The increase in life expectancy during the 20th century is largely due to improvements in child survival; this increase is associated with reductions in infectious disease mortality, due largely to immunization.1 However, infectious diseases remain a major cause of illness, disability, and death.
The First Mowers. The lawn mower was invented in 1830 by Edwin Beard Budding, an engineer from Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. He obtained the idea after seeing a machine in a local cloth mill which used a cutting cylinder (or bladed reel) mounted on a bench to trim cloth to make a smooth finish after weaving.
In 1902, Ransomes of Ipswich, another English company, produced the first commercially purchasable lawn mower powered by an internal combustion gas engine. 1919 brought the first gas powered lawn mowers, manufactured by Colonel Edwin George, and gang mowers, those with multiple sets of blades, to the United States.