Arthur Clifford Howard
1912 The powered rotary hoe was invented by Arthur Clifford Howard who began experimenting with rotary tillage on his father's farm at Gilgandra, New South Wales, Australia. Initially using his father's steam tractor engine as a power source, he found that ground could be mechanically tilled without soil-packing occurring, as was the case with normal ploughing. His earliest designs threw the tilled soil sideways, until he improved his invention by designing an L-shaped blade mounted on widely spaced flanges fixed to a small-diameter rotor.
With fellow apprentice Everard McCleary, he established a company to make his machine, but plans were interrupted by World War I.
In 1919 Howard returned to Australia and resumed his design work, patenting a design with 5 rotary hoe cultivator blades and an internal combustion engine, in 1920.
In March 1922 Howard formed the company Austral Auto Cultivators Pty Ltd, which later became known as Howard Auto Cultivators. It was based in Northmead, a suburb of Sydney, from 1927.
1938 Finding it increasingly difficult to meet a growing worldwide demand, Howard travelled to the United Kingdom, founding the company Rotary Hoes in East Horndon, Essex, in July 1938.