OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Component Histories THE HUMBLE GRASS CATCHER

Hello ODK members

Yes, I am very much interested in inventions: Who was the first to use a catcher on Australian rotary
mowers is clearly of historical interest.

But I also want to explore the very nature of 'collecting' or 'catching' grass.
In this series of posts I intend to cover early grass collecting,
and then 19th and 20th Century reel and rotary mowers and grass catching.

THE EARLY DAYS OF LAWN
There is a fascinating heritage to the grass catcher.
In these forums I was permitted to publish a chapter from a wonderful Australian book,
Australia's Quarter Acre by Peter Timms. In the chapter "The Decline of the Lawn",
Timms describes what it was like to 'manicure' an 18th century rich folk's lawn:

The scythers had to be up before dawn, sharpening their blades so as to
be out before the dew dispersed, because scything gives the best result
when grass is damp. They could adjust the height of the cut with great
accuracy by either adding leather pads to the soles of their boots or
removing them. As they slashed, the residue was removed to one side
with hay rakes. Then came sweepers with besoms (twig brooms) to
gather the windrows into piles so that women with baskets, following
behind, could gather the clippings to be put into a cart. Between cuttings,
the grass had to be rolled, weeded and poled.

So the original grass catcher was human ... hay rakers, then sweepers, then women with baskets.
And I guess a cart man came into the equation as well.

So to turn grass into lawn - to give lawn its aesthetic quality - required an extremely expensive
grass catcher(s). That's why mowing for aesthetic reasons was the province of the wealthy.

What this early history of the lawn did establish, though, was that grass
had to be collected to produce a quality and aesthetically pleasing lawn.

The 1875 print (below) is one I own, and is taken from the Victorian England magazine The Graphic.
It is titled "The Mowers". Note the basket woman in the left background. She's the catcher
or bagger woman.

It is true that the depicted scene is more agricultural than aesthetic lawn production,
but the piece gives the reader an idea about how labour intensive grass cutting was prior to
Edwin Beard Budding's invention - the first mechanical lawn mower of 1830.

THE FIRST MECHANICAL LAWN MOWER
Edwin Beard Budding's 1830 patent combined with Ransome's 1932 production of the design made the lawn
available to the new middle classes. It was no longer just a province of the rich.

The design radically reduced the labour required for lawn mowing ... goodbye scythers, goodbye rakers,
goodbye sweepers, goodbye collectors with baskets. All of these operations were reduced to one mower
equipped with a catcher.

Below is the famous illustration of Budding's patent machine.
Note the flat tray catcher on the front. Yes, the first lawnmower also featured the first catcher.
Later catchers would become concave at the front, as machines became more efficient in design, lighter,
and more powerful - with the use of animals and then mechanical, petrol, and electric power mowers.



A Note on the Deflector Plate
Right from day one (Budding's patent) a concave deflector plate was needed to direct cut grass
forward and into a front-mounted catcher. This was against the physical tendency for grass
to want to flow naturally to the back of the machine.

The Sidewheel Pushmower and the Rear Catcher

The invention of the side-wheel reel mower by Follows and Bate in 1869 was the next big
step in mower production and grass collection. The side-wheels enabled much lower production costs.
These machines became incredibly popular because they could be sold at a much cheaper price.
[They democratized the mower in the sense that many working class folk could afford one.]

Most importantly, the side wheel design offered a new possibility in grass collection.
The first model Follows and Bate, the Climax, introduced a rear catcher.
By having no large roller behind the cutting reel, grass could naturally flow over a very small
deflector integrated into the bottom blade holder (or sole plate) and be lifted into a rear grass catcher.

I include an illustration from the UK's definitive Old Lawnmower Club website illustrating
the rear catcher design of an early Follows & Bate Climax mower.



Construction
Early catchers were made of wood or a wood/metal combination.
That did not make for the lightest, most durable, or most easily produced solution.
Manufacturers embraced an old material ... fabric: canvas could not only be used to paint a masterpiece
or to set sail, it could also be used for the humble grass catcher.

Here I think late 19th Century, but certainly by the early 20th Century, canvas catchers were commonly
offered as accessories on side-wheel push reel mowers. Cheap to make - and durable - with a thin
metal base for added strength, the fabric catcher was offered as an alternative to the conventionally
mounted wood, metal/wood, or metal catcher. Some catchers were after-market accessories,
as in the Snap-Grip canvas catcher shown below.

Reel Mowers and Catchers

Here I want to explore the grass catcher in the 20th Century context but only pertaining
to reel mowers. Future parts will address a couple of specific anomalies with catchered
reel mowers and then rotary mower catchers will be addressed.

The first powered mowers were huge! Ransome's 1902 machines were behemoth.
In walk-behind or ride-on guise, they had front mounted catchers with an overly-engineered
emptying Grassbox. Operators could turn a handle that would - through chains or wires,
pulleys or sprockets - move a side plate that would push the grass sideways out of the catcher.
Greens and Shanks employed similar systems.

