THE END OF STEAM SHOVELS IN THE ROARING 20S

The ‘Roaring Twenties’ spawned dozens of new excavator manufacturers in America. Except for a few early-established companies such as Marion and Bucyrus, most American major excavator and crane manufacturers who flourished during the 20th century brought out their first machines in the 1920s. Names such as Koehring, Link-Belt, Lima, Manitowoc and Northwest come to mind. But since this decade also witnessed the twilight of steam power in excavators, most of these new manufacturers never produced steam shovels, their machines being powered by internal combustion engines or electricity.