Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1918-11-16
VACUUM-PICKED COTTON
Literary Digest

Cotton is now gathered in the Imperial
Valley of California by a device that works
on the principle Of the vacuum cleaner. 1t
is asserted that cotton picked by it is clean
err than that picked by hand and that by
it's aid an inexperienced labOrer can work
three or four times as fast as experts in the
old methods The machine weighs but 1000
pounds, and is easily moved. Around it's
light skeleton are 3OO-pound, 16-horse-
power engine, suction pump for the nozles,
and centrifugal separator for parting the
cotton from leaves, sticks, and other debris
taken in by the picking nOzles These nozles
are five in number, at the end Of light, 49,
foot rubber pies connected with an 8-foot
tube running transversely over the machine.
TO quote from an article in The Scientific
American (New York, October 19):
"'The powerful suction pump on the ma
chine endeavors constantly to keep the pick
ing pies in state of vacuum wherefore
when the nozzle is passed over row of
bos, the suction picks up the cotton and
carries it through the pie and to the CEN
trfugal separator Here a powerful fan
with hollow vanes a departure in fan con-
struction, separates the cotton from the
leaves, the sticks, and the 'motes, which are
not desirable, and finally drives the sepa-
rated mass through a curved pie at the rear
The leaves and notes are driven out
through perforations in the top Of the
pie. the cotton is driven through to the
sack or basket at the end
''Each of the five picking nozles and
rubber pies is handled by a man. and the
speed of action depends on the skill he ac-
quircs. A single sweep of the patent nozzle
across row of the white blossoms is al
legged to pick them clean, the time being
about that required to pick one boil.
'rhe rate of picking cotton by hand
seems to vary from 100 to 200 pounds per
day-the record being made by colored
person who picked 900 pounds in a day,
but did it on the run, and without attempt
ing to do more than to get the easiest reach
ed. Also cottonpickers are wasteful, the
waste running as high as so per cent Of the
crop, and the amount, according to the gov
eminent reports, running into hundreds of
millions. 1t is human nature to pick the
bolls on the top, and to let those lying in
the back-breaking strata at the bottom Of
the bush remain to sleep in the Southern
sunshine.
"The persons running the California ma
chine, described and illustrated, claimed
that five men with the machine can pick
1000 pounds per man per day of ten hours,
or 5000 pounds per day, and that it does a
clean job instead of wasteful one, because
the nozles do not mind being required to get
down into the bottom of the plant.
"There remain plenty Of woodpiles for
the Ethiopian to hide in, and it may be that
the machine without brains. even tho di-
rected by humans hands at the very nozles,
will still not pick with the proper discrim-
nation, but the fact remains that this is
the first one record to reach even the
present stage of hopefulness.
CAS- cotton authorities alege that last
year not far from million persons were en-
gagged in the harvesting Of cotton, the ma
chine able to do the work of five times the
number Of men needed to operate it, and
to do it with little labor on the part of the
crew, might we'll be an invention of serious
national need"