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Bucyrus Heavy Equipment: Construction and Mining Machines 1880-2008
by Keith Haddock

Any kid who grew up reading Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1939) has a special appreciation for steam-powered construction equipment. Now, Keith Haddock, who 20 years ago co-founded the Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) has written the definitive history of Bucyrus, an American company synonymous with moving earth.

As with most books in the Iconografix Photo Gallery series, Haddock’s Bucyrus Heavy Equipment is heavy on photographs. There are more than 450 black and white images of nearly every model steam shovel, walking dragline, floating dredge, crane, bucket wheel excavator and drill that the company produced in its long 129-year history.

Haddock’s first chapter covers 11 pages that neatly summarize the history of the venerable company, with all of the growth and acquisitions of competing companies as well as contractions during lean times and the Great Depression. We tend to take massive earthmoving projects for granted today, but at the beginning of the 20th Century the idea that we could dig our way across Panama to create a canal was both bold and audacious. The success of the Panama Canal was in no small way attributable to the 77 (out of 102) steam shovels, including 32 of the giant 95-ton models that Bucyrus delivered to the project. Name a major construction project in the 20th Century, and it’s a cinch that Bucyrus was there with its heavy equipment.

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The Allison Engine Catalog 1915–2007
by John Leonard

As the title suggests, Allison products are arranged chronologically in catalog style, with each product occupying one page. For readers who enjoy engineering excellence, this book is a must. Outside of its own product line, Allison did contract work for numerous customers including the GM Research Laboratory, US Army, US Navy, and US Department of Energy. Their product range covered engines for airships, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, rockets, automobiles, armored vehicles, busses, locomotives, boats, generators, and auxiliary power units. Some were multi-fueled, some burned coal, and one even burned wood and another one was nuclear powered!

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