WEBVTT - Rerun: How Medieval Warfare Led to the Lawnmower 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.600 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:16.240 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:21.919 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the Tech Area. Well, 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:27.840 I am currently on vacation, although I'll be back tomorrow Tuesday. 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.840 I am flying back from New York City today, so 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.400 wish me safe travels. But I didn't want to leave 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.040 you without an episode, So we're going to listen to 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.840 an episode that I recorded in twenty twenty one, and 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:45.120 it was one of the episodes that really tickled me 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.639 when I got to work on it. It's called How 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:53.280 Medieval Warfare Lead to the Lawnmower, And it's kind of 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.360 a silly title, but you know, it also actually does track. 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.120 If it weren't for things like castles, we wouldn't have 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:05.400 lawnmowers and weed whackers. Really, So let's sit back, listen 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:10.800 to this episode from twenty twenty one and enjoy. While 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.520 I've been recording shows from my home for nearly a 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:20.399 year now, I still occasionally get reminded about how things 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.360 can be different from when I was working in the office. 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.080 For the most part, things are kind of like this 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.520 is the normal now, However, at the office, there is 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.039 no chance that my dog will be barking in the 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.440 background while I record, and so far I think I've 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:40.399 mostly avoided having him show up on episodes of Tech Stuff, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.880 but only because I've edited around it. Keep telling him 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:45.640 if he wants to be on a show, he should 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.440 get his own podcast, but I'm also scared that if 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.640 he does that, he'll get way more popular than me. 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.880 You're also not likely to hear other extraneous noises at 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.760 the office because there our studios are Recording studios are 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:00.760 all in rooms that don't have a window to the 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.920 outside world built into them. Though you can still occasionally 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.160 pick up sounds of folks who are chatting in the 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:11.120 office outside the studios, because well, at least in the office, 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.240 we used to be a pretty chatty lot. So if 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.560 you listen to any of the stuff shows, if you 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.280 listen very carefully, you might occasionally hear the sounds of 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:26.280 people talking outside that studio room. That's because there are 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.120 desks and stuff just on the other side of those doors. 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.480 But one noise that has been a particular issue for 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.000 me while working at home has been the sound of 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.000 the landscape crew. That's working on the courtyard outside the 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.320 townhouse I live in. They always seem to show up 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:48.480 just as I'm getting ready to record. And then I thought, hey, 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.520 how about I talk about the history of lawnmowers and 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.320 how they work. That could be a great topic and 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:59.800 turn that frustration I feel into an episode. So let's 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:03.960 be again with some etymology, which I am now being 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.440 told is not the study of bugs, but rather the 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.840 origin of words. So we think of a lawn, you know, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.960 as a grassy area like a yard, typically covered by 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.600 turf grass in fact, and that is somewhat kept in 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:23.040 an orderly fashion, partly by cutting the grass fairly low. 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.280 But where does the word lawn come from? Well, the 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.480 word derives from a Middle English word of land, meaning 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.120 an unwitted field or an open space in the woods, 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:40.720 like a glade. Thanks Miriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Now y'all 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:45.320 might know that back in my college days, I studied 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.880 medieval literature, including Old and Middle English texts, and so 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:54.040 immediately I thought of our old pal Jeffrey Chaucer, known 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:58.360 for composing the Canterbury Tales, though then he thoughtlessly went 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.760 off and died before he finished writing them. But He 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.680 also wrote a poem called Parliament of Fowls that mentions 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:10.000 a landa which, hey, that poem also references Valentine's Day 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.280 later on, and since we just had Valentine's Day, this 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.960 episode is now timely. So the whole poem is far 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:18.960 too long for me to read. It's like seven hundred 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.280 lines long. But I will give you the little bit 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.440 of it that's about the Lawnda. And the passage goes 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.640 like this, and then a lawanda upon the Hilda of 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:32.960 Flores was set. This Nobla Goddessa natier of branches were here, 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.560 Harleis and her Borza. He wrought after haircraft and her measure. 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.760 Now this passage goes on a bit longer, but honestly, 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.280 I would just be indulging my own love of medieval 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:46.480 English lit. So I'm going to cut it off. There. