After writing about George Ballas, I was in e-mail contact with my old friend, Don Woods. I had been trying to figure out how to put into words a story to tell about Don and why he is one of the most memorable people I have ever met. We go back a long ways so there would be too many anecdotes to tell. Working with Don at Weed Eater, Inc. is one of the reasons it was a fun place to work. George Ballas, of course, was the other. I remember much of what Don refers to in this condensed history of the evolution of that little company. Don Woods was once described to me as a "word merchant". Whether that is a complement is not totally understood but he can "spin a yarn" with the best of them. Here then is his recollection of Weed Eater from the beginning:

IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS NO “WEED EATER”
Don Woods-7-11-04
From a Real Bad Memory!

Fall of 1969: George Charles Ballas (GCB) developed the original concept of the string line trimmer while he was making a trip to the Houston International Airport to pick up a business associate. He stopped in an automatic car wash to rinse off his Cadillac and while sitting inside as the brushes went over the outside cleaning off the dirt, he noted that the strings did a great cleaning job without hurting the paint.

GCB’s home was located in West Houston on 3 acres. There were about 100 trees on the property. He could get a gardener that would cut the grass but would not trim around the trees and house. This was the key reason for his developing interest in a safe trimmer that everyone would LOVE to use.

Later at his home, he took a Jolly Time Popcorn can and used an ice pick to punch multiple holes in the outside. Then he took fishing line from an old rod and reel in his garage, cut it into short lengths and tied knots in the end. He then placed them into the holes in the popcorn can. It kinda looked like a mop! Understand that GCB was not a mechanic… he could not assemble his kids Christmas toys. But, he mounted this to the motor in the old electric edger and took it out to a tree next to his garage to try it out. It didn’t last long since it was so out of balance but it did cut some grass and prove to him that the idea worked!

During this time, I was still employed with IBM. I met/worked with GCB in the evenings and on weekends. Some time later, we were having dinner and GCB asked me if I thought that fishing line could cut grass. I said, “Yes, if it is turning at a fast enough speed to cause it to become rigid.” He took a napkin and sketched his concept of the string line trimmer head. I said, “That will do the job.”

We went to Sears and bought a Hoffco P-9 Power Scythe metal blade brush cutter. GCB had a disk of Nylon machined with 8 holes around the perimeter and mounted this to the P-9 Power Scythe drive shaft.

Testing was started and the results were dramatic. Jobs that used to take me several hours as a kid were done in minutes. The SAFETY issues were most impressive. We could cut around each other’s feet without cutting the shoes or hurting the feet. We could cut around bottles without breaking them. The more we experimented, the more impressed we became.

The 8 holes proved out to be too many. It caused more of an air stream that blew the grass down rather than cut it efficiently. The lines were reduced gradually down to 1. It was felt that 4 lines gave the best cut with the longest line life.

Nylon fishing line was not a big seller in the larger diameters. GCB went to Oshman’s, a major sporting equipment store in Houston and bought some .065” deep-sea fishing line. After testing this and it worked well, GCB went back and bought the whole reel. The salesman thought he had died and gone to heaven. That stuff had not moved in several years and one guy bought it all out! GCB had gotten several more P-9’s fixed up for testing and passed them out to some of his friends who would do the testing. He gave each one a small amount of the .065” line and wanted test answers each day.

This was the launching of the “Saturn 5 Rocket” of Weed Eater.

Winter of 1969: Much grass was cut. This was difficult since the time of the year was winter and grass was at a premium. We cut grass on highway medians where winter rye was planted. We cut grass at intersections where grass weeds had grown up around traffic lights and guardrails. If it was green, it got cut! Most of this testing was captured on Super 8 film.

Many trips were made to Braeburn Country Club where we became great friends with the Grounds Manager. He was impressed with the simplicity of the machine and was on the list for the first ones made.

Spring 1970: Due to the success of the P-9, GCB made contact with Hoffco, Inc. in Richmond, Indiana. He wanted a source for units. He wanted a source that would make the units, install the cutting heads made by GCB in Houston and ship them to the 50 states around the country. This was the simplicity of his marketing and sales strategy.

He discussed his project with David Hoff, President of Hoffco. Dave was skeptical at first. He wanted to see this thing in action. He and his company had sold the P-9 to the Forestry Service for fire lane clearing with a metal blade for many years. He just did not see using “fishing line” to cut grass.

The Test: An appointment was made with Dave to come to Houston for a demonstration. He had his own plane so; he scheduled it the next week. We made arrangements with the Grounds Manager at Braeburn City Park to use his property. He had it all…. The drainage ditches, culverts, parking bumpers, brick buildings, restrooms, picnic tables, etc. We got it aligned with some others in our group to help and GCB was going to do the demo.

Now, this is classic. GCB always drove his Cadillac even when testing units. He had it all in the trunk. He wore a white golf shirt, blue yachting pants and white sneakers. Being Greek, he looked like a Mafia Godfather for a day at the beach. He had spoken to Dave by phone but never met him.

Dave drove up with his friend and Pilot Chuck Seib. The initial meeting was exactly right… they both liked each other from the start. GCB went to his Cadillac and got the unit out of the trunk. He strapped it on and went about cutting grass like a professional. He made short work out of the hardest obstacles to Dave’s total disbelief. Dave tried it out and was just as impressed. A deal for units was struck on the trunk of the rental car. GCB was starting to develop his Distribution Network. He signed up for 10 units for Dealers to begin testing more units.

The testing continued and GCB was taking on investors to develop financing for the Company.

Another classic event:

GCB was showing some investors how the unit worked and line up some financing. To get the most bang for the buck, he drove them in his Cadillac to River Oaks in Houston. (Now, this is an old-line residential subdivision with the BIG HOMES and a lot of Old People.)

