Ransomes Manufacturer Mystery

In the article dated 1833 from the Arcana of Science and Art, the reporter writes that the machine is “manufactured by Ransome's of Ipswich”. However, this is the only reference known to exist before 1853 that claims Ransomes were manufacturing mowers: all other references - including its own advertisements - simply state that the company was selling the machine. Without further evidence it is impossible to know whether the reporter was misinformed or misunderstood the situation. 

This may explain, however, why Ransomes for many years claimed to have been making lawnmowers since 1832. Indeed, many collectors and enthusiasts have assumed the same based on it being repeated in several accounts of the history of the lawnmower. 

There is a reference in a memoir produced later in the century by a Ransomes employee named George Biddell who recalled that in 1840, "the principal work being done by the firm was fitting up Budding lawn mowers". The meaning of this could at the very least be considered ambiguous as "fitting up" might be interpreted to mean anything from "making" to "assembling" to "preparing". In one of his articles for the Gardeners Magazine from 1832, Loudon writes that “should any of part of the machine be broken by accident, a new part may be had from the manufacturer;  J. Ferrabee, Phoenix Foundry”. This implies that only Ferrabee had the stock or capability to produce replacement parts.

In fact, Ransomes (or J. R. & A. Ransome as they were known at the time) was John Ferrabee and Edwin Budding's wholesaler and retailer for London and the eastern counties of England.

The details of how the arrangement worked are unclear. It is possible, for example, that the lawnmower supplied to the Zoological Gardens in London was ordered through Lewis & Davis (Ferrabee's London agents for the lawnmower) but supplied through Ransomes or direct by Ferrabee. Nor is it known how the mowers were shipped from Ferrabee to Ransomes. It is possible they were supplied ready-built but they could also have been sent to Ipswich as crated kits of components ready for final assembly. Certainly that would have made better use of whatever transportation - canals or railway - that was used. 

During this period, each lawnmower appears to have been given a unique serial or registration number cast on it with the words "Budding's Patent" (certainly all known Budding and Ferrabee machines have a different number). This would suggest Budding and Ferrabee had agreed that only the inventor's name would be cast on the machine and used in promotional materials. There are several references from the following years where the lawnmower is called "Budding's Machine" or similar, suggesting that for a period at least the machine was known by the name of its inventor.

By the time the original Budding's Patent design lapsed in 1851, estimates based on numbers claimed for manufacturing and sales by the two companies suggest Ransomes had sold around 37 per cent of the Ferrabee mowers produced to that point.

Two years later, in 1853 Ransomes & Sims as they were known in that year stated in one of their own advertisements that they had "arranged for the manufacture of these machines". This suggests that no such arrangement existed before.