|
posted to rec.boats
|
|
external usenet poster
|
|
First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Nov 2006
Posts: 19,107
|
|
What's in your garage?
basskisser wrote:
Oh, and Lombard invented the Caterpillar in Maine, not CA.:
An effective caterpillar track was invented and implemented by Alvin
Lombard, for the Lombard steam log hauler. He was granted a patent in
1901. He built the first steam-powered log hauler at the Waterville
Iron Works in Waterville, Maine the same year. In all, eighty-three
Lombard steam log haulers are known to have been built up to 1917 when
production switched entirely to internal combustion engine powered
machines ending with a Fairbanks diesel powered unit in 1934.
Undoubtedly Lombard was the first commercial manufacturer of the
tractor crawler. At least one of Lombard's steam-powered machines
apparently remains in working order. Also, a gasoline powered Lombard
hauler is on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta.
In addition, there may have been up to twice as many Phoenix
"Centipeed" versions of the steam log hauler built under license from
Lombard, with vertical instead of horizontal cylinders. In 1903, the
founder of Holt Manufacturing, Benjamin Holt, paid Lombard $60,000 for
the right to produce vehicles under his patent. There seems to have
been an agreement made after Lombard travelled out to California, but
some discrepancy exists as to how this matter was resolved when
previous track patents were studied. Popularly, everyone claimed to
have been inspired by the "dog tread mill" once used on farms to power
the butter churn, etc. to "invent" the crawler on their own, and the
more recent the history, the earlier this date of "invention" seems to
get.
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstart.../bulldozer.htm
|