286 THE APPLE 



stem punctures and bruises by squeezing apples together, as is in- 

 evitable when sorting is clone entirely by hand and two or more 

 apples are picked up at one time. In picking apples up a large 

 portion of them is obscured by the fingers, with the invariable 

 result that many worm and other blemishes are overlooked. 



This system of sorting for color and blemish has been developed 

 as the result of practical experience at our own orchards, and is 

 highly commended. 



Feeding. The machine automatically places each piece of fruit 

 in position and then deposits it in the gauge in such a manner 

 as to accomplish cheek-to-cheek sizing. In units of four the gauges 

 move into position, the feedway moving forward at exactly the 

 same speed and gently depositing one piece of fruit in each of the 

 four gauges. It makes no difference what shape or size the fruit 

 may be, only one piece is passed to each gauge, which accurately 

 sizes it and deposits it in the proper division of the packing table. 



Sizing. The sizing is accomplished by 88 expanding gauges 

 operating in 22 units of 4 gauges each. These units are mounted 

 on two endless sprocket chains, and travel from the feeding 

 mechanism over the entire length of the packing tables. 



Each gauge is constructed like a basket with tapering sides 

 made of 8 fingers, which are hinged to the top in such a manner 

 that the lower ends form a circular opening, the size of which 

 is smallest when the fruit enters the gauge and gradually increases 

 in circumference until it is large enough for the fruit to pass 

 through to the packing table. The fingers are hinged to rings 

 and held in position by them, and are so designed as to shape 

 that the circular opening at the bottom will be smallest when the 

 lower ring is close to the upper ring. This circular opening gradu- 

 ally and uniformly increases in size as the lower ring is lowered 

 from the upper ring, and at the lowest position of ring the opening 

 is larger than the opening of the ring, so that anything that can 

 enter the gauge will surely pass out on the last packing table. 

 The upper rings of all the gauges travel horizontally along the 

 length of the machine, while the lower rings are guided by a 

 slightly inclined track which brings them close to the upper rings 

 when the gauges are under the feedway, and gradually lowers them, 

 thus increasing the size of the gauge openings until the gauge is 



