OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Company Histories SCOTT BONNAR - Elec v. Petrol - The First Decade

Hello ODK History Lovers

There are two questions I seek to answer in this post series.

The first question is: Did Scott Bonnar manufacture a petrol lawnmower in their first decade of operation?
[1920-1929]. Here I discuss their Douglas machine of late 1925.

The second question is: what was the respective significance the Company placed on their own electric machines
and other petrol-powered lawnmowers they offered? I will address the second question now.

CONTEXT
I have argued in these forums that Prosper Lark's New Moon was our first petrol-powered lawnmower,
and I have dated that machine to 1924. The other contender would be Scott Bonnar's petrol machines -
but there's a problem with the record. In Malcolm Bonnar's 1971 Memoir he recalls the events this way:



I think the weight of evidence points to a number of errors - or ambiguity - in Malcolm Bonnar's
recollections of the early days of the company (the first decade).

That the Scott Bonnar Company was 'concentrating on Electric mowers' is the understatement of the
decade. Scott Bonnar was a prodigious advertiser, and the advertising record clearly shows overwhelming
commitment to electric lawnmowers; and they held the 1920 Keele Patent to justify that commitment.



SHANKS AGENCY
Scott Bonnar did not hold the Atco Agency in 1924 or 1925. It was the Shanks Agency and it was
granted in March of 1924. Scott Bonnar would sell Shanks' lawnmowers for the rest of the decade -
16" and 24" petrol Shanks' and, particularly, Shanks' Horse and Sulky Mowers in larger cut sizes.

Here is the second of two public announcements of the Shanks' Agency, the first placed in the papers
29 March 1924; and then 1 April, 1924. Note that by this time, the Company had moved to city premises
in Mill Street:-



ATCO AGENCY
Scott Bonnar acquired the SA agency for Atco in about mid-1928, and frequently advertised these
machines for years following in separate advertisements to their more-numerous Electric model adverts.
The Atco ads frequently used the headline, 'The World's Best Petrol Mower.'



It's clear what Scott Bonnar were doing. Their focus was electric lawnmowers mowers. In cases where
electric machines were not suitable or customer-preferred, Scott Bonnar could offer Shanks petrol mowers,
and later, Atco petrol mowers.

The company revealed the sales ratio in a couple of rare advertisements. It was about 50:1 -
50 electrics sold for every 1 petrol machine!



TO BE CONTINUED ...

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.



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 ...

PART THREE - THE QUEEN CITY DOUGLAS

The Scott Bonnar Queen City Douglas was the model that wasn't. We are lucky that a photograph survives of,
perhaps, the only one. Note the lack of catcher decals and branding on the frame. This may be the earliest photo
of a Queen City chassis in existence.


Photo courtesy member Willingworker.

The second advertisement is the significant one. It is a one-off newsprint advertisement that dates
from 26 December, 1925 ... meaning that Scott Bonnar's first petrol-powered mower dates from late 1925,
and not 1926 as had been previously thought.

Note the disparaging way the company presents petrol mowers:
"if you must have a PETROL POWER MOWER SEE OUR DOUGLAS MOTOR MOWER."
It's not exactly hard sell is it?



WHY A DOUGLAS?
The Douglas engine was manufactured by Douglas Engineering of Bristol, UK who made motorcycles,
automobiles and aero engines. The Douglas was a popular brand of motorcycle in the 1920s.
For more on Douglas visit http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Douglas

In research I discovered that both Scott and engineer Sidney H. Bowditch had both owned Douglas
motorcycles prior to 1925. Scott registered two - one in 1915 (when he was 21), and one in 1923. I wonder if
one of these donated an engine to the project ...?



GADD BROTHERS.
Another interesting discovery was that the closest motorcycle shop to Scott Bonnar's premises in 1925
was at 21-23 Gouger Street, just around the corner from Scott Bonnar, at 22 Mill Street. Interestingly,
the dealer was the Douglas Motorcycle Agent! The old firm of Gadd Brothers were the Douglas Agents in
Adelaide and, maybe, they assisted Scott Bonnar with procuring an engine. Who knows?

There is an interesting coincidence here too. Scott Bonnar would buy the Gadd Brothers premises and
next door (W.T. Piper in photo) when they moved their showroom from Mill Street to Gouger Street a
couple of decades later!


State Library of South Australia

TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART FOUR - ANALYSIS

Lawn mower manufacture came to dominate the business of the Scott Bonnar Company in its first decade
of operation. I have argued here that the focus was always with electricity as the preferred power
source for its lawnmowers.

However, clearly, that was not going to be enough. In fact, by early 1926 a new word started to
appear in the company's advertising: it was the word 'specialise'. From when the first Queen City
electrics started to be made, the company knew its new destiny. Its main business was no longer
with brassware (though that remained important), but with lawnmowers.

Scott Bonnar were Lawn Mower Specialists:-



But in choosing to specialise in lawn requirements, the company had to sell more than electric machines.
They offered Shanks' mowers and Atco's and, I should add, new Thomas Green's push mowers as well. They
also dealt in secondhand machines and repairs.

The Scott Bonnar Douglas probably never sold. The advertisement for them in the 1926 Tennis Tournament
programme was probably 'testing the market'. In new information I have presented here, I have given at
least one reason why the Douglas machine never sold. Scott Bonnar was already offering excellent petrol
mowers - the Shanks and then the superb Atco Standards. I also believe the company needed the Shanks
Agency because of the increasing demand for gang, horse and sulky mowers.

Another reason must go to cost of production. There is evidence that high import duty on small
air-cooled internal combustion engines made local manufacture unprofitable. The policy was
designed to encourage local manufacturers to commence engine manufacture on these shores. It didn't.

In the early 1930s, Scott Bonnar would continually argue - with limited success - before Tariff Boards
for the reduction of these duties on small engines so as to make petrol-powered mowers here.

This helps explain why the first Scott Bonnar petrol machines from this period were powered by unsuitably
heavy Australian-made stationary engines (like the Ronaldson Tippet). In the mid to late 1930s they had
better luck - but then, that second terrible war intervened.

The Scott Bonnar Queen City Douglas remains a curiosity and one of the interesting side-stories in the
history of this great, pioneering Australian company.

The rest is history.
------------------------------------------
JACK

SID BOWDITCH - SB Shanks Douglas Mower



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