WEBVTT - How Medieval Warfare Led to the Lawnmower 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.040 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:18.840 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.680 and the Love all Things Tech, And while I've been 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:26.759 recording shows from my home for nearly a year now, 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:32.040 I still occasionally get reminded about how things can be 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.960 different from when I was working in the office. For 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.600 the most part, things are kind of like this is 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.560 this is the normal now. However, at the office, there 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:45.159 is no chance that my dog will be barking in 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.479 the background while I record, and so far, I think 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.080 I've mostly avoided having him show up on episodes of 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.680 Tech Stuff, but only because I've edited around it. Keep 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:56.520 telling him if he wants to be on a show, 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.440 he should get his own podcast, But I'm also scared 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:01.600 that if he does that, he'll get way more popular 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.440 than me. You're also not likely to hear other extraneous 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.440 noises at the office because there are studios are recording 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:11.800 studios are all in rooms that don't have a window 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.280 to the outside world built into them, though you can 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.160 still occasionally pick up sounds of folks who are chatting 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:21.760 in the office outside the studios because well, at least 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.080 in the office, we used to be a pretty chatty lot. 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.720 So if you listen to any of the stuff shows, 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.720 if you listen very carefully, you might occasionally hear the 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:36.560 sounds of people talking outside that studio room. That's because 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:39.600 there are desks and stuff just on the other side 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.280 of those doors. But one noise that has been a 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.039 particular issue for me while working at home has been 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:50.960 the sound of the landscape crew that's working on the 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.880 courtyard outside the townhouse I live in. They always seem 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.720 to show up just as I'm getting ready to record. 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.160 And then I thought, hey, how about I talk about 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.040 the history of lawnmowers and how they work. That could 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.920 be a great topic and turn that frustration I feel 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.800 into an episode. So let's begin with some etymology, which 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.480 I am now being told is not the study of bugs, 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.960 but rather the origin of words. So we think of 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.600 a lawn, you know, as a grassy area like a yard, 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.880 typically covered by turf grass in fact, and that is 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:32.920 somewhat kept in an orderly fashion, partly by cutting the 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:38.120 grass fairly low. But where does the word lawn come from? Well, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.720 the word derives from a Middle English word of lander, 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.880 meaning an unwitted field or an open space in the 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:51.200 woods like a glade. Thanks Miriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Now 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:56.560 y'all might know back in my college days, I studied 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:01.120 medieval literature, including Old and Middle English nexts and so 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:05.280 immediately I thought of our old pal Jeffrey Chaucer, known 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:09.600 for composing the Canterbury Tales, though then he thoughtlessly went 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:13.040 off and died before he finished writing them. But he 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.919 also wrote a poem called Parliament of Fouls that mentions 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:21.240 a Lawnda, which, hey, that poem also references Valentine's Day 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.520 later on, and since we just had Valentine's Day, this 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.239 episode is now timely. So the whole poem is far 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.760 too long for me to read. It's like seven lines long, 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:32.760 but I will give you the little bit of it 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.040 that's about the LAWNDA. And the passage goes like this, 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.440 and then a lawanda upon the Hilla of Flores was set. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.960 This noble goddess Natier of branches were here Harlis and 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:49.800 her bores. He wrought after haircraft, and here measure. Now 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.080 this passage goes on a bit longer, but honestly, I 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.240 would just be indulging my own love of medieval English lit. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:58.400 So I'm going to cut it off there. What that 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.360 passage means in modern English is and in an opening 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.400 in the woods, on a hill covered with flowers sat 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:09.080 the goddess Nature. Her home was made of branches and 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.839 arranged according to her art. So it's a pretty little passage. 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.440 And here Londa refers to something you might encounter if 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:22.799 you were walking through the countryside, through the wooded forests 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.960 of old England or old France, and then at one 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.080 point you encounter an opening in the forest where there 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:34.200 aren't any trees. So how did it come to mean 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.599 the word lawn that we use today? Well, to understand 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.760 that we have to talk about war. Yes, just as 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:47.359 many a homeowner has suspected lawn care and warfare go 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:52.120 hand in hand. Okay, So you got your big medieval 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.039 big wig types. You know, you've got your kings and 0:04:55.080 --> 0:05:00.559 your lords and your earls and whatnot. And occasionally these 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.039 types would lead large groups of warriors to conquer other 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:09.080 medieval big wig types, something like, hey, those guys over 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.520 there got it pretty good, So why don't we go 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.320 over there and take their stuff and make it our stuff? 