In the early 1930's, with America and the rest of the world sinking into The Great Depression, only three companies were involved in the walk behind rotary tillage industry. One started as a distributor of European machines, one modified European models and renamed them, and the last was a manufacturer.

Steve Ariens had developed an interest in the manufacturing of a rototiller. The family business reorganized in 1933 as the Ariens Company in Henry Ariens' garage and Steve Ariens' basement. The first walk-behind tractor-tiller made was 30" wide powered by a 14 h.p. V-4 cylinder engine. This was a prototype, no patent application or other information is known. The other two sons Francis Ariens and Leon Ariens were also cofounders of the new company.

Cadwallader Washburn "Carl" Kelsey, inventor, automobile manufacturer, and pioneer of the rototiller industry, was born July 30, 1880 in Switzerland to American parents on holiday. Raised in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Kelsey attended German Friends School and Central Manual Training High School. He apprenticed at a local business, the Heidrick Machine Shop. Kelsey made his first motorcar after graduation. He then attended Haverford College.

Kelsey was involved in the automotive industry from 1897, while still in college he and a classmate, I. Sheldon Tilney, made 3 cars. In 1924 after a career being a Dealer and Sales manager for Maxwell's (1904-1909); manufacturing several models including the C. W. Kelsey Manufacturing Company three-wheel Motorette (1910-1911), and the Kelsey Motor Company Perfected Friction Drive (1920-24), Kelsey quit the automobile industry.

During the First World War Kelsey was honored by being a member of a board of inventors convened by Thomas Edison of aviation pioneers after Kelsey invented the first practical device to measure the ground speed of an airplane while working for the Air Production Board.

In 1930 Kelsey was introduced to the rototiller by H. B. Hiller an German immigrant who once worked for Kelsey Motor Company and now worked for Siemens "bodenfrsen" division. Hiller was sent by Siemens to offer Kelsey a distributorship. Kelsey opened a sales office using the name Rototiller Co. in New York City and started importing the German Siemens model K-5 "bodenfrsen" or "earth grinders" as the "Exclusive Manufacturers, Importers and Distributor for North and South America & American possessions." The first dealer to sign on with Kelsey was P.E.G. Neilson of Glen Rock, NJ. Mr. Neilson remained a Rototiller dealer until the end. In the 1950's there were 225 dealers nationwide.

In 1932, Kelsey incorporated using the new company name Rototiller, Inc. and the "Rototiller" trademark. The corporate address was 21-24 44th Avenue, Long Island City, NY. Kelsey didn't coin the name 'Rototiller,' as it was already being used in Europe. The operation was moved from Broadway in NYC to Long Island City and SIMAR from Switzerland was added to the line.

In the Garden Way pamphlet Gardening Beyond the Plow, Kelsey "ever the promoter" was to have demonstrated his Rototillers to the professional growers at "the prestigious Rutgers' University Field Trials in 1932" were pictured. Records of these "Field Trials" where not found by the current agricultural department staff at Rutgers or at The Agricultural Museum of New Jersey, at Cook College where the archives are kept. Field Trials testing garden tractors are in their archives. This demonstration was probably at an annual meeting for these nurserymen, greenhouse operators, and professional growers. Kelsey later would have field trials at the Troy factory to demonstrate to the dealers new machines and attachments.

Carl Kelsey designed, patented, and made several improvements to the SIMAR and Siemens machines because of the different American soil vs the European soil that had been farmed for several centuries. One major improvement was a shock absorber to reduce tine spring return bounce, reducing spring breakage, U.S. Patent Number 1,944,937 (1934). Kelsey even designed a can to help mix the Gas-Oil mixture for the 2-cycle engines used on the Rototiller, U. S. Patent Number 2,161,060.

Harry Seaman built his first "walking model" Rotary Tiller in 1931. With a water cooled engine mounted on what appears to look like an early Siemens K-5 transmission, handlebars, and miller.

Seaman Motors claimed to have "Pioneered and developed the first practical: Farm-Scale Rotary Tiller."

In 1936 Seaman received a contract to build 4-foot wide "farm-scale" Rotary Tillers for a number of government tree nurseries who were infested with white grub. The rotary tiller was tractor-pulled and powered by the tractor PTO. The white grubs were severely damaging the young seedlings. Rotary tillage was observed to destroy harmful soil pests such as the white grub. The rotary tillage also increased the germination rate and helped to produce a hardier and healthier seedling.

The Post War Years, Everyone is getting in the act.

The war was not over yet, but it was coming to an end in Europe. The war in the Pacific against Japan could have gone on for another year. But U.S. manufacturers were planning ahead anyway, not knowing a post-war material shortage would exist and stop many plans of even the biggest companies.

On June 16, 1910, Konrad Victor von Meyenburg, Assignor to the firm of Motorkultur A.G. of Basel, Switzerland filed for his first U.S. patent on "Machine for Mechanical Tillage," Patent No. 1,018,843 was granted on February 27, 1912.

SIMAR (Socit Industrielle de Machines Agricoles Rotatives) of Geneva, Switzerland, under license from K.V. von Meyenburg began manufacturing their version of the Rototiller. SIMAR sold thousands of these rototillers to all parts of the world under the von Meyenburg patent.

K. von Meyenburg licensed his patent to Siemens-Schuckert-Werke of Berlin, Germany. Siemens, an electrical manufacturer, built the first "boden frsen" using an electric motor and a long extension cord in 1911. The farmers did not like this idea and it was abandoned.

Siemens then replaced the electric motor with a gasoline (petrol) engine and the rotary tiller brought the German small-scale farmer into the Twentieth Century.
The Rototiller In America Page 4 of 1



The Rototiller In America Page 1 of 1