years ago
was left as 2 tedious task for the
human fingers. The world laughed
and scorned at Mergenthaler when
he announced the invention of ma
chine that would remove this busi-
ness OF setting type lines from the
hand of man and leave the task for
the accomplishment Of mechanism.
The doubts OF all were soon vanished
and even within this short time prac--
tieally every newspaper Of conse-
Quence possesses machine that sets
its type. .,a -
Compare the early models of the
steam engine, the cotton gin, the tel
egraph instrument, the automobile
and all of tine agencies Of our COM
fort and progress Of today and when:
the vast stretch Of difference is close
ly reviewed, we are driven to the
confession that the improvement that
has been achieved in the cotton pick
ing machine is as triumphant as any
OF them. -, K
The Price. Campbell device repre-
sents the ultimate consumrnation OF
this particular science. Its picking
mechanism consists of two batteries
of steel piking spindles or fingers
with teeth cut on one side, the
points Of the teeth being with the
periphery. This permits the fingers
TO reYolye in the plant without In
Jury to foliage, boom, boil, or
squahe. There are SIG Of these fng-
ers, equally divided between the bat
teries. The principle of the picking
is Interesting. All Involved is the syn
chronized movement of the vehicle
passing forward and the picking
mechanism moving toward the rear
of the machine while working.
The forward movement Of the We
hicle and the rear warn action OF the
mechanism, being at the same speed
the fingers, as they are thrust Into
the bolls remain relatively station
ary to any given stalk or point on
the stalk. This synchronized move
ment explains the fact that the stalk
and it's contents are unharmed as
they pass through this delicate and
intricate network Of steel spindles
end emerge from the rear OF the
heavy machine.
The machine is unquestionably a
success and of practical benefit. For
this immediate section where cotton
-;,o 10 Hmitad tho time Is hard