John Albert Burr Inventor of the Rotary Mower

 

John Albert Burr 
1848 - 1926

John Albert Burr was born in Maryland in 1848 to parents who were slaves and later freed, John T. and Anna Wanger Burr. During the American Civil War John was a fieldhand worker. Black activists made certain John's ingenious skills didn't go unnoticed and he enrolled in engineering courses at a private university. John attended Harvard Business school.

He had a job performing routine maintenance checks and fixing any issues on various types of machines. John relocated to Chicago where he was a steelworker. In 1898, John filed for the rotary mower patent. He received his patent for the rotary mower in 1899.

 

John created gadgets for mulch clippings, sifting and dispersing them. He enhanced the lawn mowers design by cutting closer to buildings and wall edges. His invention reduces the grass being caught in the blades. It helped save labor and is good for the grass. John got to witness his invention commercialized and gained royalties as well. John has obtained over 30 patents regarding lawn care and agricultural inventions. At 78 years old John died from influenza. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who's Lonnie George Johnson?

Image
  Lonnie George Johnson  (born October 6, 1949) is an American inventor, aerospace engineer, and entrepreneur, whose work includes a  U.S. Air Force -term of service and a twelve-year stint at  NASA , where he worked at the  Jet Propulsion Laboratory . He invented the  Super Soaker  water gun in 1989, which has been among the world's bestselling toys ever since.     Johnson was born in  Mobile, Alabama .  His mother worked as a nurse's aide and his father was a World War II veteran. His father explained the basic principles of electricity to Johnson at an early age .  Stating that he "always liked to tinker with things," He was nickname d the professor from the neighborhood kids .  He once destroyed his sister’s doll trying to see what made the eyes close. He a lso tried to cook up rocket fuel in a saucepan and by doing so almost burned down the house.   He attended  Williamson High School , an all-black school in Mobile.  Most of his inspiration came from  George
Read more

Happy 2024!

Image
  Sheryl Martin, Broker/Realtor Realty One Group Results 336.355.7098 keys2homeownership.realtor@gmail.com Servicing the Greensboro, North Carolina and surrounding areas Strength, Stability, Exceeding Expectations for Exemplary Service and Professionalism
Read more

First Black Woman Elected to Congress - Shirley Chisholm

Image
Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) During the racially contentious period in the late '60s, she became the first Black woman  elected to Congress . She represented New York's 12th District from 1969 to 1983, and in 1972, she became the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.    She was born November 30, 1924,  Brooklyn, NY and died January 1 , 2005, in Ormond Beach, FL .   She was born to immigrant parents of Barbados . She met Conrad O. Chisholm in the late 1940s.  He had migrated to the United States from  Jamaica  in 1946, They married in 1949 in a large West Indian-style wedding . She subsequently suffered two miscarriages, and, to their disappointment, the couple would have no children .   She directed daycare centers f rom 1953 to 1954, Friend in Need Nursery,   located in  Brownsville, NY and then, from 1954 to 1959, the Hamilton-Madison Childcare Center,  located in  Lower Manhattan .  At the latter, there were 130 children, ages three
Read more