Meet John Albert Burr: The Great Black American Inventor Who Invented Rotary Lawn Mower–world history and facts

Meet John Albert Burr: The Great Black American Inventor Who Invented Rotary Lawn Mower–world history and facts




John Albert Burr, who was born in the state of Maryland in 1848, was a youngster at the time of the American Civil War. His parents were slaves who were eventually set free, and it’s possible that he too was a slave up to the age of emancipation, which occurred when he was 17 years old. However, he did not avoid manual labor entirely because, when he was a teenager, he worked in the fields as a laborer.

However, others took notice of his abilities, and affluent Black activists made it possible for him to enroll in engineering programs at a prestigious private institution. He made a career by repairing and maintaining various machines and farm equipment using the mechanical talents he had acquired over the years. 

He relocated to Chicago and started working in the steel industry there. In 1898, when he submitted his application for a patent on the rotary mower, he was a resident of Agawam, Massachusetts.

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