PART TWO - Specification If ever there was a machine ahead of its time it would be the New Zealand Ajax. So little seems to be known about them. Certainly, circa 1950s. But when!
We know the Ajax was made in Hamilton, NZ. That's about it . . .
In these photos, gratefully supplied by NZ collector Greg S, the machine design is not ordinary. We have an ugly duckling reel mower with a very unusual feature.
It's not the unusual clutch bar on the handle (although that's a bit odd). It's the catchment system: front reel - rear roller - rear catcher. This machine predates the 'revolutionary' 1970s Scott Bonnar Diplomat by two decades! What's going on here? And this is not the only NZ reel/roller power mower to use a rear catcher!
Rear catcher side-wheel power mowers are common; but rear catcher rear-roller mowers are not. The natural tendency of reel mowers is to throw grass rearwards - and this design capitalised on that. I might add, this is not the only NZ reel/roller power mower to use a rear catcher!
This 16" machine was powered by a JAP 2A engine. The transmission appears to have been a dual-drive one: but the drive system appears to have not been a true twin drive system - with separate clutches, separately enabling the reel or roller.
It is a modern design - with steel side frames and tubular handles. Note the Morrison-style grass catcher.
