How John Haws got it Right from the Start...
Over one hundred years ago in 1886 founder John Haws of Clapton, London obtained a patent for an improved watering can. The first patent read:
"This new invention forms a watering pot that is much easier to carry and tip, and at the same time being much cleaner, and more adapted for use than any other put before the public."
John Haws first worked out his improved design and method of manufacture from a French made waterpot (or can as they are now called) and designed a watering can with perfect balance. Whether full, half full or empty the watering can could be used without undue strain to the operator. To this day, the original design has not been altered in any major way.
As watering was all done by hand in those days, there was a clear need for a good range of watering cans and the new Haws' models found a ready market. Sales were buoyant both to the large glasshouse nurseries being established around London and the large provincial cities, and to professional gardeners on the landed estates flourishing throughout Great Britain.
When John Haws' descendant Arthur Haws took over the management of the business in the early 1900's he faced stiff competition from companies imitating the Haws design. To meet it he spent a good deal of time perfecting the design of the spray roses, both oval and round, such that they were suitable for watering newly sown seeds, delicate seedlings and small plants. This feature of Haws watering cans also remains as important now as it was then.
Today, Haws' comprehensive range of watering cans continues to offer new innovations (pot watering attachments and parking points for roses are recent examples) as well as utilizing the many excellent design features of the original models.
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