MOWER OF THE MONTH
Number Seventy-Five
JP MINOR
JP Minor was the second had mower produced by JP after the
company's Super. It was produced in 9in and
11in versions.
The 9in was introduced in 1930 and was followed by the
11in in 1934. Both adhered to the basic pattern established by JP with its
earlier designs. The cutting mechanism was driven by precision gears
enclosed in an oil bath. This was more advanced than most other domestic
mowers available at the time.
Both of the early Minors had a "double helix"
cutter where the blades were aligned on the cylinder in a chevron pattern.
This was designed to throw the grass into the middle of the box although
it is unlikely that it would have made much difference on mowers this
narrow. Most other manufacturers, if they used the idea at all, only
fitted the chevron blades on mowers with cutting widths of 12in or
more.
The Minor appears to have been made in the 9in version
only after the Second World War. Machines made between 1948 and 1950 were
equipped with a conventional cutting cylinder. The Mark 2 version was
introduced in 1950 and remained in production until 1961.
In addition to the blade style another distinguishing
feature of the early JP Minor models is that they had a bulbous aluminium plate on the right
hand sideframe (when
viewed from the the operating position, behind the handles) with JP Minor cast into it. The
mark 2 (and possible all post Workd War Two models) had a plain sideframe.
Like all JP hand mowers the Minors were popular with gardeners because
they produced an excellent finish to the lawn and were easy to operate.
The Minor was very east to adjust. A single hand wheel at
the side was used to adjust the position of the front rollers and hence
the cutting height.
The bottom blade was also adjusted relative to the
cutting cylinder with a single hand wheel located on a shaft running
across the top of the thrower plate.
JP Minors are generally less common than the larger JP
Super, especially the early models.
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