Today in 1976, US Patent 3962851 A was issued, an invention of Adolf Liepold, Hermann Daum, and Helmut Lindner, assigned to Fella-Werke G.M.B.H., for their “Self-Propelled Hop Harvesting Machine.” Here’s the Abstract:

This invention provides a self-propelled hop picking machine including a hop bine draw-through device which, as the machine moves forward, pulls bines in the path of movement of the machine rearwardly, preferably at a speed greater than the forward speed of travel of the machine, so as to pull such bines from their supporting wires and to convey the bines to picking elements for removal of the hop cones from the bines.