Group items tagged

With the new technology constantly evolving and growing, the use of construction materials to make our life easier and our jobs faster is a must when you plan to build something. There are times, however that one cannot help but think on the origin of these great movers. Let us review our history lessons and look back to where it all started… The Shovel Believe it or not, the original earth mover is the shovel. In Neolithic times and earlier a large animal's scapula (shoulder blade) was often used as a crude shovel. Manual shoveling (often in combination with picking) was the chief means of excavation in construction until mechanization via steam shovels and later hydraulic equipment (excavators such as backhoes and loaders) gradually replaced most manual shoveling. The same is also true of the history of mining and quarrying and of bulk materials handling in industries such as steelmaking and stevedoring. Railroad cars and cargo holds containing ore, coal, gravel, sand, or grains were often loaded and unloaded this way. Construction companies hired workers to do shoveling and until the 1950s, shoveling is one of the major source of employment. Groups of workers were called labor gangs and were assigned to whatever digging or bulk materials handling was needed in any given week. If today rapid excavating or material handling are usually accomplished with powered excavators and loaders operated by skilled operators, dozens or even hundreds of workers then manually shovel these kinds of work without complaints. Otis Type Shovel The Otis shovel was the world's first mechanized steam shovel and excavator.  In 1835, seeing the difficult