{"id":62028,"date":"2025-12-06T09:25:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T15:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=62028"},"modified":"2025-12-07T07:48:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T13:48:04","slug":"peas-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=62028","title":{"rendered":"Peas, Please"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[ed. note: thanks to Elder DZ<\/strong> for his folklore contribution to today’s blott.]<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At WLBOTT<\/strong>, we keep a team of unpaid interns working the graveyard shift. They busy themselves by using the “Random Article” feature of Wikipedia, prospecting for WLBOTT<\/strong> blott topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n

John Alexander Chisholm<\/strong> (1859\u20131903) was a Canadian inventor and businessman who developed the Chisholm-Scott Pea Viner, an agricultural machine for shelling peas. He sold these machines throughout Canada and the United States through the Chisholm-Scott Company.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

These pea viners had a series of paddles which struck the pea pods, compressing the air inside which split the pods open and released the peas onto a conveyor belt. These machines could remove as many peas from pods as 600 workers could do by hand<\/strong>, vastly improving the efficiency of this branch of agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report on the state’s canning industry by George C. Butz<\/strong> wrote that “The pea canning business has been greatly modified in recent years by the invention of some remarkable machinery, particularly the Chisholm-Scott Pea Viner. Formerly a great army of pickers was necessary in pea canning section to pick the peas from the vines in the fields. Another army of hands was necessary to hull the green peas and so throughout the whole series of operations of canning peas the labour was excessive, tedious and expensive. Now the vines are cut with the scythe or mower, hauled to the factory and delivered to the viner or huller which shells and separates the peas from the vines, discharging the latter to one side and the former to the cleaner.”<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Patent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n

To all whom it may concern:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be it known that We, CHARLES P. OHISHOLM and JOHN A.- OHIsHOLM, subjects of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Oakville, in the county of- I’Ialton, Dominion of Canada, have invented certain ‘new and useful Improvements in the Method of Hulling Peas, of which the following is a specification, reference be ing hadtherein to the accompanying drawings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The object of this invention is to remove green peas from their pods without injury to the peas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nGoogle Patents<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There Was Drama (Elder G’s Research)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pea-harvester patents – and they\u2019re actually a patent family drama<\/strong> starring Chisholm and<\/em> his partner Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the core of it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The foundational Chisholm process patent<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

John Alexander Chisholm and his brother Charles are co-inventors on a key U.S. patent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n