World's Largest Digging Machine (or wouldn't you like one of these babies in your garden shed?)
This is the largest digging machine (or trencher or rotating shovel) in the world. It was built by Krupp and is shown here crossing a road in Germany on the way to its destination, an open air coal mine. Although at the mine the treads are unnecessary, it was cheaper to make the machine self-propelled than to try and move it with conventional hauling equipment. Some factoids:
The machine is 95 meters high and 215 meters long (almost 2.5 football fields in length)
Weight is 45,500 tons (that's equivalent to a bumper to bumper line of jeeps 80 miles long)
It took 5 years to design and manufacture at a cost of $100 million
Maximum digging speed is 10 meters per minute
Can move more than 76,000 cubic meters of coal, rock, and earth per day
I think I got stuck behind it's clone on I-95 just South of Baltimore a few months back. I'm glad this one lives in Germany. Perhaps there is hope yet.
That thing in the yellow circle is a bulldozer on its back. Pic 2 is a close up. Somebody got their ass chewed over that little misadventure, I'll bet.
Godfrey Smith: Mike, I wouldn't worry. Prosperity is just around the corner. Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner. My Man Godfrey (1936)
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
Maybe we can rent it the next time His Highness calls for a joint session of congress?
I'd love to take one of these babies down the Mall and to the Crapitol w/ a full house.
When you guys are done, I'm takin' that baby to Izzystan.
Godfrey Smith: Mike, I wouldn't worry. Prosperity is just around the corner. Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner. My Man Godfrey (1936)
When you guys are done, I'm takin' that baby to Izzystan.
I know a engineer what set up a special deally that turns points into on-the-ground lobbyists. Really! :)
"I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it." - William S Burroughs
"Satan / Cheney in "08" The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
"I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it." - William S Burroughs
We aren't told, but I believe that this machine is so enormous that it cannot move as it appears on the highways. Its weight would cause asphalt to crumble and it would be in danger of tipping over at any sort of momentum. Most likely it is assembled at the workplace, can move - or is moved by tractors - just a few feet in the space of an hour, and when the job is done it's dismantled and the parts taken to the next job for reassembly.
"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. ~ Gautama Siddhartha The Buddha
"Satan / Cheney in "08" The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. ~ Gautama Siddhartha The Buddha
"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. ~ Gautama Siddhartha The Buddha
"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. ~ Gautama Siddhartha The Buddha