He drove around looking for a good demo sight and found an older home that did need a lot of trimming. The window shades were closed and he did not get an answer at the doorbell. He kept on trying and saw the living room blind open slightly so he tried again. The front door opened slightly and a little old lady asked what he wanted. He said, “Would you like for me to cut around your trees that are grown over?” She asked him how much would he charge? He said, “How about $.10 per tree?” She thought it over quickly and said, OK.

GCB went out to the Cadillac and got his unit from the trunk. Strapping it on, he proceeded to whiz around her yard to the amazement of the investors (and to the little old lady who was watching through the blinds). He also did the flowerbed borders and the walkway up to the front door. There were 20 stepping-stones in a walkway to the rear and he did them just for laughs. In a matter of 15 minutes, he was through.

Never to miss a buck or be outdone, he went up to the front door and rang the bell to get paid. She came to the door and said, “How much do I owe you?” Now GCB was quick with his math and said, “How about $1.50?” When she paid him quickly, she asked, “Will you be back next month?”

You have to see this from her position…. A Greek looking guy in Yachting clothes in a Cadillac with two other men in business suits coming to her house to cut grass around her trees… then does extra work on the walks and all for $1.50.

The investors “were in” after this Demo!

SPRING OF 1970:

The development of the 4 string Nylon cutting head was done by GCB & Thomas Geist. He was a Vietnam Vet from Special Forces and was “lightly wrapped”. He would actually go out, sit on a fence and bay at the moon…. No I’m not kidding! GCB felt that 4 lines would be best as it gave the operator more working line surface even though 2 lines would work just as well but not last quite as long cutting. It went without saying but the even number of lines was recognized as best due to the balance of the head.

The original prototype was done with what is now the cover as the hub and the hub was the cover with the spools installed. This did not work out as the whole thing was instable due to the excessive weight caused by the spools. GCB took the prototype without a change to the current design to Blackwell Plastics to build a production molding tool. Blackwell did it virtually from a prototype with no drawings. And, it worked the first time. Testing of the complete unit with a real cutting head that had spools of nylon line installed had finally started.

FALL OF 1970:

The Distribution Plan was decided… two step distribution with a Distributor in each state (and two in Texas because of the size of the state) for a total of 51 customers for the company to do business with. GCB did not want to do business with “thousands” of customers all across the US of A.

GCB wanted a company name that described what the product did as well as what the company was to be called. His family got involved and with his guidance, the name Weed Eater was chosen to fully describe what the tool did and it made an impressive name for the new company as well.

GCB had a competition at home between his 5 children to give the product a name. The result was “Weedie” and the Model was 650. In the evolving numbering scheme, the last digit was the year of release. The company was now selling the 3 hp. Tecumseh powered “Weedie” Mod. 650 made at Hoffco in Richmond, Indiana.

The Nylon cutting heads were produced in Houston at Weed Eater’s company office premises by a group of Hippies (long hair, loud music). They wound the spools, built the heads, played their music and “sang their songs”… it was a zoo! This in-house production was GCB’s way to control the patent and availability of cutting heads… no one else made heads, period. Anyone that tried got an immediate Legal “hate letter nasty gram” regarding Patent Pending comments and advise about not encroaching or we will see you at the courthouse.

The price of the 650 was $385.00. Even with this high price, the product was moving to the surprise of everyone and GCB included. It did had not taken long for GCB to decide early that a gas unit at this price would not move tons of product. What was needed was an electric unit for the Mass Merchants to sell to the homeowners.

SPRING OF 1971:

Early in the Spring, the first “trauma” developed.

There were reports from the West Coast that “spools were exploding in the bins.” At night, when all was quiet, some Distributors reported hearing a popping noise in the part’s room. The spools were sold in bags of 10 and when they were opened, the spools were broken in half. The problem was the nylon line constricting. The original spools were made of two pieces and snapped together for winding. The Nylon line was delivered dry from extruding. Due to the need in the field, no time was given for the nylon line to pick up moisture as it was being wound directly from the delivery truck. When wound on the spool tightly, it would constrict as it picked up moisture and break the spool. Two things became evident. 1.) The nylon had to pick up moisture and 2.) The spools had to be made as one piece. GCB had gone with the two piece construction due to time and money of which he was short of both to make his schedule. He relented and had a proper plastic mold made with retracting cores to make a single piece part.

GCB came upon the “bright idea” of a way for adding moisture to the line and had a “Weed Eater Nylon Line Conditioning Room” built at the back of the plant. It was a Confidential Process and the room had signs on the door “DO NOT ENTER”. When customer visits were made, the room would be shown but no one was allowed to go inside to see the confidential process. The “confidential process” was the use of 10 steam vaporizers (like you buy at the Drug Store for head colds) placed around a room lined with wood shelves loaded with spools of Nylon Line. They stayed there for 72 hours to “age”…. Problem solved!

As things were moving along with the “Weedie Mod. 650”, GCB became consumed with looking for an electric motor to make the electric string line trimmer. His first efforts were disappointing to say the least.

He went to major motor manufactures with his project. After they got through laughing and began to discuss motor volume, he thought that 5,000 motors would be “a whole lot”. The motor mfgs. did not agree to say the least. They were thinking in the 50,000 to 100,000… per month! He went to Black & Decker and other product developers who had electric motor capabilities… none were interested in talking with him. He tried several attempts to build a prototype in his office. One was a near disaster.

The UFO at the Door:

I came in from my IBM work and found him sitting at his desk looking a little white in the face… that is hard for a Greek to do. When I asked him what was wrong he asked me to close the door to his office. I thought he was going to tell me a secrete and wanted privacy. He said, “Look at the back of the door!” There was a hole about the size of a grape fruit in the back of the door panel. “What caused that?” I asked. Well, he had adapted a prototype electric head to a ROUTER MOTOR and turned it on. The RPM’s were EXCESSIVE as you might imagine and the head exploded. The parts went everywhere but the biggest part went into the door. Fortunately, no one was hurt. From then on, he asked for help first. The development activities continued with a lot of future false starts and disappointments.