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:50.479 What that passage means in modern English is and in 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.080 an opening in the woods, on a hill covered with 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.080 flowers sat the goddess Nature. Her home was made of 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.359 branches and arranged according to her art. So it's a 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:05.000 pretty little passage. And here Londa refers to something you 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:09.280 might encounter if you were walking through the countryside through 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:15.120 the wooded forests of old England or old France. And 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.040 then at one point you encounter an opening in the 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.920 forest where there aren't any trees. So how did it 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:26.640 come to mean the word lawn that we use today. Well, 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.920 to understand that we have to talk about war. Yes, 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.920 just as many a homeowner has suspected lawn care and 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:40.000 warfare go hand in hand. Okay, So you got your 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.640 big medieval bigwig types. You know, you got your kings 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:48.640 and your lords and your earls and whatnot. And occasionally 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.320 these types would lead large groups of warriors to conquer 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:57.640 other medieval bigwig types, something like a, Hey, those guys 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.120 over there got it pretty good, so what don't we 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.039 go over there and take their stuff and make it 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:07.600 our stuff? And so the world turns upon such thoughts. 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.360 But it's not enough to conquer the people who live 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:13.920 on the other side of the hills or river or 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.719 ocean or whatever. You got to hold on to the 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:21.120 land that you've claimed, right, and that means creating fortifications, 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.280 preferably in places where you can get a pretty good 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:27.640 look at your surroundings, to make sure no other medieval 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.880 big wigs get the same bright idea you got, and 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.600 then they come to take your stuff, and it used 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.080 to be someone else's stuff, because you know, there's always 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.760 a bigger fish, as it were. So you build up 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.719 your forts or your castles as it were, to protect 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.839 your assets. Your castles are your defense system where you 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.520 can pull back if necessary if enemies come to call. 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.000 But you can't really be on the lookout for the 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.160 next bully if you can't see the armies for the trees, right, 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.480 and so it gets to chopping. You chop, chop, chop 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.479 all those trees down around your fortifications so that you 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.320 can see folks from a long way off if they're approaching, 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:07.480 and you can prepare if there's an imminent attack. It 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.960 also helps if you know, you don't leave trees around 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:11.920 for people to cut down and turn into stuff like 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.480 battering ramps. So there's that element as well. So rather 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:19.320 than wooded fields, you have grassy ones. And this is 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.040 the origin of the lawn though back in those days 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.960 the lawns weren't exactly you know, pristine, So to maintain 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.800 the lawns, you'd either have livestock go out to the 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:33.680 fields to graze, thus cutting back the grass by eating it, 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.920 as well as fertilizing the land on occasion, you know, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:41.000 when nature called, or you could have laborers go out 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:44.280 to the fields with hand tools like scythes and sickles 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.480 to cut back the grass manually so that it wasn't 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.360 too high. A sickle is a handheld tool that has 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.760 a handle, typically made out of wood, and on the 0:07:55.800 --> 0:08:00.160 business end, you've got a curved blade sticking out from 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.480 the handle, making kind of like a almost like a 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.360 half moon, you know, sort of crescent shaped, and the 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:10.160 blade is also typically at an angle relative to the handles, 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.640 sort of how a razor has an angle to it 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.960 for the purposes of shaving. A scythe is similar, but 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.840 it's much larger. It's a two handed tool. The grim 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.840 reaper carries a scythe, and cutting with either a sickle 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:29.680 or a side involves making horizontal passes, typically at the 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.360 base of the grass, and you cut in an arc 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.160 from one side to the other, and big arcing swings, 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:41.600 so semicircular swings, and those swings only go in one direction. 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.720 The blade is sharpened on the inside curve, not the 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:50.000 outside curve, and you're typically going right to left because 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.360 the handle for the forward hand on a scythe is 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.960 meant to be held with the right hand. The left 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.000 hand is meant to hold the scythe further back on 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.520 the handle, so in other words, this is yet another 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:07.480 right handed tool. Scything can actually be pretty efficient. There 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.560 are actually there's some great videos on YouTube of people 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.400 who have really gotten skilled with scything and they can 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.520 make short work of an overgrown lawn like they can 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.240 cut that stuff down quickly. I suggest you check it out. 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.880 It's just neat to watch, and the angle of the 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.360 blade determines how short the scythe will cut the grass. 