 | |
| Company type | Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Industry | Lawn and garden tractors |
| Founded | 1944 |
| Defunct | 1982 |
| Fate | Merged |
| Successor | Gilson Brothers |
| Headquarters | Ralston, Nebraska, USA |
Key people | Howard Phelps |
| Products | Lawnmowers |
Sensation Lawn Mowers was a commercial lawnmower brand created by Howard Phelps in 1944. The Sensation Lawn Mower Company was located in Ralston, Nebraska, USA. [1]
In 1941 Howard Phelps received patent number 2,265,545 on his mowing machine, which featured a rotary cutting blade directly driven by an industrial quality electric motor. [2] This very prototype still exists and is on display at the Pioneer Village Museum in Minden, NE. The Sensation Lawn Mower Company was started by Howard and his wife Rosemary Rodman Phelps.
In 1944 Phelps designed a gasoline powered mower.
During the 1950s a generation of snow blowers were developed under the name of Snow Blow. Phelps held patents on over 20 innovations in the lawn industry including the first for a rotary mower grass catcher U.S. patent number 2,855,744 in 1960.
In 1966 Phelps sold the company to local real estate agent Frank Rogers who in turn sold it to a group of Chicago investors headed by Carl Johnson. The plant was moved to 16th and Evans Streets in North Omaha, Nebraska. The "Sensation Mike Bike" was named after Frank Rogers son Mike.
In November 1982 the Sensation Lawn Mower Company was bought by Gilson Brothers, [3] which is considered one of the founding industries of Wisconsin by researchers at the University of Wisconsin. [4] Gilson Brothers' products were distinctive due to a bright orange and white color scheme.
In 1988 Gilson was bought out by Lawnboy, [5] which was acquired in 1989 by Toro.
Sensation brand lawn mowers are no longer produced but are still in use today. Mowers were available with the Sensation brand into the 1980s. The Sensation brand was preferred by many landscapers [ who? ] because to their perceived high-quality and apparent longevity.[ citation needed ] The mower was considered[ who? ] unique because of features such as greaseable wheels, thick cast aluminum decks, and some unique innovations like a cone-shaped metal crankshaft support which was purported to help prevent bending of the crankshaft.[ citation needed ]
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially tillage, and now many more. Agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, and the tractor may also provide a source of power if the implement is mechanised.
A lawn mower is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades to cut a grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by the design of the mower but generally is adjustable by the operator, typically by a single master lever or by a mechanism on each of the machine's wheels. The blades may be powered by manual force, with wheels mechanically connected to the cutting blades so that the blades spin when the mower is pushed forward, or the machine may have a battery-powered or plug-in electric motor. The most common self-contained power source for lawn mowers is a small 4-stroke internal combustion engine. Smaller mowers often lack any form of self-propulsion, requiring human power to move over a surface; "walk-behind" mowers are self-propelled, requiring a human only to walk behind and guide them. Larger lawn mowers are usually either self-propelled "walk-behind" types or, more often, are "ride-on" mowers that the operator can sit on and control. A robotic lawn mower is designed to operate either entirely on its own or less commonly by an operator on a remote control.
Lawnmower racing is a form of motorsport in which competitors race modified lawnmowers, usually of the ride-on or self-propelled variety. The original mower engines are retained, but blades are removed for safety. The sport attracts all ages, and is usually entered into in a spirit of fun rather than extreme competitiveness, though many participants do take it seriously.
Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes, typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The U.S. Department of Labor estimated that more than 900,000 workers are employed in the landscape maintenance and groundskeeping services industry in the United States in 2006. Of these over 300,000 workers were greenskeepers for golf courses, schools, resorts, and public parks.
The Toro Company is an American company based in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota that designs, manufactures, and markets lawn mowers, snow blowers, and irrigation system supplies for commercial and residential, agricultural, and public sector uses.
Ariens Company, stylized as AriensCo, is an American equipment company based in Wisconsin which has a long history manufacturing snow blowers, lawn tractors, and zero-turn lawn mowers for commercial and high-end consumer markets. Ariens touts itself as being the "mower of the White House lawn," "official snow blower of Lambeau Field," and the "King of Snow".
Lawn-Boy is a brand of lawn mower, originally manufactured by the Evinrude Company in 1934 and owned since 1989 by Toro. It was the first one-handed reel power mower introduced to the American public. Evinrude purchased Johnson Motor Wheel Company from a New York stock brokerage firm a year later, and in 1936 they merged with the Outboard Marine and Manufacturing Company (OMC), continuing production of Lawn-Boy mowers until 1939, when it was temporarily put on hold to manufacture outboard motors for World War II.
Flymo is a hover lawnmower invented by Karl Dahlman in 1964, after seeing Sir Christopher Cockerell's hovercraft. "Flymo" is a brand name of the Swedish company Husqvarna AB, a part of Electrolux from 1978 to 2006. The mower is a variation of the petrol-powered rotary push lawn mower, but uses a fan above the mower's spinning blades to allow the mower's body to hover over the lawn. The mower is claimed to be more manoeuvrable and easier to push than wheeled petrol mowers, while delivering similar results.
The Husqvarna Group is a Swedish manufacturer of outdoor power products including robotic lawn mowers, chainsaws, trimmers, brushcutters, cultivators, and garden tractors. Founded as a firearms manufacturer in 1689, it is one of the oldest continuously running companies in the world. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the group also produces consumer watering products under the brand Gardena, cutting equipment and diamond tools for the construction and stone industries.
Two-wheel tractor or walking tractor are generic terms understood in the US and in parts of Europe to represent a single-axle tractor, which is a tractor with one axle, self-powered and self-propelled, which can pull and power various farm implements such as a trailer, cultivator or harrow, a plough, or various seeders and harvesters. The operator usually walks behind it or rides the implement being towed. Similar terms are mistakenly applied to the household rotary tiller or power tiller; although these may be wheeled and/or self-propelled, they are not tailored for towing implements. A two-wheeled tractor specializes in pulling any of numerous types of implements, whereas rotary tillers specialize in soil tillage with their dedicated digging tools. This article concerns two-wheeled tractors as distinguished from such tillers.
Victa is an Australian manufacturer of outdoor garden equipment, including petrol, electric, and battery-powered lawn mowers, edgers, trimmers, and chainsaws. The brand is best known as a manufacturer of rotary lawn mowers. In the early 1960s the company also built light aircraft, notably the Victa Airtourer, and project homes.
A roller mower, or rollermower, is a tractor-powered multi-spindled rotary mowers that have full width rollers front and rear. Most rollermowers attach to a four-wheeled tractor via the three-point linkage and are powered by the tractor's power take-off (PTO), though larger models connect three or more complete mowing decks to a separate chassis that is towed behind the tractor. Good rollermowers can produce a finish rivalling that of reel (cylinder) mowers while generally being far more robust and requiring considerably less maintenance. Modern machines can also cope efficiently with a wider range of grass lengths and densities than cylinder mowers.
Snapper, Inc. was an American company, formerly based in McDonough, Georgia, that manufactured residential and professional lawn-care and snow-removal equipment. Snapper was known for their high-quality products, including rear-engine riding lawnmowers capable of standing on end for storage or repair, and for their invention of the first self-propelled rotary lawn mower.
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