Powell Manufacturing Company

Olin C Trull

Robert W Wilson

A tea harvester in the form of a wheeled vehicle adapted to straddle at least one row of plants carries therebeneath a horizontal transverse cutter bar in position to clip the tops of the plants in a row. Blower and manifold means are carried by the vehicle for emitting a horizontally-elongated vertically narrow stream of air rearwardly and downwardly across the cutter bar for blowing clippings rearwardly off the bar into the mouth of a conveyor means. The undersurface of the manifold means and its airstream-defining outlet are spaced above and forwardly of the bar to enable the tops of the plants to stand upright in the path of the airstream while being clipped. The conveyor means extends upwardly and rearwardly to convey the clippings to a collecting receptacle. The cutter bar, the blower and manifold means, and the conveyor means are all mounted to vehicle for vertical adjustment to adjust the above-ground cutting height of the cutter bar.

Harvester for tea or the like

Apparatus for bulk curing tobacco comprising a barn having a heat exchanger therein defining interior flow paths for heated water and exterior heat exchange surfaces disposed within the curing air flow path within the barn, hot water storage tank unit, a power operated pump for circulating hot water between the hot water storage tank unit and the heat exchanger, a hot water heating unit and a power driven pump for continuously circulating water between the hot water heating unit and the hot water storage unit. The hot water heating unit comprises an inner casing structure defining an interior combustion chamber, an outer casing structure extending over a portion of the exterior of the inner casing structure and defining therewith a water circulating space communicating with the continuous circulating pump, a grate assembly within the combustion chamber for supporting solid fuel for combustion therein, a forced draft blower for establishing a forced flow of combustion air into the combustion chamber, an induced draft blower for inducing a flow of combusted gases from the combustion chamber, and the operation of the blower being controlled to control the combustion rate of the supplied solid fuel and hence the amount of heat added to the water circulating in the water circulating space.

Growing community of inventors

Monroe, NC, United States of America

Olin C Trull