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.000 Using a scythe with a good blade angle, a skilled 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:36.000 wheelder can cut the grass very low and pretty efficiently too, 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.760 and you would have the bottom part of the blade 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.720 actually making contact with the ground as you swing the 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:46.720 scythe from right to left. They also tend to have 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.640 to rake up the yard afterward to gather up all 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.400 the trimmings. We're usually looking at fields that have, you know, 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:58.360 grass that's quite high, like maybe a foot high or 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:02.080 maybe taller, so need to have something to rake up 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.240 all the clippings that you've left behind. I've seen a 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.760 lot of videos of folks using sides in order to 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.400 cut back on relying on fossil fuels and to make 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.800 use of the trimmings in various ways, from compost to 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:19.000 making hay while the sun shines. In some videos, I've 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:22.040 seen folks use sithes more effectively than someone who is 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.959 using a mechanical push mower or a weed whacker, though 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:32.920 power mowers do tend to be more efficient than a scythe, 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.800 So a push mower, like a mechanical one where there's 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.800 no motor, it's just from human power that versus a scythe, 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.960 you might actually see someone be more effective with the 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.120 side than with the push mower weed whacker, same thing 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.800 the push mower that has a motor on it, those 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.640 tend to win out in the end. So it really 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:54.760 does start to make you wonder, however, why the heck 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.960 did anyone think to invent the mechanical lawnmower in the 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:02.120 first place. If a scythe can be as efficient, why 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:08.360 would anyone ever think about making a mechanical invention that 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.320 does effectively the same sort of thing. The first lawnmowers 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.439 were purely mechanical, relying on gears and blades that were 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:20.040 mounted on a drum like cylinder, and if those aren't 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.720 more efficient than a scythe why would you bother? And 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:28.960 the answer is drumroll please vanity. See. While in the 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:32.040 medieval era soldiers wanted to get a good view of 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:36.000 what might be coming at them throughout Europe, particularly in 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:41.000 France and England, the strategic usefulness of castles gradually declined 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.280 in the Middle Ages, largely because of advancements in artillery. 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.480 Cannons could make very short work of castle walls and 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.400 so warfare began to change and castles weren't part of that. 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.240 But you still had all these hoyity toity types who 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:59.199 liked the idea of a well maintained lawn. Again, mostly 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.520 in France and England, that's really where this idea took hold, 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:07.280 and this was definitely an issue of vanity, particularly when 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.679 it came to showing off your prestige. Lawns are not 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.680 natural environments when you get down to it, they can 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:19.360 be environmentally unfriendly. They represent a much more limited biome 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.880 than a natural grassy or wooded area. It's an artificial construct. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.800 It's really an example of humans cutting back nature to 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:30.160 suit our own esthetics. And really it was only the 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:34.560 hoidy toyty types doing this because maintaining a lawn was 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.640 a lot of work. Not that the toy types were 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.560 the ones doing the work, mind you, but they were 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:44.640 the ones who could afford livestock or laborers who would 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.240 trim back stuff for them. So from manor houses to 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.560 inhabited castles you had the practice of maintaining these large 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:56.480 grassy areas. Now, some of that sensibility would also find 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.679 its way over to the New World where it really 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.800 took hold. Now, the grasses in the New World were 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:06.079 different than those found in Europe, but when settlers came 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.760 to North America, they brought with them livestock, and apparently 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.240 the livestock really liked the grass in America so much 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.200 so that they ding dang durnate at all. So to 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:20.640 keep the livestock from starving, the colonists were importing grass 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.480 seats from Europe and North Africa, including grasses that, if 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.319 you were to go by their names, sound like they 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:31.600 come from America. Kentucky blue grass, I'm looking at you, 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.120 You ain't from Kentucky. Thomas Jefferson was said to have 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.079 taken up the goal of creating a manicured lawn at 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:42.120 Monticello after he visited France, and George Washington had a 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.120 similar desire to turn his estate of Mountain Vernon into 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:49.000 a mirror of European standards. And certainly the idea of 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.559 a well kept lawn managed to really take hold in America, 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.920 becoming something of an obsession really, which will cover a 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.520 little bit later in this episode. And certain sports definitely helped, 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.840 things for which we can largely thank the Scots. Scottish 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.079 sports like golf and lawn bowling were brought over by 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.800 Scottish immigrants to America and they became popular pastimes for 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.640 those who had the leisure to pursue such things. But 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.319 to play lawn games, you gotta cut the grass, otherwise 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.040 you're going to spend more time trying to find the 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.280 game equipment than you get to play with the darned things. 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:24.920 Now we're going to come back to the evolution of 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.680 the lawn, particularly in America, and just a little bit 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.480 as that history ties into a lot of other interesting 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:34.280 stuff and includes some heavy duty connections to other elements 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.600 of American society in addition to feeding an entire industry 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.560 dedicated to lawn care and maintenance. But let's get back 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.080 to our early history of lawn mowers. Okay, so by 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.640 the nineteenth century lawns were the rage in England, France 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.880 and starting to be in America. But as I said, 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.800 unless you had livestock or the cash to pay laborers, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.560 you probably couldn't maintain a lawn on your own. You 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.880 certain couldn't do so to the immaculate standards of the aristocracy. 