UPDATE: I’d never seen this brochure before finding it on eBay. This is part of what was a vast vintage jeep doc and toy collection in New England. I’ve bought a few cool things from him.
As for a date on this four-page brochure, I’d say, given the patent date of 1948, that this brochure might have also been printed in 1948, especially given the CJ-2A. My guess is that Mr. Keyser didn’t make enough money to warrant any future reproductions of it. But, that’s only a guess.
While I’ve always called this a K and K mower (that’s the manufacturer), the brochure and data tag describes it as a Jeep Mower Bar (see pics at very bottom).
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 17, 2019: In February of 1948 Allan Keyser filed a patent for a side mower. It appears this became the design for the K And K Manufacturing Company’s Mower as seen in the brochures at bottom. You can view other early mowing apparatuses here. Interesting that this came out of Colorado. I wouldn’t have guessed it.
“This invention relates to a mower attachment for the presently popular small, four-wheel drive, automotive vehicles popularly known as jeeps, and has for its principal object the provision of means whereby a mower bar can be quickly and easily attached to, or detached from, the vehicle so that it will be easily visible and easily controlled by the driver of the vehicle.
Another object of the invention is to provide highly efficient means whereby the angle of attack of a mower bar may be adjusted to suit the desires of the user and the requirements of the particular crop being harvested.”
This suggests that Bingham had some time of relationship with Thor, but his exact connection to Thor isn’t known at this time (my guess is that it was a subsidiary or sister company of White).
Beck sold his hardtop company to Hubert A. Kelly, in the 1950s but Beck and Kelly remained in contact. The date of the sale, thought once to be 1951, is less clear after this document hit eBay in 2014. It indicates Beck was still selling hardtops in 1954.
