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Post by clarencebunsen on May 3, 2012 10:53:34 GMT -5
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Post by Clipper on May 3, 2012 14:44:18 GMT -5
Very interesting Clarence. It is amazing how far we have come in utilizing and developing those basic mechanical principles such as the windlass and the steam powered excavator. I have one of the wooden towel drying racks described in the illustration on a shelf in the garage. I rescued that and a set of the wood dowel clothes bars that often was found sitting in the bathtub for years, when I was growing up. I was a teen before we had an electric dryer, and in foul weather, mom would have a load of wash drying on it almost daily. We used it to dry bathing suits and towels when we had the camp in Verona Beach shortly before moving here. When I first went to work for the Communications Command, we used a machine that was directly descended from that steam powered excavator in principle. It was called a J-36 Cleveland trencher, and it was composed of a large diameter metal wheel on which scoop like buckets with carbide tipped teeth were mounted. It was powered and controlled by a diesel engine, and a main transmission as well as multi- ratio auxiliary gear box or "transfer case" which allowed many different power and speed choices for both digging wheel speed and ground speed. It was a simple, yet extremely powerful and efficient machine, but if you got into a heavy clay like soil, the buckets would be packed with clay and you had to dig the mud out of them with a digging bar and shovels. THAT was not so efficient and was an unpleasant and back breaking job. www.machinerytrader.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=6624804&The machine would creep at such a slow speed as it dug that you could actually get off the seat and walk around the machine. I have to relate a fairly humorous story about a young airman operating the machine at Andrews AFB years ago. He got off the trencher, sat under a tree to drink a soda, and fell asleep. The machine walked it's way up to the wall of a building and was gnawing away at the brick wall before anyone noticed that operator was not in the seat. It WAS a boring job, operating that machine. It moved so slowly that it WAS tempting to get off of it. It had a metal tractor seat that hung off the side of it and without back support. I myself had gotten down from the seat many times and walked around to limber up and stretch. |
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