Blackwelders

Blackwelder Manufacturing Co., based in Rio Vista, California, specialized in developing tomato harvesters and other agricultural equipment. In 1949, UC Davis agricultural engineer Coby Lorenzen and UC Davis vegetable crops researcher Jack Hanna created a prototype harvester and a tomato variety capable of withstanding mechanical picking. During the 1950s, they refined the machine, and in 1959 convinced Blackwelder Manufacturing to commercialize the design. The tomato harvester is credited with saving California’s processed tomato industry in the 1960s.