If you ever seat on a mower and think how it was on 100 years ago or later. If you do, I’ll hope this post is for you. Let me take you how grass was mowed in the past. Today on golf mower is tons of electronic. Engines are electric, mowers are fast quiet and there are some golf courses robots mower mow the course.
From this article you will know:
- How was mowed golf course on beginning?
- When the first mower come on golf course.
- Why fairway was mowed on black and white.
- Development of Toro Company
- What is the future of mowing grass on the golf courses?
The first mention of golfing in Scotland dates back to 1457. James II of Scotland forbade playing golf because people focus much more on it than practice of archery. If people started play golf they have to do on same place.
James II of Scotland forbade by Royal Decree the playing “futeball” and “gowf” because they interfered with much more important practice of archery
Golf. The history of an obsession – David Stirk
The oldest golf course in the world is The Old Course in St. Andrew’s. Archbishop Hamilton’s Charter allowed people play golf on the Links in 1552. The first lawnmower was patented in 1830 by Edwin Budding and JR & A Ransome was the first company to buy a license to start manufacture this remarkable invention. We have 278 years gap between first golf course and first mower invention. First mower on golf course were sheep. They eat the grass. I think the height of cut wasn’t so important in that times. Except sheep the grass was cut by using the sickles and scythes. The first mention about hiring person for taking care of green on the golf course was from 1744 – unnamed boy was hired as a “greenkeeper and caddy” for 24 shillings per year and a change of clothes by the Royal Burgess Golfing Society. What were his duties isn’t really clear but we can only perhaps he was scything the grass.
The first lawn mower.
But, in this article I’d like to more focus on our nowadays basic staff – mower. Edward Beard Budding was engineer from Gloucester, England. Using a machine with rotary knife used in the textile industry to remove nap from fabrics, he adapted it to mowing grass. This is how the first mechanical lawn mower was born. The great advantage of this invention was the possibility of mowing dry grass. The first lawnmower was 19 inches cutting wide, and was man pushed. The frame was made from wrought iron. Gear wheels made from iron were transmitted power from the rear roller to the cutting cylinder, allowing the rear shaft to drive the knives on the cutting cylinder; the ratio was 16: 1. Another shaft positioned between the cutting cylinder and the main or main roll could be raised or lowered to change the cutting height. The grass clippings were thrown into a box that looked like a tray. In 1870 Ransome Jacobsen start produced mower adapted pulled by the horse. This type for a long time was used to mowing fairways. Later, horses were replaced with tractors, but idea was the same.
The first patented steam powered lawn mower was in 1893 by James Sumner. This machine was very heavy and needs several hours to warmed up. It could burn petrol and/or paraffin as a fuel. The big revolution comes on the beginning of 20th century. In 1902 engineers from Ransome Jacobsen developed the first petrol-powered mower.
The development of lawn mower in the USA.
We cannot forget about the American lawn mower market, which also contributed a lot to their development. The first lawn mower in United States was patented in 12 January 1868 by Amariah Hills. In 1870 Elwood Mc Guire of Richmond, Indiana invented a human pushed lawn mower. Its advantage was very lightweight and made enormous commercial success. In 1899 John Burr improved rotary-blade mower. He altered the wheel placement for better performance. But big step in mowing technology comes in 1910 when Charles C. Worthington showed his conventional reel mower. He built it to mow his own private golf course. Model was 30-inch-wide of cut two or more units were linked — “ganged” — into groups. Ideal Power Mower Co. of Lansing, Michigan in 1914 started manufactured first gasoline powered lawn mower based on patent by Ransom E Olds. Ideal Power Mower also invented the first lawn tractor known as a “Triplex” in 1922.
Black and white pattern mow fairways.
Fairways were mowed by mowers pulled by the horse later tractor. Pulling mower consists of from five to nine cutting units, and wheels were made from iron. Weight of mower and horse or tractor was very, very heavy. It made very often devastating damages of turfgrass. To avoid them during mowing fairways were mowed on black and white pattern. The heavy tractors or horses needs to big turns to turn around. Greenkeepers mowed grass one way and they turned back from other side to mowed back. Today we mow fairways on “black and white” to save time maybe little bit of fuel or just to refer to the way of mowing in the old days.
Development of the golf mower in 20th century.
What seems obvious and normal today aroused reluctance in the past. This was the case with petrol lawn mowers. The Greenkeepers were not convinced of them. It was not until the end of the 1930s petrol lawnmowers were convinced. The machine was equipped with a large drive unit with large pneumatic tires pulling three cutting units, which allowed one person to mow an 18-hole golf course in one day. The outbreak of World War II stopped the development of lawnmowers in the world. Everyone’s eyes were on completely different problems. The post-war period is the years of recovery. Shortly before the outbreak of the war, experiments were carried out with rotary mowers. However, the mower was not effective due to the inability to reach enough power for the right rpm. Mervyn Victor Richardson in Sydney, Australia, developed a rotary mower in his garage from scratch, which went into production in 1952 by the Victa company.
The 1960s was a period of development of electric mowers as well as hydraulic mowers with mowing units. With the advancement of science in the golf industry, the first mulching mowers were developed, but they were somewhat primitive. In the early 1990s, mulching mowers were developed. There is a trend towards returning to walk-behind mowers instead of ride-on mowers. However, the development of ride-on mowers continued, better grass tires were developed to reduce grass damage and compaction, the quality of safety improved – sensors that turn the mower off in case of falling out, stop when releasing the gas pedal. The 21st century is the time when the development of green energy and the reduction of exhaust gas emissions were focused on. There has been a period of development of electric mowers. In 2007, Ransome Jacobsen introduced the first push mower with a hybrid engine and in 2009 a ride-on mower.
Quick look at development of Toro mowers.
Of course, the article would be worth nothing if I didn’t mention Toro Company, which has made a huge contribution to the golf industry. The Toro Company was founded on July 10, 1914. Initially, it dealt with the construction and production of engines for farm tractors. In 1919, Toro developed the first fairway mower for the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis. In 1924, Toro introduces its first Park Special mechanical mower. It is very versatile thanks to a 30 inches cutting width. The Park Special is a huge success that made it a leading retailer until 1961.
Interestingly, it was Toro who first started experimenting with an electric green lawnmower. In 1928, Toro introduced the first fully electric green mower. However, the invention was not appreciated because the mower needed an electric cable to drive it or a generator from a tractor. In those days, few golf courses had electrical outlets near the greens. This idea was considered too innovative for its time. However, in 2012, Toro unveiled the new Toro Greensmaster eFlex walk behind green mower model, which was the first to be powered by a Lithium-Ion battery capable of mowing 9 greens on a single charge
What will be the future in mowing on a golf course?
That’s seems to be interesting because there are some golf courses mowed by robots. Robot mowers with electric engine using GPS system don’t need human to mow. It’s perfect solution because they can do this at night when golf course is closed. Good example of it is Golf Club Stenerberg in Rabenchen-Faulückkir between Kiel and Flensburg. This is first golf course worldwide to mow all fairways and tees with robots. However, all these inventions will not completely replace man. Perhaps in time, robots will completely replace humans when mowing. Also, someone must always supervise the work of the robot. There are uncontrolled accidents and collisions. However, the profession of a greenkeeper is not limited to mowing greens, tees and fairways.
From grass grazing sheep to ultra-quiet electric lawnmowers. This is the development of golf mowers over 190 years. I hope that after reading the history of the development of this basic machine on the golf course, without which it is currently impossible to imagine a well-kept golf course, which is a lawn mower, when you’re sitting, mowing a golf course, you will think for a moment how hard work was a greenkeeper that had to mow with a scythe or a sickle.
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