Dedication Year: 2002
Location: Scoates Hall, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Plaque Wording: The Cotton Module Builder, a machine to form cotton into compacted stacks or modules in the field, was developed to solve a bottleneck after harvest. Cotton was once transported from farms to gins by wagons, trucks or trailers. Long waits to unload at the gin stalled harvests until haulers could return to the fields. Professor Lambert Wilkes of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, developed the Cotton Module Builder between 1971 and 1974 with the support of J.K. (Farmer) Jones of Cotton Incorporated. The modules created by the Cotton Module Builder withstood weather, and after transport, the cotton could be easily fed into the gin. Dr. Calvin Parnell with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service popularized the module by demonstrations to farmers and ginners throughout Texas. The cotton module builder revolutionized the cotton industry and is currently used to harvest more than ninety percent of the United States' cotton crop.