steam shovels
Heavy excavation equipment
Steam shovels are large excavating machines powered by steam engines, used for digging and moving earth in mining, construction, and canal building.
The operator sits in a cab controlling a crane-mounted bucket that scoops material and dumps it elsewhere.
Steam shovels dominated heavy earthmoving from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s before diesel and electric power replaced them.
Steam shovels carved the Panama Canal.
- bulldozersTracked earth-pushing machines
- dredgesRemoves underwater sediment
- bucketsOpen-top carrying vessels
- earthmovingRelocating soil mechanically
- machineryCollective mechanical equipment
excavation · industrial revolution · backhoes · industrialization · construction equipment · Panama Canal · railroad construction · mechanical · mining equipment · digging · mining · coal mining · open pit mine · tracks · boom · Tonka · quarrying · trenchers
- Iron Rangeiron ore, iron mining, taconite, open-pit mining, mining towns
- Panama CanalPanama Canal, canal locks, canal, lock gates, waterway