PART TWO - Summary

The Scott Bonnar Company's first decade of operation spanned from 1920 to 1929.
The first three years of operation did not involve lawnmowers at all. In 1923 Scott Bonnar
started making 'converted' lawnmowers, using secondhand or new push reel/roller mowers and
converting them to electric power.

In late 1925 the Company produced their first 'true' Scott Bonnars, in that they now had their
own chassis: frame, rollers, reel, handle, etc. Scott Bonnar called these machines their
'Queen City Lawnmowers' and these would be sold for decades to come.

To return to the quote from Malcolm Bonnar's Memoir, that when "the English manufacturers
took the agency away from us, we then straight away began to make our own petrol mowers" could
well be true; and I think he is referring to the Atco Agency here. I speculate that Scott Bonnar
lost these agencies (Shanks and Atco) at some point in the early 1930s. The manufacture of Scott
Bonnar's first petrol-powered mowers and Gang mowers occurred at this time.

THE ANOMALY
There is one serious anomaly in the story I have presented thus far. It's the story of a petrol-
powered Scott Bonnar that appeared in the 34th Annual Tennis Championship Programme in Adelaide
in March of 1926. Note how the Company's electric machines are still depicted as being of the
'converted' type ... a British chassis coupled to an electric motor.

[Linked Image]

The motor mower has a Douglas Twin motorcycle engine, and it appears on a large Scott Bonnar
Queen City Chassis. This machine - the Scott Bonnar Douglas - will be discussed in the
next part, when I address the question: Did Scott Bonnar manufacture a petrol lawnmower in their first
decade of operation?

TO BE CONTINUED ...