FALL OF 1971:

Plans were made to go to the National Hardware show in Chicago and have a booth. The booth was small and in the basement (along with all of the other first timers and experimental tryouts). He tried again to meet with people who were electric motor manufacturers and get some interest in making motors for him. Still a lot of turn down’s and “it cuts grass with what?…. nah, you won’t be in business in a year!” But as far as the Weed Eater, it was the talk of the show.

SPRING OF 1972:

The sales were up! The Gas unit was making headway in all of the 51 Sales Regions.

GCB was still working on the electric version. He had some outside folks come in and try to develop a motor for the trimmer. A lot of activity but no true results that paid off.

Another Challenge!

All through the development of the Weed Eater product, GCB had been afraid that he was not the “only guy in the world that thought line would cut grass” and asked all friends he knew to keep an eye out for anything that might throw a wrench into the works.

A friend of mine at IBM gave me an article from Popular Mechanics in the New Ideas section that spoke about a tool made in Germany that cut grass with nylon line. I took it to GCB and he was devastated. “See there, I knew something was out there and I just did not see it coming!”

The company was ADLUS and the product was the ADLUS UFO. He ordered one by airmail immediately. He waited by the mailbox until it finally came. We all gathered around to see what the product looked like. It looked like a toy. It was hand held, operated by stooping over or on all four’s and used .051” line. The line exited the hub through square line posts. We believed it was not commercially acceptable and not a real challenge to what we KNEW worked in the field.

We had already discovered by testing and had patent work proceeding on the curved Line Saver design. We knew that to be commercially successful, three things had to exist. (1.) Motor speed to gain a rigid line, (2.) Curvilinear Line Exit from the hub (Line Saver) and (3.) dissimilar material between the Line and the Line Saver to avoid “welding of the line” to the hub.

Further testing of the ADLUS UFO proved that it was not a serious challenge but GCB was not convinced. He ordered Patent Searches made in Germany. He also arranged a meeting with the developer of the ADLUS UFO to be held in New York. He wanted to see what this person knew about cutting grass with fishing line.

We had some truly impressive Super 8 test films shot during testing by this time. Many were at the Braeburn Country Club and they made the 650 look like a magic wand. The most impressive shots were of GCB cleaning off the old shuffleboard court, which was grown over with years of grass and weeds. By the time this was shot, GCB had become a true master of the 650 and could get more life out of the line than anyone else. The shot opens with a view of the shuffleboard court in its overgrown condition. Then GCB comes in and starts on one corner and proceeds around the whole court, blasting the weeds and grass away. When finished, he returned to sweep the grass away with the 650.

GCB met this man in a lawyer’s office in New York. GCB had his projector loaded with this film. He opened the meeting right up by saying something like, “I just want to show you something and get your impression of what you see.” The old gentleman agreed and the film started. His eyes were as big as dinner plates. He watched the whole thing saying “Oh” and “Ah”. When done, GCB asked him, “What do you think was doing all of that work?” The old gentleman said, “I think it was COMPRESSED AIR?” GCB knew that he did not have even a vague idea of what was doing the work and the meeting was over. He packed his projector, paid the man for his time and left.

FALL OF 1972:

Another trip to the National Hardware show in Chicago was planned. The booth would be bigger this year. GCB was still on the quest for an electric motor. He had more information now than in the past and a proper prototype head but, still no motor vendor.

At the show, Dave Hoff of Hoffco introduced GCB to Mr. Al Allegretti of Allegretti & Co. Dave had told GCB that he felt that Al could make a motor for him. GCB showed Al the head and told him what he wanted to build. Al said, “Sure, we can make you a motor for this. We make a permanent magnet motor that has the torque to do the job.” GCB asked “How long will it take to get a sample?” Al said about two weeks…. And the project was underway!

In about two weeks after the show, Al called GCB to advise him that he had a sample made. GCB was on the next Continental flight to California and the Plant in Chatsworth.

The demonstration was done at the front of the Plant on Mason St. The motor was just exactly what GCB had dreamed of as he experimented with his sample. He asked Al, “What does it take to get this going?” Al said, “Well you will have to get a housing for the motor and we have a handle tool and an Assist handle from an edger we make that we can loan some production to you so, it should take about a month to do the tooling.” GCB asked, “How much will that cost?” When Al said $10,000, GCB reached into his back pocket, took out a check and wrote it for $10,000 and the deed was done on the hood of the rental car.

When GCB met Al, Allegretti & Co was making about $2M/year with hair dryers and wet/dry vacuum machines. They were getting ready to take one great big ride on the “Weed Eater Saturn 5 Rocket”.

The first thought of a mechanical feed cutting head:

As a point of interest, while all of the Electric trimmer matters were “cooking along”, I was working on the development of a mechanical feed for the Weedy cutting head. I felt that stopping to pull out the line was in great need of improvement and a mechanical method of indexing the line would help to sell an “advanced version” of the Weedy.

I developed the design and presented it to GCB. He liked the idea but said, “What is more simple than this?”, and he took a 650 and pulled out the lines. He said, “I know that the operator is more than happy to stop from time to time and pull out the line because this unit gets heavy after a while.” I was still insistent feeling that this would be the next generation. GCB was short of development money considering all of the other lines he had in the fire. Still, he agreed to have an Engineer work with me to develop the plans, make a prototype, test it and apply for a patent. We had a written agreement made up.

The prototype was made and tested. It did work but had the usual “bugs” that had to be worked out. However, due to the other pressing business, nothing was done for some time. The rest of this story would take up several chapters and Mike Bounds can fill in the blanks for anyone that cares.

