A Caucasian cotton harvester operator was helping a family member harvest their crop. He and four other family members were emptying cotton into a machine called the “cotton module builder” that packs the harvested material into large bales.
The module builder was parked directly under high-voltage power lines. Electricity jumping from a wire to a wet metal object can cause fires.
What is a Cotton Picker?
Cotton harvesting is a time-consuming job, but it can also be a very rewarding career for the right people. With the right skill set, a good cotton picker can make a lot of money for themselves and their family. Those who work in cotton harvesting usually work under a standard roster system that sees them working 6 days on and 2 days off, with 12-hour shifts.
In the past, cotton was picked by hand, but this method is extremely time-consuming. Fortunately, modern cotton-picking machinery is capable of much more than the old-fashioned manual method. In fact, it can process up to 80 pounds of cotton per hour!
A cotton harvester is a piece of farm machinery that combines two different machines: a cotton picker and a cotton module builder. The cotton harvester picks the cotton from the plant and empties it into the cotton module builder, which compresses it into bales.
The first cotton picker was developed by John Rust in 1948. He patented his design in 1933 and was awarded forty-seven patents for cotton harvesting machinery over the course of his life.
The Rust cotton picker used a rotating cylinder with spindles that pulled the cotton out of the bolls without causing any material damage to the unopened cotton buds or the leaves and stalks of the cotton plant. It also utilized a mechanical suction device and a rotary drum to separate the fiber from the plant.
In order to ensure high-quality cotton, farmers must carefully adjust their cotton harvester for optimum performance. They should avoid operating their pickers in extreme weather conditions, such as heavy morning dew. This will help to maintain quality and increase yield.
During the Civil War, Black sharecroppers were subjected to cruel and corrupt practices by their white landowners. They would work the land for the landowner, then he or she would cheat them out of their share of the crop. This was a terrible injustice and resulted in widespread poverty among Black families. The Social Realist artist Robert Gwathmey portrayed the plight of these laborers in his painting Cotton Picker. The picture depicts a black laborer kneeling down to pick bright white cotton under a red sky. The thorny plants in the background suggest religious martyrdom.
The Picker’s Spindles
A spindle is a machine tool that rotates on an access, and it’s present in many types of equipment, such as wood lathes and milling equipment. On a cotton picker, the spindles are used to rotate at high speeds to separate the seeds from the cotton. Spindles must be maintained in good condition to ensure efficient harvesting.
A typical spindle is fabricated from special heat-treated steel and then chrome-plated to provide a hard surface. A problem is that frost and rough spots may build up on the surfaces, which reduces efficiency and can cause the cotton to stick to and jam the spindle.
The present invention provides a picker spindle that overcomes this difficulty. The spindle includes an elongated cone-shaped toothed picking end of unitary construction and a rotatable drive end supported for rotation in the center of the bar by a journal area. The drive end also has an upper, somewhat flattened surface which defines a hook-like structure for aggressive engagement of the cotton. The picking end surface is coated with a thin silica chrome alumina oxide coating to form a smooth and extremely hard surface, which does not need finishing but will wear much longer than conventional spindle surfaces in sandy conditions.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved spindle that is less expensive to manufacture than at least some prior art types of cotton picker spindles and which has a surface harder and smoother than those prior-art spindles. The new spindle also has a density greater than the previous types of cotton picker spindles, allowing a higher number of spindles to be provided in a single row of the bar.
A routine preventative maintenance schedule should include inspection of the spindles and other important harvester parts such as the doffers, bushings, cam track, and spinning pads for damage, wear, or needed adjustment before and during picking. Also, it is recommended that spindle tips be checked to ensure they do not contact the compressor doors and the drum sleeve when picking. Lindstrom Equipment can help with locating replacement spindles for harvester machines and other ag parts.
The Picker’s Header
During the early days of mechanical cotton harvesting, engineers experimented with machines that removed lint from bolls in various ways. A machine that used spindles to separate lint from plants was the most successful. The Hopson Plantation was the testing ground for many of these early machines. By the late 1920s, scientists at the Delta Branch Experiment Station and at the Hopson Plantation were close to introducing commercially viable mechanical cotton pickers. However, economics dealt these projects a severe blow. By the time mechanical pickers were ready for the farm field, the demand for mule power had increased, and there was concern that the mechanization of cotton production would put many mule drivers out of work.
Currently, pickers are produced by several manufacturers in the United States. Some have rows of barbed spindles that rotate at high speeds to remove the seed cotton from the plant. Others use a stripping process to remove opened and unopened bolls from the plant along with a fair amount of other plant matter. These heavy plant components are dropped from the spindles in a separate unit and then separated from the lint for further processing and storage.
When picking cotton, the operator must be aware of weather conditions. If it rains, it will take longer for the lint to dry and will reduce the overall efficiency of the picker. In addition, windy conditions will make it difficult for the machine to maneuver in the field and may cause problems with the cable paths.
Also, the operator must be aware of fire dangers and flammability hazards. During the harvest, if he or she notices a fire near the machinery or indicates a smoldering plant, they should stop harvesting immediately and raise the row units. At the same time, they should notify an emergency contact and request help.
If a fire is discovered during the harvest, the operator should shut off all electrical controls and disconnect any electrical connections. Once this is done, the operator should open a gate or fence to prevent the spread of the fire and call a local fire department for assistance.