Got this in my daily "Did You Know" email today. I had NO idea lawn mowers went back this far!
Invented by a 'budding' genius...har har har...er, ahem, ok...Did you know...
... that today is the birthday of the Lawn Mower? Edwin Budding built the first lawn mower. On May 18, 1831, the first ad appeared for that lawn mover. One of the first machines was used in Regent's Park Zoological Gardens in London.
The only pic of Edwin and his machine I could find is attached...it's kinda big!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Beard_Budding
Edwin Beard Budding (1795–1846), an engineer from Stroud, England, was the English inventor of the lawnmower (1830) and adjustable spanner.
Budding got the idea of the lawnmower after seeing a machine in a local cloth mill which used a cutting cylinder (or bladed reel) mounted on a bench to trim the irregular nap from the surface of woollen cloth and give a smooth finish.[1]
He realised that a similar device could be used to cut grass if the mechanism was mounted in a wheeled frame to make the blades rotate close to the lawn's surface. Budding went into partnership with a local engineer, John Ferrabee, and together they made mowers in a factory at Thrupp near Stroud.[2]
Examples of the early Budding type mowers can be seen in Stroud Museum, the London Science Museum and at Milton Keynes Museum.
Budding is also credited with the invention of the screw adjustable spanner.[3]
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