Production of the First Electric Trimmers:

The start up was what you would expect… but not GCB! He had the propensity to
”make adversity look like a planned activity”. The first samples were made and shipped and the testing started. GCB wanted to put the Electric on the market in Spring 1973. That would take a lot of work for all concerned. All of the vendors had to be arranged and supplies set up and deliveries planned… this was all way over GCB’s head. He just wanted to see production. The product opening was to be in Houston to see what would happen in the market place and this was scheduled to be in April of 1973 at Foley’s Department Stores.

Once again, the family was asked to give the product a name. The first one was “Weedie”. What would the rest be? GCB’s daughter, Nina named the large electric trimmer the “Needie”. The housing was yellow. The trigger handle was Green (and the tool belonged to Sears). The assist handle was an adjustable “post” handle in black plastic that was used on an Allegretti Electric Edger and the cutting head was Green with a Yellow spool made in Houston. The original selling price was $89.95.

SPRING OF 1973:

As the year started a lot of activity was going on in California and in Houston. In California, the purchasing activities were in full swing. Vendors being contacted and schedules made to make production for an April delivery.

GCB had dug down “real deep” and placed an order for 5,000, Needie-500 Trimmers. With all of the other expenses going on and these units costing about $20.00 each, he was “mortgaging the ranch” (He still had to make the cutting heads for these units too) and he did not know if the first one would sell.

As the date drew closer and production started in California, the plans for the introduction at Foley’s were firmed up. The units would be placed in both stores and we would have personnel standing by to check on sales and to answer questions from customers.

When the sale day came, it was just like a CIA movie. People were placed by phones at both ends. A direct line to GCB for updates as sales came in. When the stores opened, the phone lines buzzed. “How many people are coming by?” “Did anyone pick up a unit?” “Did they buy it????” “How many are being sold?” “Someone bought two units? Are you sure they bought them?” Some people bought one, took it home and tried it and were so impressed, they returned to get one for a relative.

By the end of the sale, hundreds of units had been bought at $89.95 and Foley’s was impressed. GCB was floored! He saw a big dent in his 5,000 units already and the season has just opened. He called Al to update him and to up the order for another 5,000 units. Al said that that could not be done over night and GCB said “take until the end of the week!”

Reality was going to overwhelm imagination real quick. Al turns up the heat on the vendors to increase production. GCB is keeping a pulse on sales.

The next thing that happens is that the initial small pipeline of sales is full and awaiting consumer purchases. GCB sees the shipping activity at the back door slow down and panics. What is he going to do with another 5,000 units so; he calls Al to turn the valve OFF. Naturally, Al looses his mind… tells GCB that that just can’t be done and the vendors are locked in to make production. The units are COMING! And that is the way the next few years went as these two Mediterranean mentalities (Al was Italian and GCB was Greek) learned how to do business with each other.

The UL Experience:

Of course, no trimmer like the Weed Eater had ever been tested by UL. The only Standard that was close was UL-82 but it was for “metal blade trimmers”. Allegretti was responsible for getting the listing so we could go to market. Needless to say, there were MANY conversations about meeting the deadline and UL was so unsure about listing this with all of Weed Eaters “claims about safety”… they just didn’t know what to do. After multiple battles with the UL beauracy the deed was finally done and UL was sitting on the edge of their chairs.

The Sales Organization is launched:

As sales started, GCB made contacts to finalize the Sales Organization in the 50 states (Texas was completed with a Distributor in Dallas and one in Houston). By the Fall of 1973 with some success under his belt, GCB was ready for “early booking” of units for 1974.

His sales program was depending on placing of orders between October and January with the biggest discounts for these “early orders”. Once these orders were placed, the paper was sold to Jung Factors in Houston who advanced money on these committed orders from the qualified Distributors. The “factoring process” is how GCB kept the doors open with a seasonal product that only sold in spring.

FALL OF 1973:

Once again it is time for the Hardware Show in Chicago. This year Weed Eater moves “upstairs” to the big room. A lot of talented people were involved with the planning and execution of a fine show. Many sayings were developed that became associated with the product. Some were, “Weeds ARE a Pain in the Grass!” “Give a Weed an Inch and It Will Take a Yard!” “Weed Eater Cuts Grass With Class!

Because cutting grass with nylon line was so new, GCB developed a little display of “Free Weed Eater Blades”. This was a small box with short sections of nylon line (like a box of wooden matches) for people to take a sample. “T” shirts with the cute sayings were made as sales incentives. Baseball Caps, Belt Buckles, Cloth Patches with the product Name… all of these were made available as sales tools.

GCB was aware that the public was still not at ease with the cutting process. The question was still, “Cuts grass with what?” To take the initiative, he processed an “endless tape” of Super 8 film using a lot of the test shots with a great voice over explaining the use of the Weed Eater Product. He lined up Fairchild Camera with their point of sale projector to make them sales tools for Weed Eater. If the Distributor ordered the right amount of product, they would qualify for these sales tools FREE. It worked like a dream and Fairchild Camera thought Weed Eater was their financial savior. GCB bought thousands of these point of sale projectors in the next few years.

SPRING OF 1974:

The sales were coming in and Production was rolling out to meet schedules. Not that there were not problems but, each one was handled quickly by the staff members at Weed Eater, Hoffco or Allegretti. Everyone was so excited about how this was going.

By this time, Allegretti was beginning to see how well this product would be selling. They were an old and reliable source for Sears. Al had established this relationship with the old manual hand operated stick edger many years before and it was still in the product line for Sears.

