Model of Bucyrus-Erie Stripping Shovel
date: label: date made
content: 1960
name: label: recipient
content: Eisenhower, Dwight D.
label: maker
content: Bucyrus-Erie Company
notes: label: Description
content: In 1960, the Bucyrus-Erie Company of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, presented this 14-inch-high, scale model of what was to become the world's largest stripping shovel to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Later that year, the President transferred this gift to the Smithsonian Institution. The Bucyrus-Erie Company had custom-designed this monster machine for the Peabody Coal Company. Bucyrus-Erie engineers anticipated that they would need two years to manufacture the behemoth, and an additional six months to assemble it at the site of the open-pit mine. (They planned to ship the machine's parts in over 250 railcars.) When finished, the shovel would weigh 7,000 tons, soar to the roofline of a 20-story building (some 220 feet high), and be able to extend its enormous 115-cubic-yard dipper over 460 feet, or about the length of an average city block. (The dipper's capacity would equal that of about six stand-sized dump trucks.) Fifty electric motors-ranging from 1/4 to 3,000 horsepower-would power the shovel, which was designed to be controlled by a single operator, perched in a cab five stories high. Publicists for Bucyrus-Erie called this the "largest self-powered mobile land vehicle ever built."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Wisconsin, South Milwaukee
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Government, Politics, and Reform
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content: Energy & Power
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: Natural Resources
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.317688
label: catalog number
content: 317688
label: accession number
content: 231557
objectType: label: Object Name
content: model of Bucyrus-Erie stripping shovel
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: thread (thread material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 in x 4 3/8 in x 15 in; 35.56 cm x 11.1125 cm x 38.1 cm