Oral History Collection

MAIN ENTRY: Tucker, Emerson E.
DATE OF INTERVIEW: July 17, 1984
LOCATION OF INTERVIEW: Lubbock, Texas
INTERVIEWER: Richard Mason
LENGTH OF INTERVIEW: 1 hour, 33 minutes
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE: Emerson Tucker discusses his career in and his knowledge of the cotton industry, with particular reference to fiber testing.
TAPE ONE, SIDE ONE: Background
Born: Mystic, Connecticut
To Brownsville, Texas
Education
Texas Tech
Textile
To Lubbock (1949)
Military service
Return to Texas Tech
GI Bill
Marriage
Dennison Cotton Mills
Duties
Fiber testing
Career
Plains Co-op
Acceptance of position
Fiber testing lines
Procedure
Duties
Micronaire Machine
Dan Davis, inventor
Purpose
Development of new equipment
Glen Witts
Willie Smith, inventor
Development of compresses
Development of warehouses
TAPE ONE, SIDE TWO Plains Cotton Cooperative (again)
Dan Davis (again)
Motion control
Fiber testing in 1960s
Length testing instrumentation
Classing of cotton
Container systems
Texas Tech
Cotton Incorporated
Thailand efforts
American Cotton Growers
Modules
Bush Hog Continental
Cotton evaluation
TAPE TWO, SIDE ONE: High volume instrumentation
Changes as of 1974
Plains Cooperative
Textile plant
Levi Strauss
Success
Cotton selection criteria
Properties of fiber
"Blow ups"
Solution
Mixing
Value of instrument testing
Open-end spinning
High volume instrumentation (again)
Producer response
Crop improvement
Cotton (again)
California
West Texas
High volume instrumentation (again)
Burlington Mills
Acceptance
Variation of test scores
Hand classing
Shortcomings
Instruments
Consistency
TAPE TWO, SIDE TWO: Hand classing (continued)
Instrumentation (again)
Future
Significant changes in the cotton industry
RANGE DATES: c. 1930-1984
BULK DATES: 1949-1984