Our street was hectic and noisy for two months last summer as a storm drainage system was brought up to snuff. Hearing an at times steady vroom-vroom and ding-ding-ding, I wondered about the ...

The cable-operated excavator is the earliest documented self-powered machine ever used to move earth. Its earliest form, the steam shovel, has roots going back to the very first mechanical excavator, ...

Photograph of a rail mounted steam shovel loading dump cars for two waiting steam locomotives. The hillside next to the shovel and locomotives appears to have already had dirt cut out of it. Steam ...