Today's Tidbit... Mowing Early Football Fields

Artificial turf is increasingly popular at football venues across the country. The systems drain well and eliminate muddy games commonly seen on heavily-used grass fields that exhibit dirt patches as seasons progress. Another justification for artificial fields is the reduced cost of maintenance. No watering, no mowing, and no chalking despite their intensive use.

Football was nearly 100 years old before artificial turf came along, so I thought it would be fun to look back on how fields were kept in trim during that time. As it turns out, the first lawn mower was invented in 1830 by Edwin Beard Budding, an Englishman. His mower worked along similar lines as today's push reel mowers. It worked well enough that some credit his mower with enabling the development of modern regulated sports (e.g., lawn tennis) and venues.

Budding mower by Ransomes of Ipswich (Herring, Mary, 'From Sheep to Robots: The History of Lawn Mowers,' Iron Solutions, August 3, 2020.)