AN ELECTRIC EXCAVATING MACHINE

New Zealand Tablet, 3 June 1915, Page 51

AN ELECTRIC EXCAVATING MACHINE

The credit of being the first in-the Dominion to introduce an electric clay excavator belongs to Messrs. C. A. and W. Shiel, of Dunedin. A demonstration of the working of the machine was given at the firm's quarry, Forb'ury road, on Wednesday of last week, when there was'a large attendance of architects, engineers, and others present. Shovels of a somewhat similar sort were used to dig the Panama Canal, but this machine that the Messrs. Shiel have imported is of the very latest type, only recently designed by the Thew Automatic Shovel Company, of America. In all previous machines several engines or motors have been used, but in this machine all the operations- of hoisting, swinging, crowding, and travelling „are controlled by means of frictions from a single electric motor. The Evening Star, describing this wonderful machine, says it looks like a hut crane from beneath the jib of which works a thrusting arm like the neck of a colossal snake. The simile seems to suit. Imagine this monster snake with a head like a great dredge bucket, with projecting steel teeth, and let the fancy picture the mammoth reptile shortening and lengthening its neck, and smelling for the point. at which to strike, and you have the machine as it is in action. As worked yesterday, it hit slightly into the clay surface, eating a shade downwards at every thrust, then pushed forward till the bucket was full, and then with an upward movement ripped away mouthfuls of the face to the surface. It was amazing to see one man controlling all these motions, and to note that it kept two lines of trucks going. We were told that it will operate over a face of 60 feet in width and of any height, and that it may be used to dig 4ft below its rails and thus start a new face. The problem at the works now is not how to get enough clay to the tip, but how to keep the tip clear. After watching the machine in work for nearly half an hour, the company repaired to Mr. C. A. Shiel's house, where tea was served. - Mr. J. Blair Mason (engineer of the Otago Harbor Board) proposed the health of Shiel Bros., and in doing so thanked the firm for their invitation, referred to their enterprise and public-spiritcdness, and said that he was very much impressed with the efficiency of the machine —so much so that he had no doubt a machine of the same type would be sooner or later installed by the Harbor" Board, that body having plenty of work upon which it could be profitably employed. The toast was very cordially honored. Mr. C. A. Shiel, in returning thanks on behalf of the firm, said that the starting of such a machine had been the dream of their lives. They hoped now to be able to get plenty of stuff in any weather, and not to have to wait for a supply because the work was disagreeable and difficult. The machine cost about £I3OO, and it would provide the material for 20,000 bricks at a cost of Is 3d, apart from wear and tear and the operator's wages. In the future they hoped to work the trucking also by electric energy, by means of trucks fitted with motors like those under the tramcars.