MOWER OF THE MONTH
Number Forty
RANSOMES ELECTRA
When the Ransomes Electra was introduced in 1926 it was the UK's first commercially available electric
powered mower. Other companies had tested electric powered mowers before this,
and at least one manufacturer in the US began production of electric powered
machines at around the same time, but the Electra was the first to be sold
successfully in the UK.
The Electra was powered by an
electric motor fed from mains electricity. Although mains power had been
available for some time in the UK it was largely confined to urban areas where
there was a ready market. Supply in rural areas was patchy at best although some
larger houses were occasionally connected and a few even had their own power generating
plants.
The limited availability of main electricity would not have helped sales of
machinery like the Electra although there were some compelling reasons why this
would emerge as a useful way of powering lawn mowers. Pound for pound electric
motors are more efficient than petrol engines, especially at the relatively
small outputs required for powering lawn mowers. Electric motors offer
instant power and, assuming a supply is available, never run out of fuel. They
are also quieter, less smelly and cleaner than petrol engines.
Nevertheless electric
power presented new problems that designers had to overcome. One of the most obvious
of these was that the mower was constantly connected to the mains by a long cable.
This meant that the mower could only be used where the cable would reach!
Another limitation was the constant risk that the mower would run over and cut
through its cable to leave potentially dangerous bare live wires. This was in the days before
contact breakers and other safety devices so care had to be taken. The solution
devised by Ransomes was to hold the cable above and away from the main body of
the mower with a swinging arm. This helped reduce the risk of snagging the cable
when the mower was in use or of running over and cutting it.
Ransomes already had great
experience with electric powered machinery, especially tram cars and trolley buses
which the company continued to make for some years after its first electric
mower. In some respects the arm on the mower resembles the devices used by trams and trolley
buses to connect to
the overhead cabling above the streets!
The Electra was initially
available in 16" and 20" cutting widths. These were followed by a
14" model and, later still, 24" and 30" designs. The larger
models were based on existing Ransomes motor mowers but the 14" was in
electric powered version of the Countess, one of its popular hand operated
models of the same period. In some of the company's contemporary publicity
material the mower was designated as the Countess Electric Lawn Mower but the
Electra name was adopted for the entire range soon after.
The Electra remained in
production throughout the 1930s although it was superseded in 1936 by new
Ransomes Lawnic and Bowlic designs. After this sales of the Electra appear to
have been mainly in the export market. Although it did not sell in great numbers
it was nevertheless a useful addition to the Ransomes range that offered an
alternative power source or in situations where quiet operation was desirable.
It is also, as the first production model electric mower, an important stage in
the development of the lawn mower especially as so many modern domestic machines
are electric powered.
By the 1950s electricity was
much more widely available, especially in rural areas and "ordinary"
houses. This led to the introduction of many different electric mowers from the
leading manufacturers. These were often based on the equivalent hand machine
from the company.
A number of Ransomes Electra
mowers have survived, mainly in museums, although one or two are also in private
collections.
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