Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 29, 1993 TAG: 9306290122
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHAMPAIGN, ILL. LENGTH: Medium
Andrew has designed a mower that cuts his field without anyone sitting at the wheel. Wire, wood and even a rusty tomato can are important parts of an invention that draws second looks and much envy.
"It upgrades you from a laborer to a manager," boasts the retired agricultural engineer who turns 79 in July. "Most everyone calls it a contraption. But there was quite a bit of math, engineering and discussion involved."
Every 10 days, Andrew takes a common riding mower to the north end of his grass airstrip in Champaign, 130 miles south of Chicago.
A wooden plank attaches the mower to a spool of sturdy wire placed in the center of the area to be cut.
The wire then stretches from the spool to a post at the south end of the half-mile-long field. As the mower creeps south in a spiral pattern, the wire winds around the spool. After six hours, the job is done.
"I check it every two hours to look at the gas and oil," Andrew said. "Otherwise I take a nap, have a cup of coffee, cut some weeds, read the paper. There's plenty to do."
During a recent demonstration, he proudly turned the key and then got out of the way as the mower hummed along at 4 mph, evenly coughing up clippings with no one in the seat and no hands on the wheel. The field, a few miles west of Champaign on U.S. 150, is 20 yards wide, bordered by mature trees, a bass pond and Interstate 74.
Why the homemade mower? Wrong question for a guy who once decided to run a hand-cranked ice cream maker with an old car transmission.
"He's been doing things like this for 50 years," said his wife, Rose. "I always wanted a nice refrigerator that pops out ice cubes. I never got one because he fixes the old one."
Andrew gives credit to his colleagues at the University of Illinois, some active, some retired, who offered advice during their regular coffee klatches.
"I've known him for 20 years, and he's never stopped coming in with questions or ideas that stimulate us," said Loren Bode, associate head of the agricultural engineering department.
Andrew and friends had a few bugs to work out before the mower went on its first cut three summers ago. Some wondered how to stop it automatically if he wanted to trim only part of the field.
There were a few fancy suggestions, but Andrew settled for something simple: a tire tube, which ties up the blades and kills the engine wherever it's placed. "It gets cut up quite a bit," he said of the tube. "But it lasts for two years."
by CNB