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The steam shovel was the forerunner of all powered, single-bucket, 'fry land' excavators and was the first machine successfuly to replace the hand shoveller in loading wagons on construction sites.  In the days before mechanical excavators there were many appliances for loosening and handling earth but hardly any that could lift the soil into haulage units standing on the same level as the shoveller.  The steam shovel changed all this and revolutionised the removal of earth and minerals from the earth's surface.  In its heyday none of the great trnsportation systems, irrigation prjects, dams and waterways would hav ebeen conceivable without its use, and metallic ores and industrial  minerals could not have been mined and quarried in the quantities demanded.  The steam shovel and its derivatives have never received the recognition accorded to most other steam machines.  This book explains the working of the machine and its application to the tasks demanded of it.  The steam shovel is like no other steam machine: it does not merely travel, transport or drive machinery; it digs like a man, it breathes, it groans and it complains; it seems almost to have human characteristics.

Paperback.