The Silver Spade on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Silver Spade was a giant
* Began operations - November 1965
* Speed - 1/4 mph (400 m/h)
* Bucket capacity - 105 cu yd (80 m3)
* Operating weight - 14,000,000 lb (7,000 short tons, 6,400 metric tons)
* Height - 220 ft to top of boom (67 m)
* Boom length - 200 feet (61 m)
* Width - 59 ft (18 m)
* Height of crawlers - 8 ft (2.5 m)
* Length of crawlers - 34 ft (10 m)
* Maximum dumping height - 139 ft (42 m)
* Maximum dumping radius - 195 ft (59 m)
* Rating on A.C. motors - 13,500 hp (10.1 MW) peak
* Entire operation of the shovel is controlled by two hand levers and a pair of foot pedals.
* Digs 315,000 lb (143 metric tons) of earth in a single bite, swings 180° and deposits the load up to 390 ft (119 m) away from the digging points at heights up to 140 ft (42.5 m).
* Machine's four hoist ropes total 3,000 ft (914 m) in length.
* Fourteen main digging cycle motors are capable of developing a combined peak of 13,500 hp (10.1 MW) at peak load.
* Automatically leveled through four hydraulic jacks.
* Swings a 105 cubic yard (80 m3) dipper from a 200 ft (61 m) boom and a 122 ft (37 m) dipper handle.
* The " GEM of Egypt", the other large shovel, has similar statistics concerning size and weight, etc. The primary difference is the bucket and boom. The GEM is a 130 cubic-yard (99.4 m3) bucket and 170 ft (52 m) boom, while the Spade sports 105 cubic-yard (80 m3) bucket and 200 ft (61 m) boom.
Information about the Preservation Effort
* Extreme Mining Machines, by Keith Haddock, Pub by MBI,
The picture of The Silver Spade on the road was taken in April 2001 when the shovel was being moved across Route 519 in New Athens, Ohio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver Spade Stripping shovels Coal mining in Appalachia Engineering vehicles Mining in Ohio Harrison County, Ohio Bucyrus-Erie
power shovel
A power shovel (also stripping shovel or front shovel or electric mining shovel or electric rope shovel) is a bucket-equipped machine, usually electrically powered, used for digging and loading earth or fragmented rock and for mineral extraction ...
used for strip mining
Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...
in southeastern Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Manufactured by Bucyrus-Erie
Bucyrus-Erie was an American surface and underground mining equipment company. It was founded as Bucyrus Foundry and Manufacturing Company in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1880. Bucyrus moved its headquarters to South Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1893. In 1927, B ...
, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the model 1950-B was one of two of this model built, the other being the GEM of Egypt. Its sole function was to remove the earth and rock overburden from the coal seam. Attempts to purchase and preserve the shovel from Consol to make it the centerpiece of a mining museum exhibit for $2.6 million fell short, and the shovel was dismantled in February 2007.
Facts and figures
* Began operations - November 1965
* Speed - 1/4 mph (400 m/h)
* Bucket capacity - 105 cu yd (80 m3)
* Operating weight - 14,000,000 lb (7,000 short tons, 6,400 metric tons)
* Height - 220 ft to top of boom (67 m)
* Boom length - 200 feet (61 m)
* Width - 59 ft (18 m)
* Height of crawlers - 8 ft (2.5 m)
* Length of crawlers - 34 ft (10 m)
* Maximum dumping height - 139 ft (42 m)
* Maximum dumping radius - 195 ft (59 m)
* Rating on A.C. motors - 13,500 hp (10.1 MW) peak
* Entire operation of the shovel is controlled by two hand levers and a pair of foot pedals.
* Digs 315,000 lb (143 metric tons) of earth in a single bite, swings 180° and deposits the load up to 390 ft (119 m) away from the digging points at heights up to 140 ft (42.5 m).
* Machine's four hoist ropes total 3,000 ft (914 m) in length.
* Fourteen main digging cycle motors are capable of developing a combined peak of 13,500 hp (10.1 MW) at peak load.
* Automatically leveled through four hydraulic jacks.
* Swings a 105 cubic yard (80 m3) dipper from a 200 ft (61 m) boom and a 122 ft (37 m) dipper handle.
* The " GEM of Egypt", the other large shovel, has similar statistics concerning size and weight, etc. The primary difference is the bucket and boom. The GEM is a 130 cubic-yard (99.4 m3) bucket and 170 ft (52 m) boom, while the Spade sports 105 cubic-yard (80 m3) bucket and 200 ft (61 m) boom.
Dipper arm
The design is unusual, as it uses a Knee action crowd, and only these two Bucyrus-Erie 1950-B's were fitted with this technology. The technology was a requirement of the owners and had to be licensed from Marion Power Shovel, with Marion being allowed to use Bucyrus-Erie's cable crowd system in return.See also
*Big Brutus
Big Brutus is the nickname of the Bucyrus-Erie model 1850-B electric shovel, which was the second largest of its type in operation in the 1960s and 1970s. Big Brutus is the centerpiece of a mining museum in West Mineral, Kansas, United States w ...
* Big Muskie
Big Muskie was a coal mining Bucyrus-Erie dragline excavator owned by the Central Ohio Coal Company (formerly a division of American Electric Power), weighing and standing nearly 22 stories tall. It operated in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1 ...
* Dragline
A dragline excavator is a piece of heavy equipment used in civil engineering and surface mining.
Draglines fall into two broad categories: those that are based on standard, lifting cranes, and the heavy units which have to be built on-site. ...
* Dumper truck
* Excavator
Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...
* Marion 6360
References
Information about the Preservation Effort
* Extreme Mining Machines, by Keith Haddock, Pub by MBI,
External links
The picture of The Silver Spade on the road was taken in April 2001 when the shovel was being moved across Route 519 in New Athens, Ohio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver Spade Stripping shovels Coal mining in Appalachia Engineering vehicles Mining in Ohio Harrison County, Ohio Bucyrus-Erie