The increased demand for chickens gave the nearly 20,000 poultry farmers that attended the recent International Poultry Exposition a real treat. There were automated slaughterers, hissing pluckers, whirling skinners and fast-moving egg sorters that would have made Rube Goldberg's head spin. Among the more compelling innovations were a mechanized harvester for scooping chickens out of the roost, a hands-free neck-breaking machine and an antibiotic administering device that uses pressurized air to inject 3,500 chicks an hour.
New York Times January 31, 2004