The National Inventors Hall of Fame, North Canton, Ohio has inducted two significant landscape inventors into its 2023 class.
Cyril and Louis Keller, the brothers who invented the compact loader, later named the Bobcat skid-steer loader, have been inducted into the hall.
“The Bobcat loader has positively impacted the lives of thousands of employees who have worked for the company, dealers who sell the machines and customers who use the equipment every day to build their livelihood,” says Louis Keller’s son John Keller. “While we may not always realize its impact, it is an integral part of our everyday life, from supporting farm operations that result in food on our tables to hauling materials around a jobsite building our homes and offices.”
According to Bobcat, the Keller brothers developed the machine when they were approached by a local farmer in Minnesota who had a need for a “self-propelled loader light enough to be lifted to the second floor of a turkey barn and small enough to clean around the barn’s upright poles.”
The Kellers then built a three-wheeled loader with two drive wheels in front and a caster wheel in the rear which became the precursor to the modern skid-steer loader.
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