The first mechanical contraption for cutting grass on grounds was made by Edwin Beard Budding of England in 1830. The steam powered lawn mower designed by James Sumner of England appeared in 1893 only. Modern rotary lawn mowers were not made since 1930s.
Basically, there are two types of lawn mowers based on the mode of cutting. Firstly, in the reel type mowers a spiral blade system spinning on a horizontal axis against a stationery horizontal blade. The grass gets cut to a smooth finish by entangling between them. This can be pulled or pushed manually and the traction power also spins the horizontal axis of blade set. Large reel mowers can also be pulled by lawn tractors. Also, self propelling battery powered reel mowers were available.
Secondly, in the rotary type lawn mowers, a horizontal fast spinning blade set cuts the grass, or rather tears the grass blades, by the sheer impact of fast spinning blades. Obviously, it does not give smooth finish, since tearing, unlike cutting, gives raise to ragged tips of grass blades. Hence, it is not used for golf courses etc.
Other types of lawn mowers include Hover lawn movers, riding lawn mowers, Robotic lawn mowers, large scale lawn mowers like gang-mowers etc. To cut the grass near fences trees and other constricted areas, clippers and edge trimmers are used.
Mechanical powered mowers and trimmers were often powered by gasoline (petrol) based engines. But manual and electrical powered engines are more advisable, since the pollution created by a gasoline driven lawn mower is quite high. Some studies suggest that in some states of US, the lawn and garden equipment’s pollution turned out to be up to 7% total air pollution in the area!
Among the other aspects one needs to know about these equipment, mulching blades are important. These blades in rotary cutters keep cut grass to circulate under the mower till the pieces were chopped finely. It helps reduce the labor of bagging the clippings or raking them. When it is necessary to bag to the clippings, some mowers were fitted with a grass catcher in the rear.
