How I Raised the Money for My Invention A Selective Asparagus ...

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How I Raised The Money For My Invention  A Selective AsparagusHarvesting Machine
Ive raised money for this machine twice, once back in about 1974and then again over the last four years or so. Lets begin back inthe early 70s, when I first started the project. I was in my early20s and bored one day, and I asked my father if he could think ofsomething that needed inventing. He told me invent an asparagusharvester. He was a farmer and an asparagus grower.


I had some interesting ideas about how one could go about buildinga selective asparagus harvester, and went to my friends and familybegging for money. I was able to raise several thousand dollars inseed money. I used that money to build a rudimentary prototype. Ibuilt it from angle iron and motorcycle wheels. It had a sears aircompressor, 4 air cylinders with blades, and a home madeelectronics package with an optical sensing system. It could detectspears and cut them, but I had not figured out how to pick them upyet at the time.

I went to a local accountant who had found financing for my brotherto do a photo book about the local agricultural community, andasked him if he knew of anybody who might be willing to finance ourmachine.

He in fact did know someone. He put me in touch with the widow ofthe owner of a local machine shop that she was running. She watcheda demonstration of my little prototype that I pushed down the rowof simulated asparagus by hand. It impressed her enough that shetold me if I could further demonstrate a way of picking up thespears as well as cutting them she would fund the project. Twoweeks later I demonstrated a rudimentary pickup system and we cut adeal. She paid me a salary and her shop split the ownership of theharvester with my original group of investors.

We built several prototype machines over a 10 year period, and wewere beginning to make some real progress. Selectively harvestingasparagus is a very difficult task. Many inventors over the yearshave tried, and millions of dollars have been spent in the pursuitof a selective asparagus harvester, but so far no success.

Unfortunately we realized too late that there was simply no marketfor an asparagus harvester. Hand labor was inexpensive and easy tocome by, and so there werent any farmers in the slightest bitinterested in a mechanical harvester. In 1984 we parked the machinein a shed at Geiger Manufacturing in Stockton California, and Imoved on.

It was in 2003 I think, when I was talking to an asparagus grower,and he told me he would give his right arm for a selectiveasparagus harvester. That got me to thinking, and I drove into townand peeked through the gate at Geiger Manufacturing. It was aSaturday and the shop was closed, but I could see through the gatethat the harvester was still in the shed where we parked it almost20 years before.

The patents that we had based our previous joint venture on hadexpired years ago, and technology has come a long way in the last20 years. I approached Geiger Manufacturing and worked out a deal.They would provide the machine shop work and we could use the oldmachine and I would provide the engineering and work out some newpatentable features.

We did a little maintenance on the machine put some air in thetires and took it out to the asparagus fields. I wanted toimplement some of the new technology available, but we didnt havethe funds. I built a web site and laid out what I was trying to do,along with my contact information.

My website got the attention of Washington State University, and aprofessor came out to see my machine run, even though it was offseason. I was able to get a row of asparagus at a local farm, andby cutting down the ferns, the spears began growing again. I ranthe machine down a row of asparagus and made excuses for theproblems.

Washington State University was impressed and could see thepotential of the machine. They ended up funding me for the last 4or 5 years, for a total of over $200,000. They decided to fund amachine from New Zealand last season instead of my machine, and Ithink they have now expended all of the funds they had.

It would have been nice to get one more year of funding, but we arenow ready to market the harvester anyway, and we are in the processof doing just that. Wish me luck.
By: William Lund
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