Haring Cotton Picker
notes: label: Description
content: In 1897 Peter Paul Haring patented his first mechanical cotton picker in Goliad, Texas, joining a host of inventors attempting to end labor-intensive hand picking. Because cotton bolls matured at different rates, an adequate picker needed to pick the mature fibers while leaving the unopened bolls intact. Only in the 1930s did the Rust Brothers in Arkansas and in the 1940s International Harvester in Mississippi develop successful cotton picking machines.
label: Description
content: Haring’s cotton picking machine was harnessed to two horses or mules and straddled a row of cotton. As the machine passed through the field, rotating “picking fingers” embedded with hooks grabbed open bolls of cotton and carried them to a conveyor belt that dumped them into bags attached to the back of the machine. Farmers criticized Haring’s early models for collecting too much “trash,” (leaves and stalks) that degraded cotton quality during ginning. Haring’s later models corrected this problem, but his machines were never developed to the point that they were marketable. The Rust Brothers and International Harvester used gasoline powered machines that were far more reliable than Haring’s ground power prototypes.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
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content: Work
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content: Agriculture
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Grace Haring
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.74A32
label: catalog number
content: 74A32
label: accession number
content: 310659
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cotton picker, horse drawn
label: Object Name
content: horse-drawn cotton picker
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: wheel apparatus: 38 in x 46 in x 41 in; 96.52 cm x 116.84 cm x 104.14 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: picker: 55 1/2 in x 45 1/2 in x 73 in; 140.97 cm x 115.57 cm x 185.42 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: parts on pallet: 24 in x 40 in x 45 in; 60.96 cm x 101.6 cm x 114.3 cm