Weed Eater is a string trimmer company founded in 1971 in Houston, Texas by George C. Ballas, Sr., the inventor of the device.
| Weed Eater | |
| Industry | Agricultural |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Founder | George C. Ballas, Sr. |
| Headquarters | Houston, Texas |
| Website | www.weedeater.com |
The idea for the Weed Eater trimmer came to him from the spinning nylon bristles of an automatic car wash. He thought that he could come up with a similar technique to protect the bark on trees that he was trimming around.
His company was eventually bought by Emerson Electric and merged with Poulan. Poulan/Weed Eater was later purchased by Electrolux, which spun off the outdoors division as Husqvarna AB in 2006.[1]
Inventor Ballas was the father of champion ballroom dancer Corky Ballas and the grandfather of Dancing with the Stars dancer Mark Ballas.[2]
George Ballas died on June 25, 2011.[3]
Husqvarna revived the Weed Eater brand in the US in 2023 and Canada in 2024[4]
References
edit- ^ Timeline: Husqvarna
- ^ Wozny, Nancy. "H-Town's Own Dance Man: Mark Ballas opens up on the naive miracle of Bristol Palin & his John Mayer ways", CultureMap Houston, December 13, 2010. WebCitation archive.
- ^ See "Weed Eater inventor dies at 85," June 29, 2011, Associated Press, as published by the Lake Charles American Press, at [1].
- ^ "Weed Eater is now part of the Husqvarna family". www.husqvarna.com. Retrieved 2024-08-22.