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.720 And so the world turns upon such thoughts. But it's 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.839 not enough to conquer the people who live on the 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.200 other side of the hills or river or ocean or whatever. 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.600 You got to hold on to the land that you've claimed, right, 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:34.520 and that means creating fortifications, preferably in places where you 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.000 can get a pretty good look at your surroundings to 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.440 make sure no other medieval big wigs get the same 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.080 bright idea you got. And then they come to take 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.120 your stuff and it used to be someone else's stuff, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.839 because you know there's always a bigger fish, as it were, 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.080 So you build up your forts, or your castles as 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.560 it were, to protect your assets. Your castles are your 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.760 defense system where you can pull back if necessary if 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.080 it am he's come to call. But you can't really 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.440 be on the lookout for the next bully if you 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.240 can't see the armies for the trees, right, and so 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.160 it gets to chopping. You chop, chop, chop all those 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.120 trees down around your fortifications so that you can see 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.839 folks from a long way off if they're approaching, and 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.080 you can prepare if there's an imminent attack. It also 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.320 helps if you know you don't leave trees around for 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:24.320 people to cut down and turn into stuff like battering ramps, 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.839 So there's that element as well. So rather than wooded fields, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.440 you have grassy ones. And this is the origin of 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.040 the lawn though back in those days the lawns weren't 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:38.600 exactly you know, pristine, So to maintain the lawns, you'd 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.120 either have livestock go out to the fields to graze, 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.719 thus cutting back the grass by eating it, as well 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:49.480 as fertilizing the land on occasion, you know, when nature called, 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.919 or you could have laborers go out to the fields 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.679 with hand tools like scythes and sickles to cut back 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:01.120 the grass manually so that it wasn't too high. A 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.839 sickle is a handheld tool that has a handle, typically 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.200 made out of wood, and on the business end, you've 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:12.360 got a curved blade sticking out from the handle, making 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.600 kind of like a almost like a half moon, you know, 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:19.280 sort of crescent shaped, and the blade is also typically 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.120 at an angle relative to the handles, sort of how 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.680 a razor has an angle to it for the purposes 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.600 of shaving aside is similar, but it's much larger. It's 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.640 a two handed tool. The grim Reaper carries a scythe 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.760 and cutting with either a sickle or a side involves 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:42.600 making horizontal passes, typically at the base of the grass, 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.880 and you cut in an arc from one side to 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:51.000 the other and big arcing swings so semicircular swings, and 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.880 those swings only go in one direction. The blade is 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.720 is sharpened on the inside curve, not the outside curve, 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:02.040 and you're typically going right left because the handle for 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.040 the forward hand on a scythe is meant to be 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.720 held with the right hand. The left hand is meant 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:11.640 to hold the scythe further back on the on the handle, 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.280 so in other words, this is yet another right handed tool. 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.480 Scything can actually be pretty efficient. There are actually there's 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.600 some great videos on YouTube of people who have really 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.760 gotten skilled with scything and they can make short work 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.520 of an overgrown lawn like they can cut that stuff 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.800 down quickly. I suggest you check it out. It's just 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.280 neat to watch. And the angle of the blade determines 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.720 how short the scythe will cut the grass. Using a 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:43.800 scythe with a good blade angle, a skilled wheelder can 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.840 cut the grass very low and pretty efficiently too, and 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.720 you would have the bottom part of the blade actually 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:54.840 making contact with the ground as you swing the scythe 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.160 from right to left. They also tend to have to 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:00.880 rake up the yard after were to gather up all 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.640 the trimmings. Were usually looking at fields that have, you know, 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:09.600 grass that's quite high, like maybe a foot high or 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:12.600 maybe taller, so you need to have something to to 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.240 rake up all the clippings that you've left behind. I've 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.640 seen a lot of videos of folks using sides in 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.280 order to cut back on, you know, relying on fossil 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.560 fuels and to make use of the trimmings in various ways, 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:29.000 from compost to making hay while the sun shines. In 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.760 some videos, I've seen folks use scythes more effectively than 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.880 someone who is using a mechanical push mower or a 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:40.720 weed whacker, though power mowers do tend to be more 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.880 efficient than a scythe. So a push mower, like a 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.800 mechanical one where there's no motor, it's just from human 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.920 power that versus a scythe, you might actually see someone 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.560 be more effective with the side than with the push mower. 