Today in 1998, US Patent 5772000 A was issued, an invention of Paul J. Serres, for his “Hop Vine Transfer System.” Here’s the Abstract:
A hop vine transfer system (10) includes a plurality of magazines (14a, 14b, 14c) each fed by an associated unloader mechanism (12). Once a magazine has been filled with hope vines (V), it is unloaded by a pivoting transfer conveyor (16) having an entrance end (50) alignable with the exit end portion (48) of the magazine. The opposite exit end (91) of the transfer conveyor is disposed in operable engagement with a picking machine conveyor (18) that moves the hop vines, with their stub ends upwardly, through a picking machine (22) to remove the hops from the vines.
