Claims
- 1. An apparatus for harvesting tobacco including:
- a support rail;
- said support rail having a plurality of substantially parallel openings extending therethrough along its length, said openings being substantially equally spaced from each other;
- each of said openings receiving therein one end of a tobacco stick with tobacco thereon for support by said support rail with the ends of adjacent sticks disposed on alternate sides of said support rail;
- and said support rail having a pair of connecting means connected thereto, each of said connecting means including first and second means extending from opposite sides of said support rail in a direction substantially perpendicular to said openings, said first means extending from one of the opposite sides of said support rail and connecting to lifting means within a barn to maintain said support rail in vertically spaced relation thereto when said support rail is the uppermost support rail and connecting to the second means of the connecting means of a support rail disposed above said support rail to maintain said support rail in a vertically spaced relation to the support rail disposed thereabove when said support rail is not the uppermost support rail, and second means extending from the other of the opposite sides of said support rail and connecting to the first means of the connecting means of a support rail disposed beneath said support rail to maintain said support rail in vertically spaced relation to the support rail therebeneath, wherein each of said connecting means of each of said support rails has its first means aligned vertically with the second means of the connecting means on the support rail disposed above said support rail and has its second means aligned vertically with the first means of the connecting means on the support rail disposed beneath said support rail when the support rails are vertically disposed.
- 2. The apparatus according to claim 1 including passage means within said support rail and extending between the opposite sides of said support rail and substantially perpendicular to the axes of said openings to receive support means for said support rail.
- 3. In combination with the apparatus according to claim 2, a carrier, said carrier having a base, means extending upwardly from said base for disposition within said passage means of said support rail to support said support rail in spaced relation to said based to preclude the tobacco on the tobacco sticks from touching said base when said support rail is supported on said carrier, and means secured to said base to support said carrier for movement along the ground in a direction substantially parallel to said support rail.
- 4. The combination according to claim 3 in which said upwardly extending means of said carrier includes:
- a pair of support posts;
- and means on the upper end of each of said support posts for disposition within said passage means of said support rail.
- 5. The combination according to claim 4 in which each of said second means of each of said connecting means of said support rail includes a plurality of means for selective connection to said first means of a corresponding one of said connecting means on another of said support rails disposed therebeneath to vary the vertical spacing between said support rail and another of said support rails disposed therebeneath.
- 6. The combination according to claim 4 in which said pair of connecting means of said support rail includes:
- a pair of passages extending between the opposite sides of said support rail and substantially perpendicular to the axes of said openings;
- a flexible member extending through each of said passages;
- said first means of each of said connecting means including attachment means connected to the upper end of each of said flexible members;
- each of said flexible members having means on the opposite sides of said support rail to limit the movement in either direction of said flexible member within said passage;
- and said second means of each of said connecting means including means on each of said flexible members for connection to said attachment means of another of said support rails therebeneath to permit the vertical spacing between the support rails to be varied.
- 7. The combination to claim 6 in which said attachment means connected to the upper end of each of said flexible members is a hook.
- 8. The apparatus according to claim 1 in which said pair of connecting means of said support rail includes:
- a pair of passages extending between the opposite sides of said support rail and substantially perpendicular to the axes of said openings;
- a flexible member extending through each of said passages;
- said first means of each of said connecting means including attachment means connected to the upper end of each of said flexible members;
- each of said flexible members having means on the opposite sides of said support rail to limit the movement in either direction of said flexible member within said passage;
- and said second means of each of said connecting means including means on each of said flexible members for connection to said attachment means of another of said support rails therebeneath to permit the vertical spacing between the support rails to be varied.
- 9. The apparatus according to claim 8 in which said attachment means connected to the upper end of each of said flexible members is a hook.
- 10. The apparatus according to claim 1 in which each of said second means of each of said connecting means of said support rail includes a plurality of means for selective connection to said first means of the connecting means on another support rail disposed therebeneath to vary the vertical spacing between said support rail and the support rail disposed therebeneath.
Parent Case Info
A large portion of the cost of producing a tobacco crop is involved in removing the tobacco from the field in which it is grown and housing it in a barn where it is stored and allowed to cure. After curing, it is necessary to remove the tobacco from its stored position.
Because the housing in a barn of tobacco on tobacco sticks requires a significant amount of labor and the cost of labor has been increasing rapidly, the cost of producing a tobacco crop also has been increasing significantly. Thus, the cost of producing the tobacco crop could be reduced if the required labor could be decreased.
It has previously been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 3,497,253 to Gentry, Jr. to dispose the tobacco sticks, which have tobacco stalks thereon, on a rack and to transport this rack to a barn. Then, the rack with the tobacco sticks still supported thereon has been raised by a fork lift so that latches on opposite ends of the rack are supported on support rails within the barn and on which the tobacco sticks have previously been supported directly by manual labor.
