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HOME > CONSUMER PRODUCT INFO >
The History Of Mowing
As We Look Back In History, The Idea Of Lawn Care Probably Started With Sheep.
As time passed, the desire for beautiful lawns and gardens spread over hundreds of years from the privileged aristocracy to the general population. Here in America we know that George Washington kept Mt. Vernon well manicured by having plenty of sheep around. Thomas Jefferson did likewise at Monticello. Mechanical mowing came about early in the 19th century and there is a general agreement that an Englishman, Edwin Budding, an engineer at a textile mill, developed a cylinder, or reel-type mower. It was a series of blades arranged around a cylinder with a push handle patterned after a machine used in a cloth factory for shearing the nap on velvet. In 1870, Elwood McGuire of Richmond, Indiana designed a machine that basically brought push mowing to the masses. By 1885, America was building 50,000 lawnmowers a year and shipping them to every country on the globe.
As America moved into the modern industrial age of the 20th century, walk-behind reel mowers were responsible for keeping America's neighborhoods of the 20's, 30's and 40's neat and attractive.
During the post war boom era, America's neighborhoods turned into sprawling suburbs... and the introduction of the gas and electric powered lawnmower gave rise to a new era of lawn care.
Between 1953 and 1959 the power rotary mower that we recognize today began to outsell the reel mower by a ratio of 9 to 1. The rotary mower was designed with a single rotating blade under a cutting deck, powered by a gas or electric engine.
In the decades to follow, a wide variety of gas and electric powered lawn and garden products were introduced -- all designed to provide time saving convenience that allows for maximum enjoyment of our suburban lifestyles -- keeping our lawns and gardens beautiful and enhancing property values.
As we move forward through the 21st century, today's outdoor power equipment is not only helping us perform more earth friendly chores, like mulching and composting yard waste, but it is also being manufactured to be more air friendly with low emission engines and new cordless electric technologies.