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.600 Weed whackers same thing, uh, the push mower that has 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.920 a motor are on it. Those tend to win out 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.560 in the end, so it really does start to make 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.000 you wonder, however, why the heck did anyone think to 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.040 invent the mechanical lawnmower in the first place. If a 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:15.360 scythe can be as efficient, why would anyone ever think 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:21.120 about making a mechanical invention that does effectively the same 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.720 sort of thing. The first lawnmowers were purely mechanical, relying 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.000 on gears and blades that were mounted on a drum 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.760 like cylinder. And if those aren't more efficient than a scythe, 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:39.480 why would you bother? And the answer is drumroll please vanity. See. 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.560 While in the medieval era, soldiers wanted to get a 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.600 good view of what might be coming at them throughout Europe, 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.880 particularly in France and England, the strategic usefulness of castle's 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.680 gradually declined in the Middle Ages, largely because of advancements 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.800 in artillery. Cannons could make very short work of castle 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:03.160 walls and so warfare began to change and castles weren't 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.400 part of that. But you still had all these hoity 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:09.840 toity types who liked the idea of a well maintained lawn, again, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.160 mostly in France and England. That's really where this idea 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.319 took hold, and this was definitely an issue of vanity, 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:21.439 particularly when it came to showing off your prestige. Lawns 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.720 are not natural environments when you get down to it, 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.559 they can be environmentally unfriendly. They represent a much more 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.760 limited biome than a natural grassy or wooded area. It's 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.200 an artificial construct. It's really an example of humans cutting 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.800 back nature to suit our own esthetics. And really it 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.640 was only the hoity toity types doing this, because maintaining 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.640 a lawn was a lot of work. Not that the 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.240 hoity toity types were the ones doing the work, mind you, 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.360 but they were the ones who could afford livestock or 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.360 laborers who would trend back stuff for them. So from 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.360 mannor houses to abbittant castles you had the practice of 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:06.839 maintaining these large grassy areas. Now, some of that sensibility 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.240 would also find its way over to the New World 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.080 where it really took hold. Now, the grasses in the 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.360 New World were different than those found in Europe. But 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.840 when settlers came to North America, they brought with them livestock, 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.760 and apparently the livestock really liked the grass in America 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.600 so much so that they ding dang durnate at all. 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.760 So to keep the livestock from starving, the colonists were 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:35.439 importing grass seeds from Europe and North Africa, including grasses that, 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.320 if you were to go by their names, sound like 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:42.880 they come from America. Kentucky blue grass, I'm looking at you, 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.360 You ain't from Kentucky. Thomas Jefferson was said to have 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.319 taken up the goal of creating a manicured lawn at 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.360 Monticello after he visited France, and George Washington had a 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.360 similar desire to turn his estate of Mountain Vernon into 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.280 a mirror of European standards. And certainly the d of 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.760 a well kept lawn managed to really take hold in America, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.160 becoming something of an obsession really, which will cover a 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.480 little bit later in this episode, and certain sports definitely 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.080 helped things along, for which we can largely thank the Scots. 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.160 Scottish sports like golf and lawn bowling were brought over 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.679 by Scottish immigrants to America and they became popular past 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.480 times for those who had the leisure to pursue such things. 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.840 But to play lawn games, you gotta cut the grass, 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:30.280 otherwise you're gonna spend more time trying to find the 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.520 game equipment than you get to play with the darn things. 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.600 Now we're gonna come back to the evolution of the lawn, 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.600 particularly in America, and just a little bit as that 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.120 history ties into a lot of other interesting stuff and 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:46.440 includes some heavy duty connections to other elements of American 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:50.439 society in addition to feeding an entire industry dedicated to 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.080 lawn care and maintenance. But let's get back to our 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.680 early history of lawn mowers. Okay, So, by the nineteenth century, 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.920 lawns were the rage and in land France and starting 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.599 to be in America. But as I said, unless you 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.040 had livestock or the cash to pay laborers, you probably 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.720 couldn't maintain a lawn on your own. You certainly couldn't 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:15.680 do so to the immaculate standards of the aristocracy. The 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.440 wealthy would spend a lot to get that perfect lawn, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:21.920 even going so far as to hire people to use 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:26.400 handheld shears to cut grass down quite low and to 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.480 avoid the patterns that you would see if you used scythes, 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.920 because cutting grass and those arc swings would leave behind 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:37.360 patterns in the grass, and that was considered aesthetically unpleasing. 