OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Machine Histories PATENT - MILLER - The First Rotary? - Thoughts

Hello ODK members,

So . . . who made the first rotary mower? That's not an easy question because there is
no easy answer - because of an important presupposition: what is a rotary mower?

This series of posts presents and discusses an important American patent - US1831681 - that many
historians claim to be the first rotary mower. I guess that's a fair claim, but only if we
can agree on what constitutes a rotary mower. The problem is definitional:-

I mean, borrowing from agriculture, the first lawn mowers were horticultural scythes. These hand-held cutters
were used by cutting in an arc. If the user continued cutting in an arc - say, 360 degrees - wouldn't you
get a rotary mower? You would, but that hardly gives us a rotary mower as we commonly understand them:-



JOSEPHUS MILLER'S PATENT:-
Miller's patent was filed October 19, 1928, and was granted November 10, 1931.
It was described as an "Edge Trimming and Mowing Machine". That is significant in itself in that the
protrusion of the blades beyond the frame enabled edges to be cut:

"A further object is to provide a machine in which the blade is effective to the extreme sides of the frame
and at the forward portion thereof between the front wheels, so that a close cut may be made..."

This patent feature is the forerunner of the "toe cutters" that defined AUS rotaries in the late 1940s
and the 1950s.

The patent also recognises that, "the cut is continuous regardless of the direction of movement of the machine."
This clearly is a defining feature of all rotary mowers. They cut forwards and backwards.
In fact, that feature was heavily utilised in rotary mower advertisements in the late 1940s and the 1950s.
It capitalised on the fact that reel mowers cannot do this.

A second defining feature of the domestic rotary (as we commonly understand them) is that it has a vertical crankshaft
motor coupled to the horizontal axis blade holder. The Miller patent has this as an object: "A further object
is to provide a motor for driving the cutting blade, which rotates on a vertical axis."

THE MILLER PATENT ILLUSTRATIONS:-
Illustrations or drawings form part of patent applications. I reproduce two drawings below before I
continue discussion of the features of the Miller Patent in the next section:-