Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1917 — CUTS DOWN WEEDS [ARTICLE]

CUTS DOWN WEEDS

HANDCAR CONVERTED INTO A MOWING-MACHINE. With a Crew of Three Men It Can Remove Obnoxious Growth on Both Sides of the Track at Rapid Rate. The railroad handcar has been converted into a railroad The three men required to operate It are able to do the work of 30 men with scythes, and when the car is mowing at its maximum speed it can cut down from two to four miles of weeds and brush an hour. When the mowing blades are not in operation the car can travel from 18 to 20 miles an hour. The motive power is a six-horsepower gasoline engine. Thomas McGee of Madison, S. D., is the inventor of the machine. He has made the mowing blades vertically adjustable, so that they may be moved into different positions and to different inclinations for mowing upon level or inclined surfaces. Furthermore, the mowing mechanism at each side of the car is controlled independently, so that one mower may be thrown out of operation while the other continues to cut.

The accompanying illustration shows the mowing-machine car with cutting blades raised to pass through centerguards. When the blades are operated they cut a swath five feet wide on Heaeh=slflvoF the car. After the weeds and brush have been removed another machine —the railroad disking machine —is brought into operation in its wake. This machine has a series of disks which smooth down tlie gravel Just beyond th? ends of the ties. —Popular Science Monthly.