Improvements in Cotton Harvesting Devices.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Mar., 1893-Accepted, 20th May, 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Cotton Harvesting Devices.
I, GERARD BEEKMAN, of No. 5 East 34th Street, New York City, County
and State of New York, United States of America, Gentleman, do hereby
declare the nature of my invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
Rotary pickers used heretofore have been characterized by two distinctions
among others; one class in which the revolving picking stems are of such diameter
as to present but one side of the revolving part to any portion of the cotton in the
plant at a time, the extraction being effected by means of barbs or other suitable
roughened surface of such revolving part; the fibre being practically hooked out
of the boll of the plant. The other class in which the revolving stem is of such
small diameter, that whether the surface be roughened or not, it shall obtain its
purchase on the cotton by winding the fibre around the entire circumference of
the revolving part, immediately after initial contact and before the extraction
begins; the attachment being formed by the wrapping of the cotton fibres around
the stem and the extraction being effected by the roping of the fibres together
beyond the end of the picker, or beyond the initial point of its contact, as the
machine progresses. On the principle of the latter class, my present invention is
intended to operate, departing, however, in certain respects, namely: First, in
depending for its operation, not upon form, but upon structure; and second,
engaging with the cotton in the plant by the initial contact of any portion of a
maxium volume of material composing the picker, thereby proportionately
extending the range of search. A torsional connection with the growing cotton
is produced out of the material of the picker at any point, which is indeterminate
until initial contact shall have taken place.
To these ends my invention consists in the employment of a revolving mass of
cotton or other fibre in its native or non-woven state in the manner hereinafter
fully described.
Referring to the accompanying drawings:
Figure 1, illustrates a side elevation of one picking device;
Figure 2, a similar view illustrating the operation of the same;
Figure 3, a detail view of a rotary stem suitably constructed for the convenient
reception of the picking material;
Figure 4, a sectional side elevation showing several picking devices assembled
upon a suitable device for supporting the same; and
Figure 5, a horizontal section of Figure 4, taken on the line 2, ..
A, represents a suitable revolving stem or shaft of flexible or of rigid character,
as may be desired.
B, is a tubular flexible supporting arm for the revolving stem or shaft A;
and C, the frame or oscillatory support hereinafter described.
D, represents the fibrous inaterial. This may be composed of the cotton fibre
itself in its native state, or of any other suitable fibrous material having a similar
structural character employed in a non-woven state; that is to say, composed of
flexible finely attenuated adhesive fibres, irregularly combined in a mass, leaving
interstices between them;, and thus distinguished from a fibrous body such as cord
or cloth or other artificial structure in which the fibres are entwined or interlaced
into a textile fabric and united by close connection or intermixture into a permanently
organized relation.
The fibrous material D, is attached to the shaft A, in any suitable manner,
either permanently or temporarily. I have illustrated, for example, the attachment

page_text: of the fibre to the shaft A; by means of a tie formed by winding the free ends of
a string a, about the fibrous mass, and knotting it together. The stem A, is
illustrated as projecting into the mass of cotton or other fibre at a suitable distance,
in order to form functionally a supporting core that shall hold the mass throughout
the length of the same as nearly concentric as possible to the axis on which the
extremity of the stem A, revolves. In Figure 3, I illustrate barbs b, on the stem A,
which are so adapted that a mass of native cotton taken in the hand may be thrust.
over the barbs and remain retained thereon until it is seen fit to remove the mass,.
or cause its removal..
Any suitable form of actuating mechanism may be employed in connection with
my improved means of picking. I have illustrated one suitable form in Figures 4
and 5. This consists in a mechanism which is similar in its general features to
that described and claimed in my Patent application filed in Great Britain
Dec. 28, 1892, No. 23935, in which there are several picker cases or groups of
pickers as shown herein in Figure 4, attached to a rotary support whereby each
group of pickers is revolved backward in an orbit at substantially the same rate
of speed as the motion of the harvester over the ground. Thus a retrograde
movement of the pickers is obtained, whereby they advance and retract among the
branches of the bush, travelling with the same, and search for every ripe portion
of cotton that may be exposed.
The mechanism in Figures 4 and 5, consists in a driving shaft E, bearing
toothed gears F, upon which the gears G, are kept in gearing by idle spindles H,
having suitable bearings in the case C. Each bobbin G, bears two flexible shafts
or stems A, projecting in each direction from its axis, suppporting the holder for
the fibre to be rotated. The case C, is provided with flexible arms B, composed
of coiled wire or other material which will yield when in contact with the branches
of the plant. The shafts A, rotate freely in the tubular arms B.
Any other suitable form of operating mechanism than that herein illustrated may
be used in connection with my present invention; for example, that illustrated in
my Letters Patent of the United States No. 427,218, granted May 6th, 1890, and
No. 436,770, granted September 23rd, 1890.
The operation of my invention is illustrated in Figure 2, which is as follows:
The fibrous picking material D, rapidly rotated while moved through the plant
will at the initial contact of any part of its exterior with the native fibre J, on a
boll of the plant, immediately form a torsional connection e, between the two by
the operation of spinning, which will cause the fibres of the picker and of the boll
to adhere at the axis of rotation. As the spinning continues the torsional connec-
tion c, tends to form a cord or rope, and before the revolving mass D, has moved
far enough through the plant by the progress of the machine to have parted from
the native mass J, the two will have become connected together by means of the
cord or rope with sufficient firmness to break the natural attachment of the cotton J
with the bottom of the boll of the plant and thus extract the growing cotton. The
picked cotton is then suspended by the connection, until the stripping device of
the machine removes the same in any suitable or well known manner.
A torsional connection between the revolving mass of fibre in its native state and
the growing fibre is thus produced out of the material of which the picker is formed,
at a point which is indeterminate until the initial contact takes place. An axis of
rotation is then determined at whatever part of the exterior surface of the revolving
mass such initial contact occurs, and during successive operations the torsional
formations of the material occur at different parts, and as the picked cotton is
separated from the rotating mass between each period of its passage through the
plants, the connection is broken at a variety of places, tending to equalize the
disturbance of the rotary mass and avoid undue distortion of the same repeatedly
at any particular part.
The hereindescribed picker possesses the following advantages: First, of
extending the range of search through the plants to the maximum; second, of
affording such a delicate means of searching the branches as shall avoid knocking

page_text: off and wasting any ripe portions of the growing cotton, or injuring those portions
that are partially ripe, or damaging the plant; third, of providing a picker that
may admit of the separation therefrom of the cotton that has been removed from
the plant, between each periodical passage of the picker through the branches.
without requiring the stoppage of the revolution of the picking device upon its own
axis, thus reducing complication of gearing and friction; and fourth, of easily
renewing the picker when composed of the native cotton itself, from the material in
the field without expense.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
1. A. device for picking cotton, consisting in a revoluble mass of cotton or other
fibre of similar structural character, and suitable mechanism for rotating the mass
upon its own axis; the fibres of the said mass being exposed in their native or
non-woven state, and adapted to engage with and extract the growing cotton,.
substantially as described.
2. The combination in a cotton picking device, of a mass of cotton or other fibre
of similar structural character in its native or non-woven state, and a rotary
supporting stem extending into the centre of the mass and secured thereto, forming
a core substantially as and for the purposes described.
Dated this 10th day of February 1893.