Harvesters – Marine
Patent
1982-04-08
1983-11-22
Hirsch, Paul J.
Harvesters
Marine
56 9, 56DIG2, A01D 4400
Patent
active
044161069
ABSTRACT:
A method of removing aquatic plants growing from the bed of a lake or other body of water includes the steps of moving a horizontally oriented bar through the plants beneath the surface of the water, permitting the plant stalks to wrap themselves around the bar. As the bar continues to move, the plant stalks are pulled and either broken at a point between the bar and the roots or are pulled out of the lake bottom by the roots. Once the plants have been broken off or pulled out of the bottom, the bar is moved to a desired position and the plant stalks severed to free them from the bar. An apparatus for carrying out the method provides a plant-engaging bar mounted on the free end of a boom pivotally mounted on a hull floating in the water. The boom can be lowered to place the bar beneath the surface of the water and the hull has a propulsion system to move it through the water, thereby moving the bar through the plant beds. A blade, preferably having a double cutting edge, is mounted on the boom adjacent the horizontal bar so that the plants wrap themselves about the bar and blade simultaneously. When the bar is brought to the desired location for freeing the plants, the blade is moved in relation to the bar and the sharpened edges of the blade sever the plant stalks, cutting the loops of the stalks around the bar and thereby freeing the plants from the bar. In one embodiment of the invention, the blade is arranged to move reciprocally upwardly and downwardly severing the plants in a chopping motion. In another embodiment of the invention, the blade is arranged to rotate in propeller-like fashion, thereby severing the plants. In the preferred embodiment, a second bar is horizontally oriented and mounted below the first bar, the boom being lowered sufficiently to drag the second bar through the lake bottom to disturb the root systems of the plants and make them easier to pull out by the force exerted on them by the first bar.
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