World's First Riding Mower?

World's First Riding Mower? AG WORLD 32-1-23 Vintage lawnmower collector James Ricci loves to show friends and visitors that the first riding lawn mowers were actually powered by horses. Produced between 1842 and 1942, horse-drawn lawn mowers are now very hard to find, he says. Ricci has only six or seven in his collection, after more than 15 years of looking. They compliment the rest of his vast antique lawn mower collection, which numbers over 600. "I probably have 150 really interesting ones. I'm amazed by the sheer variety of mower designs that have been manufactured over the years," Ricci says. "The horse-powered lawn mower was first produced in 1842 in England, and I think it was sometime in the mid-1850's that it was first made in the U.S." Horsepowered "rear roller mowers" were the most common riding lawn mowers. They have a large, heavy drum at the back, which flattens any divots that might be made by the horse's hooves in soft ground. The operator's seat is positioned above the roller, with the cutting reel located in front of it. The large cast iron roller ground-drives the cutting unit through a series of gears on the left side, according to Ricci. Ricci points out that today's self-propelled golf course mowers have essentially the same design. "The horse lawn mower could do the work of three or four men with hand-pushed reel mowers," he explains. "The most common horse riding lawn mower widths are 30, 35 and 40-in., and they were manufactured by more than six different companies, with Coldwell being the largest supplier." In addition to other styles of horse mowers, Ricci's collection also includes a few well-worn leather horse boots, which were used in the spring and fall when the ground tended to be wetter. They distributed the animal's weight and reduced cutting into the turf. While there aren't a large number of lawn mower collectors in North America, it's a hobby that's gradually growing here, according to Ricci. It's a huge collector hobby in England, he says. Ricci has almost finished writing a book about the history of the lawn mower, also. In addition, Ricci's seeking old lawn mower catalogs and literature to compliment those he already has. "Not too long ago, I was called upon to supply a reel mower and a rotary mower from the mid-1950's for the movie set of Revolutionary Road with Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet. They were filming in Connecticut and needed mowers from that era for a scene, so that was a very interesting experience for me," he points out. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, James B. Ricci, 30 North Farms Road, Haydenville, Mass. 01039 (ph 413 268-7863; jricci @reel lawnmower.com; http://www.crocker.com/~jricci/).

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