Today in 1940, US Patent 2222767 A was issued, an invention of John Gray Charles, assigned to the Guinness Son & Co. Ltd., for his “Hop Picking Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The present invention relates to hop picking machines of the kind in which the bine, after having been cut from the plant, is attached to a conveyor which draws it past one or more series of transverse rows of moving projections or picking fingers carried upon rotating drums, chains, or the like, and which are designed to engage the hops and pull them from the short stalks or stems by which they are attached to the bine, the arrangement being such that the effective portions of the paths of movement of the projections or picking fingers is parallel or substantially parallel to the effective portion of the path of movement of the conveyor.