COLLECTABILITY
Today, these are not common machines, but they should not be rare.
Grasshoppers sold for at least the whole 1950's decade.
It appears that a number of manufacturers were springing up at this critical time in vintage mower history.
Some may argue that the catalyst was what Mervyn Richardson was doing in his garage in August, 1952 . . .
Others, like myself, might argue that it was a race for the bleeding obvious - electric rotaries were
sold in their tens-of-thousands prior to the event that stopped a nation - the Victa.
It wasn't a great leap of faith to put a petrol engine on a rotary base by 1952.
Grasshopper did just that!
Grasshopper is also important because it was manufacturing rotaries before Victa.
Its petrol machine appeared contemporaneous to the Victa rotary. Was it first?
Finally, the Grasshopper was unique in employing belt drive on a domestic machine.
Some New Zealand vintage rotaries also went down this design path.
The typical AUS domestic rotary was direct drive.
All very interesting.
--------------------------------------
JACK
Last edited by CyberJack; 13/12/13 05:58 PM.