Al wanted GCB to allow him to sell the Nylon Line Trimmer to Sears as part of his continuing manufacturing agreement to make product for Weed Eater. GCB and Al agreed that Allegretti could offer what would become the Weedwacker trimmer to Sears and George would have 5 years to make the Weed Eater Company a success with the rest of the world. At the end of that 5 years, Allegretti could start making their version of the Nylon Line Trimmer (Rota Shear) for their own sales. (It was interesting that the name Weedwacker came from Sears as a combination of “Weed” with “Wacker” from Wacker Drive in Chicago, one of the streets that front the Sears Tower.)

With the “Needie” selling well, GCB was thinking that there was a market niche for a smaller, less expensive trimmer for small yards. He felt that the “product” needed to become a Product Line. So, the development of a midsize trimmer was started.

It was to be a 10” cut where the Needie was a 16” cut. Allegretti had motor capabilities for a series wound motor that would do the job. A smaller head had to be developed and the styling of the housing was to be patterned after the Needie for a product line look. The development started. Samples were made and sent to GCB for testing and approval.

How GCB “designs”:

One incident sticks with me. The Allegretti Engineers felt that they were becoming quite knowledgeable in the design of a string line trimmer. They had a housing tool made, shot some parts and sent samples for testing. GCB said, “The angle of the tube into the housing is wrong… it is too hard to use.” The Allegretti Engineers said, “Well, the housing tool is already made and to change it would be a big cost and take quite a while. It also takes life out of the tool to go welding on a finished tool!”

A lot of Weed Eater people looked at it and agreed with GCB that the handle was not comfortable to use…. The angle was WRONG. GCB went to Al and asked that something be done or we won’t have a sellable product. Al said, “I just don’t know what you want me to do. I know you will be unhappy if we screw up this new mold trying to fix this problem! How much of an angle change is needed????”

GCB took the sample and put his knee in the middle of the shaft and bent the shaft until he was happy with the angle of cutting. He airmailed the sample back to Al and said, “This is what I want!”

Sure enough, that is EXACTLY WHAT HE GOT! Al had the Engineers design the tube with the bend that GCB had done over his knee and the product was launched with a curved shaft. This was the “Snippy” and was the Model 400. It would start delivery in Spring, 1975.

FALL OF 1974:

It was another trip to the National Hardware Show. And once again, Weed Eater was on the top floor… and bigger than last year. And, again Weed Eater was a big draw. People were still getting used to cutting grass with fishing line.

All of this time, others were thinking that they would like to get into the nylon string line trimmer business and were starting their own companies. Some even showed up at the National Hardware Show. GCB was not impressed and he released the Lawyer “attack dogs” on each one that surfaced. He had asked all Distributors to take pictures of (1.) any display that used the Weed Eater name incorrectly in an advertisement and (2.) any supplier that put out a “bandit version” of a string line trimmer.

GCB had several philosophies he ran the company by:

1. Patents are not worth a damn! A patent pending is worth more so you have the advantage of telling a potential infringer that you have a Patent in Process. Once the Patent issues, the whole world has a list of what your are claiming and the infringers start to engineer around your design.
2. Move the company ahead as though you will never get a patent! This was to outpace any competition with market presence. He always spoke of the hoola-hoop and the pet rock as examples of companies that just went after it full bore and outstripped any competition.
3. Be on top of Copyright infringement! He was always looking out for improper use of Weed Eater in advertisements. If another upstart vendor launched a product and called it a Weed Eater, lightning struck from the mailbox. He was aware of the loss of trademark and spoke often about Aspirin as an example. He said that most people don’t know that Aspirin was a trademark and was allowed to be violated to such an extent that it became generic for anything that worked on headaches. He also told about Coca Cola and their active programs to protect that name.

The Fall product Bookings were OUTSTANDING and 1975 was looking real GOOD.

SPRING OF 1975:

As this spring season began, the pipe line was filling up for a banner year. Consumers were asking for the product. Stores that did not stock them were calling Distributors wanting to be included.

In the spring, George decided that he wanted to be more involved with manufacturing. He wanted to be in the Plastic Molding business so in June, he hired a Plastics Engineer, Al Mitchell. Al was a Giant of a Man physically and had the greatest sense of humor ever invented. He was also quite a talent. He knew Plastics and was a machinist and inventor. On top of that, he understood motor design. He was a true “triple threat”. If Al said it could be done, BOOK IT!

UL is still “out there” to be reckoned with.:

As the product became better known and UL was always coming up with the new “64,000 Dollar Question”, Al was placed as the interface from Weed Eater. Two things of notice became issues:

1. What is the safe speed for nylon line where contact will not cut flesh?
2. A blade shield was needed to protect the operator.

Al set about to answer these questions. The shield was proposed was to guard the operators feet during use. GCB said, “If you lift the unit up, you can still stick your fool under the shield… what the h*** is the use in that except extra cost???” After a BIG LOT OF QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS, GCB went to California to meet with the UL folks. His goal was to come back with NO SHIELD ON THE ELECTIRC UNIT… PERIOD!

At the meeting in the UL Lab, he was in the workshop with the Agent discussing the shield. He said, “That electric chain saw over there doesn’t have a guard and I’ll bet it will cut a lot worse than my Weed Eater.” There was not disagreement. It was mentioned that with a guard, the chain saw would not be able to function. GCB said the Weed Eater was in the same class. STILL A BRICK WALL! So, GCB says, “Let’s do a test. You take the chain saw and do what I am going to do.” He turned on the Needie and passed it across his leg. Later he told me, “MAN THAT SURE HURT, but I didn’t say anything!” No one wanted to try that with the chain saw. He then made a big mistake. He had the deal in the bag but went just a little too far to show that the damage was nothing like what would have happened with a chain saw… he lifted his pant leg to show where it had struck him. It was black and blue with bruises. If he had just gone his way and not pushed it, he would have probably come away with the guard removed from the trimmer but instead the guard had to stay.

