The year was 1921.
Warren Harding was inaugurated as the 29th president of the United States; Mao Tse Tung formed the communist party in China; Coco Chanel introduced her signature fragrance - No. 5; Albert Einstein won the the Nobel Prize for physics; and Marion Harris topped the charts with her rendition of Spencer Williams' "I Ain't Got Nobody", a tune later popularized by The Village People in 1978 and David Lee Roth (of Van Halen fame) in 1985.It also was the year that Oscar Jacobsen started a namesake company in Racine, Wisconsin, releasing a mower capable of cutting 4 acres of grass in a single day, an unheard of feat at the time.
This year, the same company that started in 1921 and has grown into a multinational operation as a division of Textron, is celebrating 95 years of business.
In that span, Jacobsen has recorded a number of industry firsts.
to watch a history of Jacobsen.
Click here for a company timeline.
The aptly named Four Acre mower released in 1921 was built to professional specifications and was designed for use on golf courses, parks and cemeteries. The price tag reflected its quality, drawing $275, no small piece of change in those days.
Four years after releasing its first mower, Jacobsen revolutionized the golf business forever when the company brought to market what it says was the first professional greensmower (PGM) built from aluminum.
Production transitioned to supporting the war effort during the first half of the 1940s. Jacobsen built not mowers for golf courses and parks, but equipment for the U.S. military, including what the company called backpack generators for use on the front.
By war's end, the company acquired the Worthington Mower Co. in Pennsylvania, which specialized in large-area mowers for parks and golf courses.
The acquisition fit in perfectly, and as the company continued to grow after World War II, Jacobsen entered the consumer market, buying the Johnston Lawn Mower Co. in Iowa, and in 1955 released its first consumer-grade rotary mower.
The company stepped up its game in the 1960s, particularly in golf, introducing the first riding greensmower, the Greens King, in 1968. That also was the same year the company went public. A year later, growth continued and Jacobsen was acquired by Allegheny Ludlum, which subsequently sold the company to Textron in 1978.
As golf courses changed and so to did the ways in which they were managed, so too did Jacobsen. By 1971, the company offered the F-20 wide-area mower. The largest golf course mower of its day, the F-20 was a nine-gang, tractor-pulled unit with a cutting width of 19 feet capable of mowing more than 12 acres per hour.Other firsts included the greens groomer in 1986 that allowed superintendents to increase putting green speed without lowering the height of cut; the LF 100 (1989), the industry's first lightweight fairway unit; and the Eclipse 22 (2009), the first hydraulic-free electric greensmower.
As the company knocks on the door of its centennial, the standards Oscar Jacobsen put into place nearly 100 years ago still are the pillars on which it stands.
"Since Oscar Jacobsen founded the company 95 years ago, his original vision really hasn't changed much over the years," said David Withers, president and CEO of Jacobsen. "He set out to provide equipment that helped turf managers provide superior conditions, maximize productivity and reduce costs. From his original putting greens mower to today's HR Series of wide-area rotary mowers, we've delivered on that vision for 95 years. And now it's the countdown to our centennial in 2021 when we will celebrate our 100-year anniversary."