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]