Anybody ever seen that thing? Best I can do is scan a picture in a day or two when I get time since I can't find a picture of it in any searches.
Sherry had an article in Heritage Iron about the Rust Pearson harvesters. It seems that around 1970, Ben Pearson invented a combine that cut the whole plant just like cutting soybeans. It was on the cover of Progressive Farmer at one time apparently. There was two sets of spindles that laid horizontal that stripped the bolls. The first one was 85% efficient, the second one was 98%. It put the stems out the back through a straw chopper and eliminated the need to chop the stalks down.
They claimed it gave cleaner cotton than any other harvester, but it wasn't quite perfected. I guess Ben took sick and while he was laying in bed, he thought of a way to fix it, but the only one there with him was his 15 year old son. He was too young to understand just exactly what his dad was talking about and by the time somebody who would know got there, he was so heavily sedated that he couldn't tell them.
He never came out of it and whatever he came up with to fix the problem went to the grave with him. No other company has ever perfected anything like it. It'll be a few days before I have time to scan a picture. If anybody has one, post it would you?
Sherry had an article in Heritage Iron about the Rust Pearson harvesters. It seems that around 1970, Ben Pearson invented a combine that cut the whole plant just like cutting soybeans. It was on the cover of Progressive Farmer at one time apparently. There was two sets of spindles that laid horizontal that stripped the bolls. The first one was 85% efficient, the second one was 98%. It put the stems out the back through a straw chopper and eliminated the need to chop the stalks down.
They claimed it gave cleaner cotton than any other harvester, but it wasn't quite perfected. I guess Ben took sick and while he was laying in bed, he thought of a way to fix it, but the only one there with him was his 15 year old son. He was too young to understand just exactly what his dad was talking about and by the time somebody who would know got there, he was so heavily sedated that he couldn't tell them.
He never came out of it and whatever he came up with to fix the problem went to the grave with him. No other company has ever perfected anything like it. It'll be a few days before I have time to scan a picture. If anybody has one, post it would you?