So, in his own style he set about to make the shield so ugly and difficult to install that the average homeowner would just throw it in the garbage can.

The safe speed of Nylon Line:

This question was asked as UL was trying to write changes to UL 82 to incorporate the String Line Trimmer; what is the safe speed for Nylon Line that will not cut flesh?

Al set about to develop tests to determine an answer. After several weeks, GCB asked Al what progress he had made. Al had determined that the line speed should not exceed 32,000 feet per minute. He had determined above that speed it would sever the epidermis. GCB asked Al how he had determined such a speed. Al side stepped the question several times but GCB was unrelenting… he wanted an answer. Al said, “George, you REALLY DON’T WANT TO KNOW!” After a heated discussion, Al relented and said that he had tested the line on the foot of a cadaver at a local morgue. That was the last time that GCB pushed Al for an answer when he said, “You Really don’t want to know!” The measurement was given the unit of measure of a “mitchell” or 32,000 mitchells. To avoid further emotional problems, the test subject was changed to a turkey leg and called the KFC Test.

FALL OF 1975:

By this time GCB was feeling that Weed Eater was going to make it and do so in a big way. He offered me a job assisting him as Executive Vice President. I left IBM after 20 years and became a full time Weed Eater employee. This decision did not take 10 seconds to make as I felt that this was going to be a great experience that I wouldn’t want to miss.

GCB was looking at smaller Gas Units with Hoffco. The Model 600 with an Echo/Kirowitz engine was being worked on.

Smaller heads with three exits and manual feed were also being developed.

We were also looking at a MECHANICAL feed head for the electric trimmers at last. Together, using the index philosophy I had developed on the 4 spool Weedie project, we developed the bump/feed head that is the current TNG series. This was introduced in 1976 for the 1977 Season on the Needie 507.

Another disaster but it works in our favor:

The original Weed Eater facility was located in a Shopping Center off of Richmond Drive in West Houston. The entrance was just a long hallway leading to the back of some office space. This is where the whole deal started and it was now getting quite small for all of the new people coming on board.

When Al Mitchell started as Plastic Engineer and Engineering Manager, the goal was to get into the plastic molding business. But, there was not enough room to do this anywhere close.

On the corner of the Shopping Center was a Super Market. Late one night it caught on fire and burned down. Smoke damaged the other offices between it and the long hallway. GCB made a deal with the landlord to occupy the space as soon as it was rebuilt. This space was to become the Engineering Department offices and the Plastic Molding Facility. Al signed up for 6 VanDorn Plastic Molding machines and the push was on to get the rebuilding done ASAP.

SPRING OF 1976:

1976 was going to be a busy year. We just didn’t know HOW BUSY it would be!

Disaster looms it’s ugly head for us AGAIN:

As the selling season had gotten under way for 1976 the pipe line filled up and product was flowing out of all Sales Regions.

Early in the spring, calls came in from Canada first that some Needie heads had “blown up” while being operated by a consumer. This was followed later in the month with calls from many other Distributors reporting the same thing… Heads were Blowing Up in the consumer’s hands and some reports of damaged shoes from the flying parts. Fortunately, NO INJURIES!!! And no damage to the safety reputation of the new String Line Trimmer.

We immediately called the parts in for evaluation. What we found was that the nylon had not been shot at the proper temperature and the granules were not fully melted (short cycled processing). From the outside, it all looked great but when you get past the skin on the outside, there were the plastic pellets that were still unmelted.

We worked all night for several nights to make a “spin tester” that would rotate the hubs to 30,000 rpm. When we tested a good unit, it did not fail. When we put on a defective unit it failed at from 3,000 to about 6,000 rpm. The Needie ran at 9,500 rpm… bad news confirmed.

Due to the controls that we had put in place with vendors, we knew by date codes exactly when, where and on what shift each of the parts were molded. Because of the high volume of hubs needed for head production, one molder was running to the limit of his capacity and this specification was violated for two days or 6 shifts.

We entered an immediate hold on all sales and called in production from the affected dates of production of the hubs involved. The big problem was that due to the rate we were making Heads for Allegretti and our need to ship to meet scheduled dates by contract, the heads were mostly at Allegretti already. Since they did not use FIFO controls, the inventory was mixed in their warehouse and units from various dates had been already used in production while some were still in the warehouse. What we knew for sure was that our exposure was approximately 196,000 heads that had to be reviewed. Some hubs were in Service Stock, some were in our warehouse to be made into Heads, some were in Allegretti’s warehouse (we hoped) and some were already in the Distributor/Consumer chain and SOME WERE IN CONSUMER’S HANDS.

I fielded the recovery plan immediately.

1. All field sales were stopped down to the retailers. All products were opened and the hubs were evaluated by date code to make sure they were OK. If defective, replacement hubs were sent by Air Freight overnight. All Field Service Inventory was checked and replaced the same way.

2. Weed Eater’s inventory was checked so we could send out good replacements by Air.

3. I flew to California and reviewed the inventory at the Allegretti plant with Joe Allegretti and Chuck Mattson, Engineering VP.

4. Weed Eater was making replacement Heads to send to Allegretti by Air to keep production running.

5. We had a good return of Warranty Cards so, we sent out a mailing to all consumers. We had a team in Service that sent out hubs with instructions for each returned card stating the defective date codes.

6. We kept CPSC informed of our actions.

The bottom line was that with our quick efforts we were able to effect a 96% recovery of all identified defective inventory system wide. CPSC stated their surprise and satisfaction with our quick response since we were such a new company. They didn’t think we could do it to such a level.

GCB decides to take a rest and appoints his son Bucky Ballas (BB) as President at 23 years of age.

The pressure was a lot on GCB. He liked to invent things and do the advanced planning. He did not care how the Mail Room ran except that it always got things done ON TIME. He did not like the Administrative issues of running a business and it was now getting to be a full time project.

