Extreme Mining Machines: Stripping Shovels and Walking Draglines [Paperback]

Keith Haddock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2001

Discover the largest machines ever used in the mining industry. Giant mining equipment such as stripping shovels and walking dragline shovels were at one time the largest machines to ever move on land. Packed with amazing photos, this book chronicles the history of the machines built from 1900 to 1971. The sheer size and mind-blowing capacity of these mining machines has won many fans. Also provides information about construction, operation, and maintenance. A necessity for earthmover or big-machine enthusiasts!

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: MBI (June 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760309183
• ISBN-13: 978-0760309186
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,906,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extreme machines, September 7, 2005

By 

Cheri (Urbana, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Extreme Mining Machines: Stripping Shovels and Walking Draglines (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book. It has a wealth of background information and contains good diagrams (such as how a walking dragline propels itself) that are not easy to find. Well-researched and well written in a style that is easy to follow and understand. The tables in the back are complete and helpful to anyone researching shovels & draglines. The photographs are great (and many in color, a nice feature), and illustrate the differences between the machines. The details of mining operations and company histories are much better than I would have expected in a 120-page book, considering the scope of the subject. I would recommend this book to anyone with even the slightest interest in mining. A layperson will be able to skip a sentence or two and still add a great deal to their knowledge base. People in fields associated with mining will also learn something, and enjoyably.

4.0 out of 5 stars Scraped human-made dinosaurs, December 19, 2009

By 

Dalton C. Rocha (Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Extreme Mining Machines: Stripping Shovels and Walking Draglines (Paperback)

I read this good book, here in Brazil. The subject of this book are the biggest shovels and walking draglines ever built. In fact this book has two parts. First part is about shoves and the second about draglines.
Some advantages of this book:
1-This book uses cover and paper with great quality.
2-This book has many photos and some drawings. About 70% of its space are photos.
3-The human-made dinosaurs "Capitain" super shovel and the "Big muskie" dragline both are covered, as also the destiny of these human-made dinosaurs, being scraped after decades of continuos and successfull use, in mining operations.
4-This book would became bigger and better, if it had a third chapter about biggests continous excavators, such as that made in Germany. The are so big as Capitain and Big muskie, but they remain being used today.
I must also remember, some problems with this book:
1-This book uses measures, such as feet, inches and cubic yards instead of metric system. I'm a Brazilian and I prefer cubic meters, instead of cubic yards.
2-About machines made in former Soviet Union by UZTM and NKMZ, this book is weak. Yes, to build shovels and draglines is mainly an American business, but Russian also did many good things.