Hi Ty and ODK members,
I have to agree.
I don't think Hall would have thought, though, that this would be
commercially viable. He knocked it up to cut Mum's lawn.
The biggest wake-up for me - these last couple of days - is the impact
that plough disc base had on the 'look' of many 1950's mowers.
I often wondered why New Zealand rotaries from the 1950s adopted such
a different approach to us and that their bases were more similar to
UK and USA ones. I better understand why now.
I now think the shallow, small-skirt, base used on the first Victas was
taken from the Hall design and that designed influenced the majority
of 1950's rotary manufacturers - the 'toe cutter' look.
It is quicker to list the exceptions, and these exceptions used alloy
bases that featured low skirts with small discharge chutes.
Victa, when it went to alloy, still stuck with the plough disc shape,
rather than go with a skirted base that did not need a ring guard.
They had to radically re-think their bases for their first catcher models,
and the most beautiful Sheerline was born.
The rest is history.
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JACK
