Most of us spend a lot of time listening to our lawn mowers work each summer. We are lost without them. They are what allows us to have a neatly trimmed lawn and they can do so much more than that if you have a lawn tractor with attachments. The question is; do you know how we all came to depend on our lawn mower? Chances are good, it is not something you put much thought into, but it is quite interesting.
The Beginning
The very first mower was invented in 1830 by Edwin Budding. It was designed as a way to cut the grass on sporting fields and in gardens. It was a push mower with wheels and knife blades that would spin as the person walked. As grass was cut, clippings shot forward and into a box. Soon after, the blades were enlarged and then ten years later, animals were able to pull the lawn mowers so that people didn’t have to. These mowers began to appear with all different sizes of rollers and their popularity continued to grow. Eventually, they became something that everyone could find a use for on their own property.
Lawn Mowers Today
Today’s lawn mowers are very similar to those first attempts, especially the push mower, but the riding mower also has roots that lead back to those first, animal drawn mowers. Push mowers now have a handle and you push them forward. The only major difference is that now they also have motors and a little more technology built into them.
If you look back to horsedrawn mowers, many would have a man standing behind the horse and on the mower. This is a riding mower of sorts. We now have motors and steering wheels instead of a horse, but the idea of riding on it is still the same. We also have the luxury of sitting down if we want to and being able to get the job done faster in small yards instead of fields.
Our mowers also have blades that spin in a circular motion whereas past blades would spin forward. Ours runs on gasoline and may have electric starts, which were not available in those days. There have been improvements, but in the end, we have always relied on lawn mowers since they were first invented and it does not seem that we will ever not have a need for them.
