<P> Cotton picking was originally done by hand . In many societies , like America , slave and serf labor was utilized to pick the cotton , increasing the plantation owner 's profit margins ( See Trans - Atlantic Slave Trade ) . The first practical cotton picker was invented over a period of years beginning in the late 1920s by John Daniel Rust ( 1892 -- 1954 ) with the later help of his brother Mack Rust . Other inventors had tried designs with a barbed spindle to twist cotton fibers onto the spindle and then pull the cotton from the boll , but these early designs were impractical because the spindle became clogged with cotton . Rust determined that a smooth , moist spindle could be used to strip the fibers from the boll without trapping them in the machinery . In 1933 John Rust received his first patent , and eventually , he and his brother owned forty - seven patents on cotton picking machinery . However , during the Great Depression it was difficult to obtain financing to develop their inventions . </P>
<P> Cotton picking was originally done by hand . In many societies , like America , slave and serf labor was utilized to pick the cotton , increasing the plantation owner 's profit margins ( See Trans - Atlantic Slave Trade ) . The first practical cotton picker was invented over a period of years beginning in the late 1920s by John Daniel Rust ( 1892 -- 1954 ) with the later help of his brother Mack Rust . Other inventors had tried designs with a barbed spindle to twist cotton fibers onto the spindle and then pull the cotton from the boll , but these early designs were impractical because the spindle became clogged with cotton . Rust determined that a smooth , moist spindle could be used to strip the fibers from the boll without trapping them in the machinery . In 1933 John Rust received his first patent , and eventually , he and his brother owned forty - seven patents on cotton picking machinery . However , during the Great Depression it was difficult to obtain financing to develop their inventions . </P>
when was the first mechanical cotton picker invented
when was the first mechanical cotton picker invented
the late 1920s
the late 1920s