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.240 And then we come to an Englishman named Edwin Beard 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:47.480 Budding born in Stroud, Gloucestershire. In Budding started off with 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.480 some strikes against him. His parents were unmarried, his father 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.200 a farmer, and in England, that put him at a 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:58.200 fairly low social standing. Class in England was a very 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:02.320 important concept still, and b while over there the whole 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.760 working class versus posh and all that sort of stuff. 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.080 So he started off in carpentry, but he switched over 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:14.360 to working at iron foundries. The Industrial Revolution was well 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.160 underway in England at this point and the demand for 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:21.040 iron tools and machinery was very high, and through experience, 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.720 Budding built up an understanding of engineering and problem solving. 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.160 He would end up inventing several things or making his 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.840 own version of some existing machines, but obviously the one 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.200 we want to really look at is the lawnmower. Budding 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:37.800 got the idea for the lawnmower when he saw a 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.560 device used by textile mills to trim back the fibers 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:45.040 that stick out from the surface of cloth, also known 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:49.080 as the nap of a cloth, and with some textiles 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.760 the goal is to fluff the nap out, use little 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:56.760 combs or or prickly flowers even to pull some of 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.200 those threads out, and then you comb it a certain way, 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.160 which can make the cloth softer to the touch and 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.520 better at doing stuff like trapping heat. But sometimes you 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.760 just wanted a very smooth piece of cloth, something that 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.480 wouldn't get caught easily on rough surfaces. So, for example, 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.720 you might want a carpet that could withstand more use 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:18.720 as long as it did you know, catch on shoes 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.560 and stuff. So you would want to shear the nap. 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.960 You'd want to cut that nap close to the cloth, 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:27.880 And in earlier days this job was done by skilled 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.000 tradespeople who would use giant sets of shears, I mean, 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.600 these things were massive in order to cut the nap 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.760 off the surface of the cloths as efficiently as possible. 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.560 But by Butting's time, some genius whose name is lost 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.240 to history came up with the notion of building a 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:49.040 mechanical device that has blades arranged around a drum or 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:53.440 cylinder in a type of helix shape. The drum or 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.680 cylinder rotates, and by running the surface of the cloth 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:01.040 near this helix of blades, the blade could trim back 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.280 the nap on the surface of the cloth. Add in 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.200 some rollers and some other elements to pull the cloth along, 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.199 and you've got yourself a machine that can trim the 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:14.720 nap back on cloth evenly, consistently, and efficiently. Ah ha, 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.040 said Budding. What if I took that same basic idea 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.200 and flipped it around a bit, so you could trim 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:24.080 back grass with rotating blades along a cylinder, And in 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.440 eight thirty that's just what he did, securing a patent 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:31.520 number six zero eight one in fact for his invention. 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:42.760 I'll explain more about it after this quick break. Budding 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:46.200 saw an opportunity to create a device that could consistently 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.200 and reliably cut grass a specific length, so, in other words, 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:53.720 you could adjust how tall the grass would be and 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.239 without leaving those marks behind that you would get if 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.240 you were to cut grass with scythes and such. Also, 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:05.679 the lawnmower wooden poop on the lawn. Unlike livestock. It 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:10.240 would be particularly handy for parks and sporting grounds where 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.760 the well to do could gather for their leisure time 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.600 and look for something, you know, orderly and neat, which 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.200 very much fit in with the sensibilities of the elite 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:23.520 of nineteenth century Britain. So Edwin Beard Butting built a 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.919 wheeled machine out of rought and cast iron. Had a 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.800 pair of wheels. It also had a pair of rollers, 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.520 and a forward roller and a back roller, uh, as 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:38.679 well as the blade mounted cylinder that did the actual cutting. 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.760 So imagine you've got a mechanical device has a small 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.040 roller in the front. This is the thing that can 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.560 be adjusted so you can control how close to the 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.280 ground you're cutting the grass. Behind that roller, you've got 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.800 your horizontal cylinder that's got the curved blades arranged in 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.600 a helix around that rotatble cylinder, so it rotates along 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.320 the horizontal axis, is what I'm saying. To either side 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:06.400 of that are the wheels of the lawnmower. That provides stability, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.520 allows you to actually aim it and push it along 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:14.200 the ground. And then in the rear you have a 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:18.080 big roller. It kind of looks like a more narrow 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.800 and slightly smaller version of a steam roller, if that 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:26.600 helps you imagine this. Buttons design also incorporated a tray 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.439 to catch grass clippings. The tray was in the front 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.720 because the way this machine worked, it would propel the 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.200 clippings out, shooting them out towards the front of the machine. 