Improved Mode Of Coupling Machine Bands Or Straps

The lawnmower was not the only patent registered by Budding in 1830. 

In November that year he was granted a patent covering an improved method to couple machine bands or straps. The use of belts, bands, or straps was not new and they had in fact been used to help power all kinds of machinery from well before the industrial revolution. Budding's idea would seem to be more concerned with making the joins in the belts simpler and more reliable, an important consideration when failure would prevent a machine from working. 

This may be relevant to the history of the lawnmower: in the documents for his Lawnmower Patent No. 5990, Budding suggests "the revolving parts may be driven by endless lines of bands instead of teeth." In this case the "teeth" are those found on the gear wheels of the first lawnmowers. Budding clearly also foresaw additional applications for flat leather and fabric belting which may have included the newly-invented lawnmower. Bands and straps incorporating the new couplings and made by Ferrabee were exhibited in London with Budding's Lawnmower in the 1830s.

Budding's reference to "endless lines of bands" is is often thought to mean chain drive (as successfully applied by Thomas Green's under Patent No. 1384 of the 6 June 1859, some 29 years later). However, pinion chains had already been invented. For example, in the London Journal for New Patents 1830, published in 1831 but prior to Budding's strap invention, there is an entry concerning a patent granted to Mr Oldham, Engineer for The Bank of Ireland, covering a design for pinion chain.