So, he announced that he was promoting Bucky Ballas to President to run the company from day-to-day. My job was to administer the Purchase contracts between Weed Eater and Hoffco/Allegretti. My major assignment was to ensure that both sides met our responsibilities of the legal agreement struck between GCB and Al Allegretti during 1975. I also was responsible for the agreement with Hoffco but that was NEVER A PROBLEM; they always did what they said they would do without an argument.

Even with this change, the real power ALWAYS remained with GCB.

We are running out of space. Build a Plant or Rent more space?

Just to keep things interesting, we saw that we were running out of space even though we had taken over the old Super Market space. We began to have plans made for a Plant to be built.

Cutting to the chase, once we got the first designs settled and had it estimated for cost, GCB knew that that was the wrong way to go… for right now at least. So, we began to look for space.

It was settled to take space in a new Strip Center on Harwin Drive in West Houston. Interestingly, this was about half of a mile from GCB’s home. (coincidence???). The first amount of room was 40,000 square feet in the middle of the complex. When we saw it we all asked, “What are we going to put in all of that room?” (P.S. By the time we moved out in 1979, we had negotiated leases on the whole one block complex and half of the one behind it for the Molding Shop & Warehouse.)

FALL OF 1976:

Back to the Hardware Show in Chicago and a bigger booth. We had a full line of product and lots of new sales tools with Point of Sale displays sporting the Fairchild Camera projector and new films. New commercials were made and we were on the Super Bowl with 6 spots! GCB had always committed that he would spend 10% (minimum) of his Gross Profit to build the company. Weed Eater was becoming a household name and the “cuts grass with what?” comment was being heard less and less.

Montgomery Ward (MW) wants a unit. Allegretti says, “What about our Sears deal?”

It was known that if Sears had a product, they would be responsible for about 25% of your annual sales. It was also known that Montgomery Ward was pushing ahead to beat Sears and was currently selling about 10% of a source’s annual sales.

Because Allegretti had the exclusive manufacturing rights to make Weed Eater, it fell to him to produce a unit for MW if we sold it. When this was presented to Al, he blew a fuse! “It is hard enough for me to be making a unit for you and not sell one to my BEST CUSTOMER, SEARS but now you want me to make a product for their major competitor? WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?? HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND??”

Since Al had Sears and would be able to sell in 1978, after a lot of “arm wrestling” and legal mumbo-jumbo contract stuff, Al was allowed to make units for Sears early and he would make a unit for Montgomery Ward.

We designed a different look and Bucky, Al Mitchell and I went to Chicago to sell it to them. This was a long negotiation and a lot of back and forth but it finally was done.

Production was made and units were tested. It all seemed to be going quite well.

Someone prays for a storm of crap and it is centered over Allegretti:

The units were flowing to MW and sometime during the shipping season, a call is received that an electrical hazard has been encountered. It seems that the harness protectors in the end of the tubes that are to protect the wiring harness during shipment are not doing the job and units are being received with the harness either damaged or completely cut in half. The cut in half is BAD but, that is just a big warranty issue… I mean a BIG ONE. But the issue of damage violates the double insulation standard and Weed Eater would be in BIG TROUBLE if someone got shocked or hurt.

The thought of fielding several recovery teams to the MW Warehouses to evaluate units was a nightmare. I decided that we take units to Houston International Airport and get permission to run them through the baggage x-ray machine to see if we could pick out a good one from a bad one. It worked!

I got in touch with the vendor that makes Airline Baggage x-ray equipment and we purchased a machine that could be shipped to all MW Warehouses to evaluate the inventory. If the harness protector was not working properly, the unit was replaced otherwise, the inventory was declared clean for sale. The x-ray unit cost $20,000 but it saved us thousands for having to send out teams to open all of that inventory.

As a result, the harness protector was redesigned to the “T” version that was used for years.

Other happenings:

Hoffco was making the 1977 model trimmers which included the Weedy 657 and the smaller, light weight trimmer the 607.

We had also agreed to make him a 4 spool head for his use with one exception, it had only 3 spools just to show a difference. It was molded in orange and black.

SPRING OF 1977:

When we hit the season we had the Snippy 407, the Needie 507, the Super Needie 587, 607 Gas, 657 Gas.

When the bookings were done, Weed Eater had grossed $68 million. From $30,000 the first year that was some true exciting growth.

And then came Emerson Electric:

Behind the scenes, Chuck Knight, Chairman of Emerson Electric to negotiate a sale of Weed Eater, had contacted GCB. The whole thing was hush-hush but even the janitor knew something big was going down… soon!

GCB had his price. Chuck Knight had his price. They were pretty far apart and understandings were not flowing easily. In January 1977, GCB contacted Chuck’s office and drew a line in the sand. If the price was not met, the deal was “off of the table”. Then GCB left town with no contact address or phone number. He was calling Chuck Knight’s bluff for $26 Million. When he returned to civilization, phone calls were awaiting him that the deal was agreed to and it was time to sign the papers. The deed was finally done on February 3, 1977.

GCB signed on to be the Chairman of the Board and still give consultation on the operation and sales strategy for one year.

Emerson had previously purchased Poulan Chain Saw and Weed Eater was put in the same grouping for management. Chuck Seals was President of Poulan and was a Group Officer.

Now it was time for all of the people who did not know what a Weed Eater did or how the company was put together to come on board and start making changes. They worked on Weed Eater like a jeweler fixing a Swiss watch with a sledgehammer. We all understood that we had to fit into the Emerson mold but there were too many “wild hairs” and “Loose Cannons” to just be jammed into anyone’s mold. Needless to go farther than to say that the melding of these two companies took some time and a few good folks “hit the silk” before it settled down.