Reel Mowers - The 'Standard' Look

With the advent of 'lightweight' self-propelled powered reel mowers of the 1920s grass catcher
design was clearly defined and standardised. Virtually all powered reel mowers with a rear roller
had front mounted grass catchers. The catchers were made of wood, wood/metal and then totally
rolled and fabricated sheet steel. Some were of extremely sophisticated designs with beautifully
cast handles.



The Platypus
One significant exception was the Australian Platypus made by the Sydney Platypus Tool Co. from
about 1946. It used a printed canvas front catcher. An Atco derivative, it would have looked spectacular
in its red livery and striped red/white canvas catcher. The catcher design for a roller reel mower using
fabric was clearly ahead of its time. Expect to see more fabric catchers on machines in the future.

Powered Sidewheels - The Hybrids
There were also the 'transitional' machines. These were, in essence, manual side-wheel mowers that
were converted to power mowers, or were manufactured from new by powering these push mowers with
petrol or electricity. A typical after-market converter of push mowers was Melbourne's Precision Mowers
who would convert Qualcast manual push mowers (and other suitable makes) to electricity or petrol.
Prior to the rotary revolution of the 1950s this was a considerably cheaper option than reel/roller mowers.

These machines were fitted with conventional metal front catchers. Typical AUS brands included the
Pope Power Mower, The Ogden Motor Mower and the Crowe Grass Master.



Powered Sidewheels
In Australia, following Great Britain, reel mowers were commonly reel/roller designs.
These had front catchers. The USA, however, very early on, used the sidewheel power mower as
their typical reel machine. These had rear catchers and they were offered as accessories.

These were purpose-built machines, not a motorised version of a push reel mower.
The most common Australian made machine of this type was the Qualcast 16" Sidewheel Power Mower.
These came with a canvas rear catcher as standard.

The Lawn Master and the Diplomat - Oddities

Here, I want to single out two Australian machines as aberrations or anomalies in catcher design:
the 1950's Lawnmaster and the 1970's Scott Bonnar Diplomat.
Both of these machines employed rear catchers, but in different ways.

The Lawnmaster made by Sydney's Kelly Brothers will remain reasonably rare and
very collectable. There were two models: the Model A with 4 side wheels; the Model B with two
side wheels. In terms of catchers, As a 1950 advertisement said, it had an,
'ingenious built-in grass catcher'. And it did! This machine was very cleverly marketed.
The reality was that it was a side wheel reel mower without self- propulsion.
The Model A had a clever slide-in rear metal catcher; The Model B less so.




Scott Bonnar's Diplomat reel mower changed the conventional rules about reel/roller mowers.
Introduced in 1976 the Australian Design Award winning Diplomat turned convention on its head.
The convention with reel/roller designs was to use a front metal catcher. Yes, fabric was occasionally
used too. But the Diplomat had a rear plastic catcher and, most importantly, it had a rear roller!

Yes, it was possible for a reel to cut grass and throw the clippings over a rear roller and into
a grass catcher. The big feature, though, was safety. An enclosed reel at the front and the operator
could empty the catcher from the back. The machine was more manoeuvrable in tight spaces as well.
A clever catching design in vintage mower history.

Rotary Mowers and Grass Catchers
In these next three parts I want to address the topic of grass catchers and rotary mowers.
There is something serendipitous about key dates in mower designs.

Let's talk 1832 and 1932. In 1832 Ransomes introduced the first commercial mower with
its Budding's Patent reel mower. It had a front-mounted, flat-tray grass catcher.
In 1932 James Cockburn patented the first commercial UK rotary mower - the Rotoscythe.

it too had a catcher, but it was rear-mounted. Exactly a century apart, the reel mower had a
front catcher, the rotary had a rear catcher.

The Rotoscythe was way ahead of its time and it has not received due recognition for its
advanced design - even today. A machine that was two decades ahead of the first Victa,
three decades ahead of the first Victa with a catcher, and four decades ahead of a Victa with a
high-arch catching system. The Rotoscythe had it all in 1932.

So, the first rotary mower with a catcher was the Rotoscythe.
The Rotoscythe was sold in Australia from 1937.

The Australian Experience
So, what Australian manufacturer produced the first mower with a catching system?
The general evolutionary view is that the side discharge machines preceded the rear discharge
machines. The general view is that side-catchers were most popular from 1960-1963, but were
eclipsed by rear catcher rotaries from that point forward.

That is true - but only as a general statement. With a couple of exceptions (e.g. Rover)
most manufacturers gave up on side catcher machines. The big disadvantage of course being manoeuvrability
... add a side catcher and you doubled the width of the machine. The rear catcher was an obvious design winner.

The research bombshell for me is that while the general statement that side catcher machines preceded
rear catcher machines is true, the first Australian domestic mower to use a catcher was Clyde,
and it was a . . . rear catcher machine!

