Lawn-Boy is a brand of

lawn mower A lawn mower (also known as a mower, grass cutter or lawnmower) is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades (or a reel) 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 g ...

, originally manufactured by the Evinrude Company in 1934 and owned since 1989 by Toro. It was the first one-handed reel power mower{{what, What is a "one-handed reel power mower"?, date=December 2021 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In 1946, Joel G. (Jack) Doyle built the first rotary lawnmower for the Rotary Power Mower Company of Lamar, Missouri. Doyle accumulated orders for these mowers from

Sears Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

, Gimbels, Spiegel, and other businesses. OMC then bought RPM in 1952, and changed the brand of the rotary lawn mower to the Lawn-Boy name. In the 1950s, RPM facilities were converted to production line manufacturing to meet the high number of orders from bigger retailers such as Sears Roebuck and Spiegel.. Also, newer, quieter engines were introduced to reduce sound. In 1963, the Lawn-Boy HQ and factory was moved from Lamar, Mo. to the Gale Products Facility's (another part of OMC) site in Galesburg, IL. The next couple of decades included a long period of research and development as the company continued to expand, including overseas. Riding mowers, tillers, and

snow blower A snow blower or snow thrower is a machine for removing snow from an area where it is problematic, such as a driveway, sidewalk, roadway, railroad track, ice rink, or runway. The commonly used term "snow blower" is a misnomer, as the snow is ...

s were introduced, as well as a new

2-stroke engine A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...

in 1970 that produced more power, with less weight and fewer parts. During this time the D-400 engine became popular. In 1983, two factories were opened in Mississippi and Tennessee. Marketing and Engineering was moved to the Memphis, Tennessee facility. In 1988, Lawn-Boy acquired Gilson Brothers Co., a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of outdoor power equipment and recreational equipment. In 1989, with a dire need for cash, OMC sold Lawn-Boy to the Toro Company, and eventually consolidated to the Toro headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota. Since the acquisition by Toro, Lawn-Boy has introduced several new series of lawn mowers, including a new lineup of walk-behind mowers and an entirely new category of Zero Radius Turning mowers. Due to engine emissions regulations, Lawn-Boy had been forced to stop using their longtime 2-stroke engine that was favored for its light weight and simple operation.

External links

Lawn-Boy
Companies based in Bloomington, Minnesota Lawn mower manufacturers

See also

External links