The Follows & Bate’s Climax lawn mower was the first British made side-wheel lawn mower, patented on 31st March 1869. Everett G Passmore of Philadelphia U.S.A. obtained a patent for his side-wheel mower the Philadelphia on 23rd February 1869 just five weeks before.
Since Buddings invention of the lawn mower in 1830 the drive/motion to operate the cutting cylinder came from a heavy rear roller, both above patents describe replacing this with much lighter travelling or support wheels incorporating an internal gear which meshed with a pinion on the end of the cutting cylinder shaft.
Follows & Bate’s patent describes a machine with a small roller in front of the cutting cylinder with brackets for height adjustment as seen on roller mowers, this design was shown in their initial 1869 advertisements, cutting widths of 6, 8, 10, 12 & 14in were available.
By the end of 1869 a review in ‘The Ironmonger’ showed an image of the Climax with the small roller at the rear of the machine, this being the design that continued in production.
Advertisements seen from 1871 to 1881 only feature the rear roller machine in cutting widths of 6, 7, 8 & 10in. Perhaps the front roller version was never actually produced, or only for a few months.
Examples of the Climax are rare with only around twelve known to exist worldwide, the majority being the small 6in cutting width, one 7in held by us (see below) plus an 8 and 10in held in another collection.
In 1871 Follows & Bate’s introduced a similar designed side-wheel mower to compete with the USA called the Anglo-American available in eight different cutting widths from 8in to 30in.
The two smaller sizes were referred to as the ‘Croquet Mower’ and the largest two the ‘Pony Mower’.
Our Exhibits
Follows & Bate’s Climax 6in acquired in 2013 from a collector in Scotland who had previously restored the mower, pictured left.
On the right a 7in model acquired in 2020 which is preserved in as found condition, the only model of this size known to exist.
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