From the product side, first on the agenda was to get Weed Eater Engineering together with Poulan Engineering and develop a gas String Line Trimmer. Lloyd Tuggle was deeply involved and while the taking of Gas unit production in-house was traumatic to Hoffco, the schedules were developed and phase out dates were negotiated. Some units stayed with Hoffco (657 soon to be 659, etc.) And other, smaller units would come from Poulan.

When the year was finally over, Weed Eater made $78 million gross sales dollars.

FALL OF 1977:

Emerson was interested in terminating the manufacturing agreement with Allegretti and wanted to negotiate out of it as soon as possible.

Al Allegretti did not want to continue to purchase cutting heads from Weed Eater and wanted to make his own. But this was forbidden in all of the agreements between both parties. Al sells Sears exclusively and Weed Eater makes all of the cutting heads… period. But, that SEARS issue was also a sticking point with Emerson.

Early in the Fall, Allegretti informed Weed Eater that they had developed a new product and wanted us to see it first to see if we wanted to buy it from them to sell in our organization. They advised that it was a “leaf blower” that was also a vacuum. We put a team on the next Continental Airline flight to meet them at the Plant.

They presented the leaf blower at a local horse farm where there was plenty of debris to blow around and vacuum up. The Engineering Mangaer, Carl Amrein and I made the usual comments that it was unusual and interesting but, no commitments to purchase. The meeting was basically friendly but short.

On the way home, Carl said, “I can make a blower too and it won’t infringe their “patent applications”. I will make it be just a blower and not a vacuum. I will mount the motor vertically instead of horizontally as they did. I’m afraid of the unit picking up debris and being damaged.” Carl sold this idea to management and the development of the 2500 was started.

Unfortunately, this was a bad idea that got sold too quickly. With 20/20 hind sight we should have made a deal on the blower/vac from the start. The 2500 didn’t do well and the Allegretti Blower was a success.

It became known that in the “skunk works” at Allegretti, work was complete on making a cutting head… known as the “Prather Head” for the inventor. After many, many denials that a head existed, finally the truth came out and the head was shown. Chuck Matson said that his son-in-law had developed the head. Everyone on Weed Eater’s side felt that Chuck had done it and his canary would have had a better chance than the son-in-law ever doing it. Only HISTORY will ever know if someone happens to talk in their sleep. This lead to another trip to the Lawyers.

However, in the Weed Eater “skunk works” a lot of development work was done on a trimmer that would fall outside of the Weed Eater/Allegretti agreements for design. That unit was the “Jiffy” 807. And it was scheduled to be made in Houston not in California. And since Weed Eater wanted a full product line and all of it made in Houston, development on the “Clippie” 300 was done. It was a single handed trimmer targeted for Town Houses and small homes with small grass areas.

Naturally, all of this set the Lawyer’s cash registers ringing on both sides. After a lot of negotiations and “lawyer talk” it was agreed that the Clippie could be made in Houston. It was probably good that it worked out that way because we already had an assembly line in place and tested and inventory in place to start production.
This was just some more of the Mediterranean Minds working back and forth for every advantage.

But you also have to remember that Allegretti & Co. was a $2 million/year gross business when they met GCB. By now, they were a multi-million dollar company. Not bad for a product SOURCE company that used to make hair dryers and wet/dry vacs!

Finally, over the following couple of years an Allegretti “phase out agreement” was struck where Weed Eater would take over production and Allegretti would make Roto Shear Trimmers and Weedwackers for Sears

1979:

The product lines were now fleshed out. Sales were made in Australia and New Zealand through an alternate manufacturing source. We were in all 50 states and Canada doing fine.

Emerson was getting the wild hairs combed down and we were getting “Emersonized”.

It was becoming well known that Emerson and Poulan wanted to break up the Houston complex and combine it with the rest of Emerson. The electric issues were to be taken to Walnut Ridge, AR along with the 26 VanDorn Plastic Molding Machines. They wanted it to become Poulan/Weed Eater instead of Weed Eater, a Division of Emerson Electric Co.

Over in the Lawyer department, there was a Patent challenge to the original 3 Weed Eater Patents. This had been cooking along for some time and Emerson wanted to get it done. We didn’t want to loose our Patents so we were fighting it tooth and nail.

It was decided to bring in Racehorse Haynes to handle the suits. He is a good criminal Lawyer but he knew nothing about Patents.

The Bottom Line of the whole mess is that upon appeal in the 5th District Court in front of Judge Singleton, we lost the whole mess.

In simple terms, we were doing quite well presenting our facts. The judge was letting us present evidence that most thought would not be allowed. Our witnesses were expert and presented things quite well. Al Mitchell presented the technical facts simply… we were WINNING.

Art Megler, Chief Council for Emerson left the court and got on the phone to his office and said, “Launch the Law Suits against all the infringers, this thing is going our way so get it started (or some words like these). This information got back to Judge Singleton and the next morning the Judge called the Attys. to the bench and said to the Weed Eater Atty, “It seems that you think that you have this trial in the bag… well, you DON’T.” And from that time on, we could not get the time of day allowed as evidence.

This was a true case of “Alligator Mouth overloads Hummingbird Butt”. Art Megler was banished to corporate Siberia.

The Houston Operation Closes Up.

In the Fall of 1979, the Houston operation at 10515 Harwin Drive was closed up. I was the “last guy out to turn out the lights” as the trucks moved the items away.

But, for me that was not the total end of the Story… Just like Douglas McArthur said, “I shall return!” and in 1985 I joined Allegretti & Co, held several positions there and finally came back to Poulan/Weed Eater in 1990 when it was bought by Electrolux.

In summary please remember this----

In the decade of the 70’s there were only three products that became household names.
1. Legg’s Panty Hose
2. Mr. Coffee
3. Weed Eater