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.240 That way, you wouldn't have to follow behind the lawnmower 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.840 with a rake or something like that to to rake 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.560 up the clippings. And it was that rear roller, the 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:50.920 big steam roller type thing in the back that connected 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:55.840 to the bladed cylinder through a gear drive. That's where 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.560 you've got a series of gears that fit together to 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:03.439 transfer the rotational motion of the roller that's pressed against 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.120 the ground. So as you push the lawnmower forward, the 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:11.479 roller rolls because it's making contact with the ground, and 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:16.840 it transfers that rotational motion to the cylinder or the 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.359 drama if you prefer, that's got the blades on it. 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.960 And all of this was made out of iron. Now 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:25.520 this meant the person who was pushing the mower had 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.320 to use a pretty good amount of force because you 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.760 weren't just pushing hard enough to move the mower itself, 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.760 which being made out of iron, was pretty darn heavy, 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.240 but also to power that drive train of gears that 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:42.359 would you know, transmit the rotation to the cylinder. And 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:46.560 each step of that process, each gear connection means that 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.879 you're losing a little bit of the amount of energy 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:52.439 you're giving to the system to stuff like friction, So 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:54.320 it means you have to push even harder to get 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.719 things going. But still, Budding showed that the same general 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.600 principle that worked for cutting back the nap on cloth 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.960 could in fact be used to cut grass. He patented 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.280 his design in eighteen thirty, and in that patent Budding 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:11.280 said his invention represented quote a new combination and application 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.399 of machinery for the purpose of cropping or sharing the 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:19.960 vegetable surfaces of lawns, grass plats and pleasure grounds. Country 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.840 gentlemen may find and using my machine themselves, and amusing 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:29.119 useful and healthy exercise end quote. It's interesting to note 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.320 that a lot of the basic designs introduced by Budding 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:36.240 would stick around throughout the ages with mechanical push mowers, 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.160 and the ones that we have today have at least 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.440 some resemblance to the one that Budding was making back 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:46.360 in the mid nineteenth century. Now they the new ones 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:49.280 are are more elegant in design, and they're made of 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:53.399 much lighter materials, but the general principle behind the operation 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.679 remains pretty much the same. Budding formed a partnership with 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:01.560 an engineer named John Farrabee, who owned a company called 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:06.000 Phoenix iron Works. Fairby had the manufacturing rights to produce 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:09.920 Buddings design and fronted the costs to develop the prototype, 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.679 and one of the earliest lawnmowers that the pair produced 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:17.000 went to the London Zoo and another one became the 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:21.920 property of Oxford University. By eighteen thirty two, word had 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:26.280 already spread that Buddings machine could create great results, and 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:32.000 demand was soon outpacing Farraby's capacity to produce lawnmowers, and 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:36.320 Fairby then began to license the design to other engineers 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:41.520 to other iron works owners, including Ransoms of Ipswich, a 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.679 company that was already in the business of producing plows 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:49.560 for farmers. They advertised the new lawnmower invention saying, quote 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.640 the machine is so easy to manage that persons unpracticed 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:56.399 in the art of mowing may cut the grass on 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:00.399 lawns and bowling greens with ease end quote and the words. 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:05.720 They were kind of positioning this as something of a 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:11.280 leisure activity for uh, for the upper class, that you know, 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:13.920 mowing the lawn with a side that was a low 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:16.680 class thing to do that was for laborers. You wouldn't 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.159 see people of the upper classes do that. It was 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:24.480 beneath their station. But mowing with this exotic machine that 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:29.720 was something befitting a person of high station. And it was, 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.359 as a matter of fact, pretty simple to operate these things. 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:35.199 You just grabbed the handle of the mower and you 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:37.800 pushed it forward, kind of like a cart. You would 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:40.880 exert a little bit of a downward push as you did. 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:44.760 So it took far less skilled than scything did. And 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:47.159 by framing the activity of mowing a lawn as a 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:50.720 means of taking exercise and being out in nature, the 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:53.879 companies were slowly shifting the perception of caring for a 0:23:54.000 --> 0:23:57.479 lawn in general. And this would also help later on 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:01.640 as the lawn mower would be marketed towards the middle class, 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:05.080 when the prices would eventually come down. Now, when I 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:09.120 say the demand was outstripping supply, we have to remember 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:13.080 that manufacturing in the eighteen thirties wasn't nearly as efficient 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:16.040 as it would be a century later. So I don't 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:19.080 want to give you the impression that the lawnmower became 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:23.160 the must have Christmas gift of eighteen thirty two. Or something. 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:26.760 When Budding passed away in eighteen forty six because of 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:32.000 a stroke. The lawnmower was a successful invention, but it 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:36.000 was not yet a household item, so it wasn't like 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:39.639