The apparatus of the aforesaid Gentry, Jr. patent requires skillful manipulation by a fork lift operator to remove the rack from the support rails of the barn. This is because the latches overlie the support rails of the barn and must be raised and tilted to be removed therefrom.
Thus, while the apparatus of the aforesaid Gentry, Jr. patent enables the transport of the tobacco to its curing position within the barn without requiring manual labor to lift the tobacco from the rack on which it is transported to the barn to its curing position within the barn, it requires the use and expense of a fork lift and an experienced operator thereof. Thus, while the apparatus of the aforesaid Gentry, Jr. patent reduces the required amount of labor to house the tobacco, it adds other substantial expenses thereto.
The apparatus of the present invention avoids the difficulties of the apparatus of the aforesaid Gentry, Jr. patent while still obtaining the desired reduction in labor costs. With the present invention, it is not necessary to utilize any type of fork lift or an experienced operator for operating the fork lift to house the tobacco.
With the present invention, it is only necessary to mount lifting means such as winches, for example, in the barn and to remove the support rails from the barn on which the tobacco sticks have been supported for curing. This is a one-time expense.
The present invention contemplates transporting a support rail to the field, having the tobacco sticks, which have the cut tobacco stalks thereon, supported on the support rail, returning the support rail to the barn, and then lifting the support rail with the tobacco sticks to a desired position within the tobacco barn by a winch and connected cables. Thus, the present invention does not require any fork lift or specific maneuvering thereof as is required by the apparatus of the aforesaid Gentry, Jr. patent.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,015,553 to Gates, tobacco sticks are disposed in vertically spaced relation to each other within a barn for curing the tobacco thereon through connecting wires. However, the structure of the aforesaid Gates patent does not significantly reduce the labor costs since there is no suggestion of any manner in which the tobacco sticks can be transported directly from the field to their support positions in the barn or to connect the tobacco sticks to each other without the use of additional labor. Additionally, the structure of the aforesaid Gates patent requires fixed beams or rails within the barn to support the tobacco sticks but does not explain how the tobacco sticks can pass therebetween as would be required by the uppermost row of tobacco sticks when the tobacco sticks are lifted. Furthermore, the aforesaid Gates patent requires a movable hoisting apparatus to be moved to a different position to raise each group of the connected tobacco sticks.
The present invention avoids the difficulties of the aforesaid Gates patent since a single support rail has many of the tobacco sticks mounted thereon. Additionally, there are no support rails in the bar to interfere with the lifting and lowering of the support rails having the tobacco sticks thereon. Thus, the difficulty of how to support the tobacco sticks, as exists in the aforesaid Gates patent, does not occur with the apparatus of the present invention.
When housing tobacco with the support rails in the barn spaced at fixed vertical distances from each other, some of the tobacco may be of a greater length than the distance therebetween so that there will be an overlapping of tobacco on two adjacent vertically spaced rails. This can cause house burn of the tobacco during curing.
The present invention satisfactorily solves this problem through enabling the tobacco to be vertically spaced in tiers or bents at any desired vertical distance between any two support rails. Thus, the tobacco can be supported within the barn by the apparatus of the present invention without having the tobacco in the adjacent vertical tiers or bents contact each other.
In some prior suggested tobacco housing arrangements for reducing labor, various types of new tobacco barns have been proposed. However, this has deterred the use of the new suggested means for use with the new type barn because of the substantial cost in erecting new barns and the economic loss of the use of the old barns.
The present invention satisfactorily overcomes this problem through being able to utilize presently available barns with only slight modifications. Thus, the cost for these modifications is relatively small in comparison with the economic saving in labor, and the old barn is still employed.
An object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for harvesting tobacco.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for obtaining any desired vertical spacing between various tiers of tobacco in a tobacco barn.
Other objects of this invention will be readily perceived from the following description, claims, and drawings.
This invention relates to an apparatus for harvesting tobacco including a support rail having a plurality of substantially parallel openings extending therethrough along its length with the openings being substantially equally spaced from each other. Each of the openings receives one end of a tobacco stick therein for support thereby with the ends of adjacent sticks disposed on alternate sides of the support rail. The support rail has connecting means extending from opposite sides thereof to enable the support rail to be connected in vertically spaced relation to lifting means within a barn or another of the support rails disposed thereabove and to enable the support rail to be connected in vertically spaced relation to another of the support rails therebeneath.
US Referenced Citations (8)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
| 54,813 |
Oct 1911 |
OE |
| 140,584 |
Apr 1920 |
UK |
Patent Grant
4067454
