The Development of Heavy Equipment

Imagine a world where the only earthmoving is what can shovel, and everything was pulled by draft animals. Up until 1850, when the steam traction was popularized, man power, draft animals, and a few simple machines was how earth was moved. Without the ability to change the contour of the land, structures

had to be built in areas where the land had the proper contour. The need to move more earth more efficiently and change the lay of the land would grow as time went on.

The power of steam has long been know. Hero devised the aeolipile the first steam engine it served no useful purpose, just to demonstrate the power of steam. In 1769 James Watt patented a practice steam engine that could used to power just about anything. It would soon begin to replace draft animals, in 1850 the steam traction engine was introduced. It could pull four times the amount plows or disk harrows than a team of horses. Also it could provide belt power for whatever stationary implements that need to be spun. With the steam traction engine land could be developed for farming quicker than ever before. This led to a drop in the cost of food. With cheap food people did not have to grow everything they were going to eat so they could spent time doing other things.

The next advent in earthmoving was the steam excavator patented by William Otis. It had a forward facing bucket mounted on a dipper stick. The dipper stick was raised by a chain hoist. The superstructure could swing less than one-hundred eighty degrees. It was mounted on a rail road truck and was self propelled. This machine could dig level with grade thus making it very useful for laying rail road tracks. It was many times faster than men with picks and shovels. The rail roads expanded much fast...

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...reaking rock, lifting logs, and removing snow. These grew mostly out of convince rather than need and to make it worth buying an expensive piece of heavy equipment. The attachments decreased the need for manual labor because a machine can now do it.

The greater part of this nations infrastructure was made using heavy equipment. Imagine what it would it would be like if roads were paved by hand, big bridges did not exist, foundations were still dig buy hand, and the harbors were not dredged. Without heavy equipment all other modern technologies wound be also lagging. Shipping lanes wound be very narrow, internet cables could not be buried, the highway system as we know it would exist, rail roads would be limited, and industries would not grow without raw materials that were mined with heavy equipment. Heavy equipment had a huge impact on our society, and way of life.