Makar Sankranti, the harvest festival is celebrated in almost all parts of the country in various cultural forms with great devotion. It is believed that it is on this day that the glorious Sun God begins his ascendancy into the Northern hemisphere. Also, this is the only Indian festival celebrated on a fixed calendar day of the solar calendar. All other Indian festivals are celebrated as per the lunar calendar, which makes their days of celebration on the solar calendar vary every year. This festival is called Poush Parbon in West Bengal, Sakraat in Bihar, Uttarayan in Gujarat, Lohri in Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Makara Sankrant in Maharashtra. It is believed that sharing sweets with everyone, on this auspicious day, will fill your life with sweetness in the year to come. On this auspicious day let us take a look on few patents that deal with methods of harvesting crops.
The first invention as disclosed in US1938264, relates to improvement in the art or method of harvesting rice and grains by cutting the grains and de-positing it in a smooth and well ventilated condition without binding it and without having it lay upon the wet ground, so that it will be aerated and cured very quickly. And if it rains it will be dried out quickly.
Another invention as disclosed in US862136 relates to “An improvement to a harvesting machine where the harvesting machine comprises a substantially horizontal elongate cutter comprising a cutting member mounted in association with a base member for relative longitudinal reciprocatory action of one with respect to the other. The improvement comprising a feed device consisting of a plurality of elongate planar strips of flexible resilient material mounted at one end and in spaced relation along the elongate cutter to reciprocate along an axis parallel to the elongate cutter. The strips being mounted such that their plane is substantially perpendicular to that of the cutter and they extend rearward to the cutter, wherein the free end of the strip can swing freely with the reciprocation of the cutting member to sweep material cut by the cutter .”
A recent invention as disclosed in US7167797B2 titled “Method of predicting suitability for a crop harvesting operation” is a method for predicting suitable times for performing a crop harvesting operation within a field. The method includes steps for accessing predicted values for weather, crop, and soil conditions, and then predicting values for one or more additional operation variables indicating operation suitability. The method then predicts suitability for the performance of the crop harvesting operation based on the predicted operation variables and selected suitability parameters.
Yet another recent invention, US2007/0209347, discloses a method for harvesting a crop. The invention consists of a harvesting device which has an upper harvesting device and a lower harvesting device. The upper harvesting device is in front of the lower harvesting device. The upper harvesting device detaches the crop sections from the stalk sections of crops. An intermediate engagement member bends the stalk sections forwardly and the lower harvesting device cuts root sections of the crops.
May the light of sun fill all your lives with rays of joys. HAPPY SANKRANTI!
Authored Anjali Santhosh.
Contributed with the support of the Patents Division of BananaIP Counsels.
Image Source/Attribution here, governed by Creative Common License CC BY- SA 3.0