The Clyde Minor and Major 18".
The earliest advertisement for these machines dates to October of 1956.
Clyde Engineering was clearly aware of the historical significance, proclaiming,
"JUST RELEASED! The only Household Rotary Mower with a grass catcher."

This was not a cheap machine at '69/10/- plus the grass box at 4/11/6. Note that the base does
not appear to be a high-arch - or even a medium-arch design!

I have only ever found a couple of references to these mowers. They seem to have entered
the market but were never popular. They would be highly collectable.
[I think the price may help explain why this mower did not sell in volume].

1956 - An Important Year

It appears that 1956 is a key year for Australian mowers with catching systems.
In the same year that Clyde was actually selling catcher machines two significant patents appeared:
one for a side-catcher; the other for a rear-catcher.

I will discuss these in turn in the next two parts.

Side-Catchers: Patent 23484 was lodged in late 1956. The inventor was Leslie Victor Deacon.
I speculate that it was a Queensland invention as the patent was lodged through a Brisbane Patent Attorney firm.
I further speculate that this is the first record of an Australian side-catcher design.

They did go into production and it appears that they were manufactured as the 'Emu Grass catcher'.
I include a photo that appeared on eBay this year. It was for a Model 5 with Emu catcher combo.
I have not yet found any other record about them ... when and where they were manufactured or sold.



Clearly no mower manufacturer took up the design as it appears in the patent but one wonders whether this
patent influenced or controlled the subsequent introduction of side-catcher mowers by many manufacturers
in the late 1950s. One clear defect is the lack of a protective cover for the catcher ...
not all dangerous projectiles may have been contained by the design.

I include the full patent with illustration.
The diagram appears to present a Victa Rotomo as an example machine that could be adapted to the catcher.

The Collect-O-Matic

So far I have said that an Australian catcher mower was being sold in late 1956.
This was the Clyde 18" rear-catcher machine [Major & Minor].

I have also said that a significant patent for a side-catcher machine appeared in 1956.
This was the Emu, apparently manufactured in Maryborough. I do not know when it was first sold.

Here I want to present another 1956 patent. This time a rear-catcher design.
Patent 23537 of late 1956 is for a complete mower and catcher.
It would be produced as the Sydney manufactured Exceller 18" Collect-O-Matic.
[The patent is attached to this post below]

Granted, It clearly was not the first Australian catcher mower (see Clyde above).
But it re-introduced a feature from the British Rotoscythe and it introduced a feature that
we will see more of in current mower designs.

The Collect-O-Matic re-introduced the concept of the high-arch that the British Rotoscythe
clearly had in 1932. It would take the key Australian mower manufacturers another decade and a half to get it!

Most significantly, the Collect-O-Matic patent envisaged a non-metal grass catcher - in 1956!
The two great features of the patent were that the collection system catcher be large
in capacity but light in weight. The 'flexible container' would be assisted by lift blades and
a 'flange' [arch] in the chassis to assist grass delivery to the catcher.

The patent accommodated the large bag capacity by having it supported by a sheet metal tray.
The patent tells us that the bag would be a natural material - 'canvas'. An amusing part of the
patent is that engine exhaust gases might assist grass collection . . .

The actual machine that resulted from the patent was clearly ahead of its time.
The Exceller Collect-O-Matic had a synthetic bag - the new space-age material - nylon!

The earliest machines were manufactured from early 1957. The first machines were powered
by Hurricane engines but the later machines were powered by Victa Tiger engines.




Significance: I have singles out this early Australian vintage mower because I believe it
was the first Australian machine to continue the legacy of the radical 1932 Rotoscythe.

Second, the patent clearly envisaged that you did not need heavy metal to make a grass catcher.
Yes, Turner introduced the plastic catcher in the late 1960s, but Collect-O-Matic had a lighter
catcher solution a decade before.

In turns of significance, the use of synthetics in bagging systems has become all-important.
Just sashay down to your local mower store or Bunnings and count the synthetic catcher machines.

In my view it solved not two but three problems: it is light, has large capacity, and it permits
economical packaging. In the 1980s a rear catcher machine required two boxes - one for the mower;
one for the catcher.

The Collect-O-Matic solved the third problem - packaging. We persevered with a split-piece plastic design
that has not been entirely successful. Increasingly mowers - both walk behind and ride-on - rely on fabric
bagging systems. Many countries have adopted the idea.

Was the Australian Collect-O-Matic the first to use fabric catchers? No. This post has said that fabric
rear-catchers were used on side-wheel reel mowers from the late 19th century. The Australian Platypus
roller reel mower used one unconventionally at the front in the 1940s.

The Collect-O-Matic was advertised as, "the world's original grass-catching rotary mower!".
I hope I have dispelled that myth. But there is something enduring about the design that should be
recorded and remembered. It had many features that were ahead of any other Australian mower
made at that time, and some features that would be considered 'modern' by today's standards.

All very catchy.
--------------------------------
JACK