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:08.200 The wealthy would spend a lot to get that perfect lawn, 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.680 even going so far as to hire people to use 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:15.160 handheld shears to cut grass down quite low, and to 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.240 avoid the patterns that you would see if he used sides, 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.680 because cutting grass in those arc swings would leave behind 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:26.120 patterns in the grass, and that was considered esthetically unpleasing. 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.000 And then we come to an Englishman named Edwin Beard 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:35.320 Budding born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in seventeen ninety five. Budding 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.400 started off with some strikes against him. His parents were unmarried, 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.720 his father a farmer, and in England, that put him 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:46.360 at a fairly low social standing. Class in England was 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:50.200 a very important concept still can be while over there 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:55.040 the whole working class versus posh and all that sort 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.200 of stuff. So He started off in carpentry, but he 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:02.600 switched over to working at iron foundries. The Industrial Revolution 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.320 was well underweigh in England at this point and the 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.880 demand for iron tools and machinery was very high, and 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.440 through experience Budding built up an understanding of engineering and 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.480 problem solving. He would end up inventing several things or 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.320 making his own version of some existing machines, but obviously 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:22.960 the one we want to really look at is the lawnmower. 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:26.440 Budding got the idea for the lawnmower when he saw 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.400 a device used by textile mills to trim back the 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.440 fibers that stick out from the surface of cloth, also 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.120 known as the nap of a cloth, and with some 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.760 textiles the goal is to fluff the nap out. You 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:45.400 use little combs or prickly flowers even to pull some 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:47.280 of those threads out, and then you comb it a 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.080 certain way, which can make the cloth softer to the 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.440 touch and better at doing stuff like trapping heat. But 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.880 sometimes you just wanted a very smooth piece of cloth, 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.240 something that wouldn't get caught easily on roughs. So, for example, 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.480 you might want a carpet that could withstand more use 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.000 as long as it didn't you catch on shoes and stuff, 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.760 So you would want to shear the nap. You'd want 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.480 to cut that nap close to the cloth. And in 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.679 earlier days this job was done by skilled tradespeople who 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:20.520 would use giant sets of shears. I mean, these things 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.879 were massive in order to cut the nap off the 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.120 surface of the cloth as efficiently as possible. But by 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.960 Butting's time, some genius whose name is lost to history 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.000 came up with the notion of building a mechanical device 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.919 that has blades arranged around a drum or cylinder in 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:43.440 a type of helix shape. The drum or cylinder rotates, 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.560 and by running the surface of the cloth near this 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.639 helix of blades, the blades could trim back the nap 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.960 on the surface of the cloth. Add in some rollers 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.080 and some other elements to pull the cloth along, and 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.280 you've got yourself a machine that can trim the nap 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:04.520 back on cloth evenly, consistently, and efficiently. Aha, said Budding. 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.399 What if I took that same basic idea and flipped 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.000 it around a bit, so you could trim back grass 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.800 with rotating blades along a cylinder, And in eighteen thirty 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.480 that's just what he did, securing a patent number six 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.480 zero eight one in fact for his invention. I'll explain 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:32.560 more about it after this quick break. Budding saw an 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:36.560 opportunity to create a device that could consistently and reliably 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.720 cut grass a specific length. So, in other words, you 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.919 could adjust how tall the grass would be and without 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.720 leaving those marks behind that you would get if you 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.320 were to cut grass with scythes and such. Also, the 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:55.359 lawnmower wouldn't poop on the lawn, unlike livestock. It would 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.760 be particularly handy for parks and sporting grounds where the 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.680 to do could gather for their leisure time and look 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:06.840 for something orderly and neat, which very much fit in 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.439 with the sensibilities of the elite of nineteenth century Britain. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.439 So Edwin Beard Budding built a wheeled machine out of 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.160 rot and cast iron. It had a pair of wheels. 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.320 It also had a pair of rollers and a forward 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.040 roller and a back roller, as well as the blade 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:29.080 mounted cylinder that did the actual cutting. So imagine you've 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.399 got a mechanical device has a small roller in the front. 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:34.439 This is the thing that can be adjusted so you 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.400 can control how close to the ground you're cutting the grass. 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.960 Behind that roller, you've got your horizontal cylinder that's got 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:46.920 the curved blades arranged in a helix around that rotatble cylinder, 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:50.280 so it rotates along the horizontal axis, is what I'm saying. 