PART TWO

American historians credit Thomas Coldwell as having made the first lawnmowers in America in
the early 1850s. The machine in this photo represents the first walk behind power mower made
in America in 1914, this particular photo dating from 1918.

These were heavy machines because, in those days, it was deemed desirable to have lawnmowers
double as lawn rollers; and I don't mean rolling sufficient to create lawn stripes, but enough
to introduce a compacted earth policy! The Model H had a 30 inch cut and weighted a whopping
850 pounds (385 kilos); the Model G had a 35 inch cut and weighed a whopping-plus 430 kilos!

The 1915 catalogue photo below shows the machine in the photograph. Note the huge crank handle
and the extensive use of oilers. The operator's brimmed cap is somewhat quaint by today's standards.

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The c1928 catalogue illustration below shows that these huge machines stayed in production
for some time. They would have stood out in their 'Tartter Green and Gold' livery.

The big change in the latter machines seems to be the removal of the oilers in favour of
...Forced feed lubrication with the 'Zerk' automatic grease gun. It may be that Coldwell
were using an advanced [for the time] central automatic lubrication system. Otherwise, the
reference may be to the Zerk 'push-type system' of coupling line and nipple that we
still use today. A brief summary may be found HERE.

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TO BE CONTINUED ...