The Allen Scythe, sometimes referred to as Allen Power Scythe, is a petrol-powered finger-bar mower. It was made from 1935 until 1973 by John Allen and Sons in Cowley, Oxfordshire. The company was formerly the Eddison and Nodding Company, was bought by John Allen in 1897 who renamed it the Oxford Steam Plough Company, and then renamed it again to John Allen and Sons.
The Allen Scythe does not resemble a hand scythe but serves the same purpose. The engine drives a 2- or 3-foot-wide (0.91 m) toothed blade sliding back and forth horizontally across stationary teeth to produce a scissor action, and also drives two large wheels for forward travel. There are handles to allow the machine to be controlled by an operator walking behind it, controls comprise throttle and clutch. Separate ratchets allow either one or both wheels to be driven. In normal use only one is engaged so that turning is easier. The machines are extremely robust and many from the 1950s are still in regular use. They can be dangerous, as the clutch system only disengages the wheel drive from the engine: the blades cut all the time the engine runs.
Later models were available with different attachments, including rotating brushes that replaced the cutting head, air or water pumps and saws or hedge trimmers that drove from the starting pulley side of the engine.
An Allen Scythe was featured in Episode 6 of the BBC Two reality show Wartime Farm. It was used by cast members Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn to harvest a hay crop in a church yard.
Read more about Allen Scythe: Engine
Famous quotes containing the words allen and/or scythe:
“All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.”
—Bob Dylan [Robert Allen Zimmerman] (b. 1941)
“A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass.”
—Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741–1821)