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:54.119 To either side of that are the wheels of the lawnmower. 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.520 That provides stability, allows you to actually aim it and 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.320 push it along the ground. And then in the rear 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.760 you have a big roller. It kind of looks like 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.560 a more narrow and slightly smaller version of a steamroller, 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:15.439 if that helps you imagine. This button's design also incorporated 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.320 a tray to catch grass clippings. The tray was in 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.520 the front because the way this machine worked, it would 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.840 propel the clippings out, shooting them out toward the front 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.119 of the machine. That way, you wouldn't have to follow 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.280 behind the lawnmower with a rake or something like that 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.360 to rake up the clippings. And it was that rear roller, 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.320 the big steamroller type thing in the back that connected 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:45.240 to the bladed cylinder through a gear drive. That's where 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.000 you've got a series of gears that fit together to 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:52.879 transfer the rotational motion of the roller that's pressed against 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.520 the ground. So as you push the lawnmower forward, the 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.840 roller rolls because it's making contact with the round, and 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:06.240 it transfers that rotational motion to the cylinder or the 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:08.800 dram if you prefer, that's got the blades on it. 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.359 And all of this was made out of iron. Now 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:14.960 this meant the person who was pushing the mower had 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:17.760 to use a pretty good amount of force because you 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:21.160 weren't just pushing hard enough to move the mower itself, 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:23.879 which being made out of iron, was pretty darn heavy, 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.520 but also to power that drive train of gears that 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:32.399 would transmit the rotation to the cylinder. And each step 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:36.720 of that process, each gear connection, means that you're losing 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.800 a little bit of the amount of energy you're giving 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:42.440 to the system to stuff like friction. So it means 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:44.280 you have to push even harder to get things going. 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.720 But still, Budding showed that the same general principle that 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:50.840 worked for cutting back the nap on cloth could in 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.000 fact be used to cut grass. He patented his design 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:57.080 in eighteen thirty, and in that patent Budding said his 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.800 invention represented to quote, a new combination an application of 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.480 machinery for the purpose of cropping or shearing the vegetable 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:09.920 surfaces of lawns, grass plats and pleasure grounds. Country gentlemen 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:13.879 may find and using my machine themselves, and amusing useful 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:18.879 and healthy exercise end quote. It's interesting to note that 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.200 a lot of the basic designs introduced by Budding would 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:26.320 stick around throughout the ages with mechanical pushmowers, and the 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:29.560 ones that we have today have at least some resemblance 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.760 to the one that Budding was making back in the 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:37.000 mid nineteenth century. Now the new ones are more elegant 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.359 in design and they're made of much lighter materials, but 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:44.560 the general principle behind the operation remains pretty much the same. 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:49.280 Budding formed a partnership with an engineer named John Farrabee, 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:53.720 who owned a company called Phoenix Iron Works. Farreby had 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:57.320 the manufacturing rights to produce Budding's design and fronted the 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:01.680 costs to develop the prototype. One of the earliest lawnmowers 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:05.439 that the pair produced went to the London Zoo, and 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:09.680 another one became the property of Oxford University. By eighteen 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:13.560 thirty two, word had already spread that Budding's machine could 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:18.760 create great results, and demand was soon outpacing Faraby's capacity. 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:23.560 To produce lawnmowers, and Faraby then began to license the 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:29.560 design to other engineers to other ironworks owners, including Ransoms 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:32.760 of Ipswich, a company that was already in the business 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:37.639 of producing plows for farmers. They advertised the new lawnmower 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:41.440 invention saying, quote the machine is so easy to manage 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:45.080 that persons unpracticed in the art of mowing may cut 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:48.879 the grass on lawns and bowling greens with ease end quote. 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:54.080 In other words, they were kind of positioning this as 0:23:54.280 --> 0:24:00.440 something of a leisure activity for the upper class. That 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:03.320 mowing the lawn with a side that was a low 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:06.120 class thing to do. That was for laborers. You wouldn't 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:09.600 see people of the upper classes do that. It was 0:24:09.680 --> 0:24:13.880 beneath their station. But mowing with this exotic machine that 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:19.119 was something befitting a person of high station. And it was, 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:21.760 as a matter of fact, pretty simple to operate these things. 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:24.600 You just grabbed the handle of the mower and you 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:27.200 pushed it forward kind of like a cart. You would 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:30.280 exert a little bit of a downward push as you did. 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:34.080 So it took far less skilled than scything did, and 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:36.560 by framing the activity of mowing a lawn as a 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:40.119 means of taking exercise and being out in nature. The 0:24:40.200 --> 0:24:43.320 companies were slowly shifting the perception of caring for a 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:46.920 lawn in general, and this would also help later on 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:51.040 as the lawn mower would be marketed toward the middle class, 0:24:51.240 --> 0:24:54.520