OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Personal Histories MR SCOTT BONNAR's Lightning Cutter - c1913

Hello ODK History Lovers

This post is the result of original research I undertook a couple of years ago.
This is the first time this information has been made available to a wide audience.

The man Scott Bonnar was not just a brass finisher, foundryman, electroplater, engineer, and
business owner: he was an inventor! And not just an inventor; but a successful manufacturer of
the invention - a green feed cutter used in the poultry feed industry - to feed chickens!

His machine - the Lightning Greenfeed Cutter - is the topic of this post.

CONTEXT
In 20th century Australia poultry was a feature of the domestic landscape. It was not uncommon
for town and city folk to keep hens for egg supplies. Thus, in the "Poultry, Dogs, Birds, etc."
section of newspapers a reader would find advertisements for Incubators, Brooders, and Greenfeed
Cutters. These were sold by many of the leading ironmongers of the day.

I have no doubt that the inspiration for this new design cutter came about because of Scott's
exposure to all types of equipment when working as an apprentice and then tradesman at Dobbie
and Company.

Dobbie's Ironmongery operated from commercial premises, but they also had a separate machine
shop and foundry. They sold and repaired a wide variety of equipment including greenfeed cutters.
Scott would have seen, first-hand, the strengths and weakness of the various makes available at
the time, and his patent represented an improvement that would prove successful in its production
over the years ahead.

The following advertisements are quite informative in that they tells us how big the machine was:
it was clearly table or bench mounted and was aimed at poultry owners with a small number of birds.




TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART TWO - The Patent

This patent was Applied for in late 1913, when Scott was single and just twenty-years-old.
The patent was Accepted in late 1914. Here is the Public Notice of Acceptance.



This was an improvement on existing machines. Scott's machine's main feature was that it
had a 'compensatory' spring loaded mechanism by which the cutting wheel would yield to any
solid foreign matter that might be in the uncut material, thus preventing machine jamming.

Here is the accompanying illustration to the patent.
I would like to acknowledge the research skills of member Sir Chook in finding the patent
document at AUSPAT. I have included the patent document below for downloading.
It is well worth the read.

PART THREE - SIGNIFICANCE

The most rewarding thing for me in researching the Scott Bonnar Company was in the discovery
of another Scott Bonnar company: the original one, run by Mr Scott Bonnar, as sole proprietor
and owner.

Scott ran this business, first at Young Street, and then at Bloor Court, both in Adelaide's
CBD. He did this from 1916 to 1919. Of course, none of this was ever mentioned in Malcolm
Bonnar's Memoirs, nor was it known to leading authorities on the Scott Bonnar Company. This
'first phase' of the Scott Bonnar story will be told in future posts.

This machine is of utmost importance to the Scott Bonnar story. It was Scott Bonnar's first
product and it shows, right from a young age, his inventiveness and engineering ability
as "Sole maker and patentee". That he did this at such a young age is quite extraordinary:-



This must have been a successful machine. Scott sold this machine from his premises.
That tradition would be carried on with the 1920 Scott Bonnar company, who also sold direct
from their showrooms for many years.

By 1919, Scott's advertisements said the Lightning was "Obtainable from all leading houses."
This can only mean that Mr Scott Bonnar's first product was a success - a greased Lightning!

The rest is history.

SCOTT BONNAR MODELS
YOUNG STREET PREMISES



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