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MOWER OF THE MONTH
Number Seventy-One
ECLIPSE "LADY"
The story of the American Eclipse Company starts with Fred
Adams, an Illinois farm boy who later trained as a jeweller. Fred conceived the
idea of a self-sharpening lawn mower way back in 1900 and the following year
went on to found the Eclipse Company in Prophetstown,
Illinois. The company had made a sidewheel "Lady" mower from the very
early days of its existence, alongside a wide range of very similar sidewheel
machines. Moving with the times the company was to produce in the 1950s a wide
range of powered machines as well before being taken over by Hahn in 1960.
The "Lady" illustrated is in fact not one of
these early mowers but a post-1945 import (to the UK) which utilised many
of the components of the earlier machines. The rubber-tyred wheels are a
bit of a giveaway really but generally this later Lady follows the
traditional pattern set by the company all those years ago. This
particular example was bought from a scrap dealer at the annual Farm
Machinery Preservation Society Show at Gosfield, Essex in 1998. It is
interesting that the words on the handle still state "With Adams
Sharpener". Because these were largely illegible when the owner
bought the mower he spent some time looking for a character called
"Will Adams-Sharpener", which only goes to show how easily one
can be led down blind alleys. Eventually he was to carry out some useful
correspondence with the librarian of the Henry C Adams Memorial Library in
Prophetstown who supplied him with one of the firm's salesman's
catalogues.
Words and images by Christopher Thompson.
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