| Houston businessman,
George Ballas, invented the Weed Eater lawn trimmer in 1972, while
looking for a solution to his personal grass clipping chores.
The idea came to him as he drove through an automatic car wash and
watched the spinning nylon bristles clean his car without damaging
it. He wondered if he could the apply same principle to trim the
grass around his trees' trunks without damaging the bark.
Rushing home, he dug through the
trash and found a tin popcorn can. He punched holes in it and
inserted short lengths of knotted nylon fishing line to simulate the
car wash bristles. He attached the can to the rotary on his lawn
edger and within seconds the spinning nylon lines neatly sliced
through the grass adjacent to a tree. He knew he had found the
answer to his prayers and those of millions of other
people.
Mr. Ballas began the slow
process of gearing up marketing, engineering and production of his innovative
trimmer. Within four years, sales skyrocketed and Weed Eater
became a household name.
He sold the booming business to
Emerson which merged it with Beaird/Poulan to form Beaird-Poulan/Weed
Eater. With the combined resources, the company began venturing
into other lawn and garden product categories. Poulan/Weed Eater
was then Purchased by AB Electronics and operated as a division of
White Consolidated Industries Outdoor Products, Inc. until becoming a
part of Frigidare Home Products.
Poulan/Weed Eater Today
Today, Poulan/ Weed Eater is the
leading North American manufacturer of gas, electric and battery
powered, handheld outdoor power equipment. It makes more lawn
trimmers, blowers and chainsaws than any other manufacturer in the
world - producing over a million unit annually. This company is
also a leader in hedge trimmers, edgers, mowers, tractors and tillers. |