CRANES (MACHINE HISTORY) 

The last half of the 18th century saw the unfolding of a series of events, primarily in England, that later historians would call the first Industrial Revolution, which would have a profound influence on society as a whole as well as on building technology. Among the first of these events was the large-scale production of iron, beginning with the work of Abraham Darby, who in 1709 was the first to use coke as a fuel in the smelting process. The earliest cranes were constructed from wood, but cast iron and steel took over with the coming of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transportation had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human society; almost every aspect of daily life was eventually influenced in some way. 

The British Industrial Revolution is characterized by developments in the areas of textile manufacturing, mining, metallurgy and transport driven by the development of the steam engine. Above all else, the revolution was driven by cheap energy in the form of coal, produced in ever-increasing amounts from the abundant resources of Britain. The ready availability of iron contributed to the development of machinery, notably James Watt’s double-acting steam engine of 1769. Henry Cort developed the puddling process for making wrought iron in 1784, and in the same year he built the first rolling mill, powered by a steam engine, to produce rolled lengths of wrought-iron bars, angles, and other shapes. Cast iron, which has a higher carbon content than wrought iron but is more brittle, was also produced on a large scale. Standard iron building elements soon appeared, pointing the way to the development of metal buildings. 

Coal converted to coke gave the blast furnace and cast iron in much larger amounts than before, and a range of structures could be created, such as The Iron Bridge. Cheap coal meant that industry was no longer constrained by water resources driving the mills, although it continued as a valuable source of power. The steam engine helped drain the mines, so more coal reserves could be accessed, and the output of coal increased. The development of the high-pressure steam engine made locomotives possible, and a transport revolution followed. The First Industrial Revolution merged into the Second Industrial Revolution around 1850, when technological and economic progress gained momentum with the development of steam-powered ships, railways, and later in the 19th century with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation.

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION DEVELOPMENT

In the 18th century, steam power motivated the railway construction development. The railway was seen as a prime way of transporting goods to and from factories; they were much quicker than the canals, which were previously used.

Constructing the railway was not a task to be taken lightly. Hills had to be leveled; passageways for rivers had to be built; rocks were blasted and drilled; and valleys were filled in order to prepare the foundation for the railway.

It was one of the biggest construction projects in the world. Beginning around the 1850s, it took almost 60 years to cover 18,641 miles (30,000 km) of rail track. Much of the railroad was built without any modern equipment whatsoever, as was the case with the track that was laid between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as London to Birmingham, which saw 11.7 million cubic yards (9 million m³) of earth removed. By 1890, the railways that followed throughout the world had reached 385,250 miles (620,000 km). An additional 23 years of building saw the length almost double at 684,000 miles (1.1 million km), due in part to the invention of new machinery. 

 

One man, William S. Otis, could clearly see the difficulties that arose in completing a project as vast and as laborious as this. Otis was employed by the firm Carmichael & Fairbanks and was working on a contracting position involved in building the American railroad. Working with strict time constraints, the firm would receive bonuses if it could finish the work before assigned deadlines. The excavation process and poor digging tools were delaying the project’s completion.

This gave Otis the incentive to seek out a solution, as the current practices used for digging were very arduous and time consuming. The traditional wagon mounted graders and horse drawn dragpans were not efficient enough. In order to lower the costs of excavation and to get back on schedule, Otis designed a single-bucket excavator called the Otis Shovel.  The invention of steam engines which had been around since the 1800s were vital to the production of the Otis shovel. Otis figured that it might be possible to produce a machine using steam technology that could be applied to digging earth. With the help of a friend, Charles H. French, he built the first steam shovel in 1835 in Canton, Massachusetts. 

The shovel had a bucket and an articulated arm.  Mounted on rail tracks and consisting of a one-cubic yard (0.8-m3) dipper with a partial swing, it was the first of land excavation equipment to arrive. Otis applied for a patent on June 15, 1836. The first patent described his invention as a “crane excavator for excavating and removing earth,” but was destroyed by a fire at the U.S. Patent Office. The second application was filed on October 27, 1838, and it was granted on February 24, 1839 under Patent No. 1089.  The patent  kept other manufacturers from further developing this useful machine for more than 40 years. 

All early shovels were initially built for railway mounting and bore features similar to the Otis shovel. They were made from either a wooden or steel fame, used to support the machine’s boiler and boom. Otis’ invention stayed pretty much the same for about 100 years, when manufacturers slowly started to adapt the machine for other uses and begin designing it in different configurations.

Excavation was now the main process of construction. With steam power, it removed the time, cost, and manpower associated with it. Large projects were carried out and the excavator completed the projects in record time. One of the largest projects of the late 19th century was the Manchester Ship Canal in England. In 1887, fifty-eight Ruston steam shovels and 18 clamshell excavators, as well as other types of excavators, were employed to remove 54 million cubic yards (41 million m3) of earth during the course of six years.

The successful use of steam in excavators led to other types of steam-powered machines. Wheeled tractors, which replaced horses and mules, were able to pull scrapers and graders. Shortly following the advent of the 20th century, a crawler tractor powered by steam was invented and became a hit with the industry’s contractors.

The crawler tractor first made an appearance in 1713.  Its inventor was a Frenchman M. D’Hermand who created a crawler tread trailer that was propelled forward by the use of animals. The device became steam-driven in 1770 due to Richard Edgeworth's invention, who also patented the tracking tread system.

The crawler tractor became a machine of its own after inventor Benjamin Holt developed a machine with more wheels, and, eventually, with crawler tracks that would allow it to easily advance over soft soil surfaces.

Holt’s tracked crawler tractor was further improved by R. Hornsby & Sons, a manufacturing company based in Grantham England.

Instead of steam, the crawler tractors used oil to fuel its power. Steam soon became a fuel of the past as more and more manufacturers begin developing machines to be powered by oil and gas engines. Eventually, diesel engines would become the norm.