OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Collectors Corner Collectors General Discussion The Victa Thesis: A running thread.

INTRODUCTION

In 1952 Mervyn Victor Richardson took a small, 2-stroke Villiers engine, applied it to a simple frame, with for Billy cart wheels, a peach tin for a petrol tank, and two blades attached to a rotating bar, creating the Victa �Peach Tin� Mower, a lightweight, simple, petrol rotary mower, with it�s engine positioned so as the crank shaft stood vertically.

This has often been mistakenly viewed as the birth of the rotary mower, however, this is indeed not the case, as not only did rotary mowers exist prior to this, there can indeed be found examples of Petrol Rotary mowers, with a vertically positioned engine, some with advancements far exceeding Victa�s �Peach Tin� mower.

The Victa peach tin was not the first rotary mower, nor the first Petrol Rotary, or even Vertical shaft petrol rotary. In fact, Victa was not even the first Vertical Shaft Petrol Rotary Lawnmower to be made in Australia.

In 1948, Lawrence Hall of ??? demonstrated, infront of Mervyn, his own mower. This was the Mowhall, a vertically oriented petrol engine turned an old plow disc to cut grass, this sat on a circular base held up on four small wheels, similat to that of many early Victa mowers. It was however very heavy, due in part to the water cooled marine engine used to drive the blades.

Also, in 19?? Cyrryl Thomas of thechnico manufactured Australia�s first electric rotary. At this point, lightweight electric rotary mowers were popular, and fairly common in Australia, but were manufactured overseas, technico had a large distribution network as an electronics manufacturer, and through this they were able to easily market and sell their electric rotary, selling a total of ????? between 1948 and 1952.

In 1933 in the UK rotoscythe was founded, manufacturing vertical engine rotary lawnmowers, over the next two decades these machine became more and more advanced.
By the time the Peach Tin was assembled in 1952, the Rotoscythe was already exporting with self propulsion, a fully enclosed base, Hi arch shute, and large rear catcher. However with patchy export and a high price tag, it was not ready to compete when Victa came along.

No single eliment, nor the combination of them seen in the peach tin was unique to the world in 1952, the idea of a vertical shaft petrol rotary lawnmower existed prior to 1952, the US already had compact, lightweight mowers of this type well before, in fact the Petrol rotary over there, a Mr XXXXXX retired in 1952, and even here the Mowhall had been demonstrated to Mervyn years before the Peach Tin, although it�s weight knocked it out of the competition, it took two people to move!

The point of this analysis is not to defame, or discredit Mervin or Victa, but simply to help establish the true history of the rotary lawnmower. At the end of the day, Victa cannot be discredited for it�s success, for quite simply, it�s success is true, Victa is an Australian Icon, and that will always remain.

Mervyn was and always will have been a genius, in his creation of the Peach Tin, he did not invent a concept out of thin air, but more so he was able to recognise that there was a massive gap in the Australian market, one not filled by international options, or electric alternatives, after witnessing the display of an interesting machine, he was able to take elements of many existing technologies, and combine them together in such a way as to create a machine that filled this gap perfectly, this, combined with an amazing knack for sales and marketing, brought to life an Aussie legend, and cemented Mervyn as a genius, a creator and an entrepreneur!