By Charlene Ashborn
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Whenever I think of the American Dream, an image of a car, a house and a carefully manicured lawn immediately come to mind. While seemingly all-American, lawns did not originate here but in 18th-century France. There, the moneyed class would grow carefully tended grass surrounded by borders. The concept crossed the Channel to England where it really took “root.” (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Releasing them from their bordered confines, wealthy English landowners allowed lawns to grow freely in broad swaths, the grass seeming to merge with the surrounding forests. (Famed American Thomas Jefferson incorporated English-style lawns when designing his home, Monticello, and the University of Virginia.) Early lawn maintenance required the services of grazing animals to keep grass trimmed, a slow process often resulting in damaged grass wherever the animals walked. Animals were soon replaced by human workers who would cut the grass by hand using scythes, sickles or shears. (Being both costly and time-consuming to maintain, lawns provided a visible means of identifying one’s elite social status.) Eventually, English engineer, Edwin Beard Budding, inspired by a cutting machine used at the textile mill where he worked, patented the first reel lawn mower in 1830. (It wasn’t until 1868 that the first patent for an American-made reel mower was issued.) Arranging to have his invention manufactured at a foundry, Budding’s mower revolutionized lawn care, finding success not only in Europe but also in the U.S. where lawns were becoming more popular. These early mowers were often designed to be pulled by horses outfitted in specially designed leather booties to keep their hooves from damaging the grass. |
While human-powered push mowers were available, they were heavy and hard to push. It wasn’t until 1870, when Elwood McGuire of Indiana patented his considerably lighter-weight version, that push mowers became a successful alternative to the horse-drawn varieties. By the height of the Industrial Revolution in 1885, the U.S. was building 50,000 mowers annually. Purchased both here and abroad, these mowers maintained the lawns enhancing the homes owned by members of both the moneyed and the new middle class, Again, lawns were used to announce one’s new social status. Innovations to lawn mower design continued, with gas-powered mowers moving to the forefront in the 1890s. Rotary-style mowers had been developed, but it took improvements made by American John Albert Burr in 1899 to make them a viable alternative to reel mowers. The 20th century saw the introduction of both riding and electricity-driven mowers. Today, with leisure time and space being at a premium, lawns seem to be reverting to the original French model—a small patch of grass confined to a specific area. Regardless of the size, however, lawns remain a symbol of success. |