Mega-Exacavators

by **Leanan** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 14:12:47

The Discovery Channel is showing a documentary on "Mega-Exavactors" now. It's about the giant machines built to mine coal - the largest machines ever built on land.

It's fascinating. These things are monsters. Twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty, weighing 15 million pounds, taking years to build and costing $100 million dollars. They were developed in the '60s, when we used up all the coal in easy reach and had to develop ways to get at the coal too deep to mine by the old methods. One of the talking heads said it would take 200,000 men to do the work of one of these machines.

I really doubt we'll able to scale up coal enough to replace oil, once we're past peak.

by **Jack** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 14:32:17

Excellent point.

More problematic still, we need these great machines before peak coal. What happens as coal gets harder to extract?

by **jmacdaddio** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 14:43:24

what will power these machines past peak anyway?

Don't tell Ford and GM about these excavators ... we might give them ideas for a new generation of SUVs.

by **merecat** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 14:52:23

Yes, the machines you speak of are truly awesome, the first time I saw them was on a film called Koyaanisqatsi which is a MUST see.

I tried to find an image link for one of these Mega Excavators to no avail, so here's a
link to a very large piston engine instead.

by **Grasshopper** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 15:18:41

The coal mining equipment that I'm familiar with is run by electricity from the coal-fired power plant that it supplies. The trucks that haul the coal, however, are diesel powered. An electricity powered alternative may eventually be required.

by **Novus** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 15:38:31

Here is a good picture of the bucket wheel excavator.

Can you see the people standing around the machine to get a sence of scale.

Sicne these machines can fill a dumb truck in 3 seconds the coal and overburden is hauled away by conveyer belts such as the one below.

by **MonteQuest** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 15:59:03

Yes, the history channel seems to be focusing on these kind of issues, IMO.

The History Channel paves the way

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic9730.html

by **The_Virginian** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 19:24:53

http://shopping.discovery.com/stores/se ... ber=686725
Well here's one immage.

Mega-Exacavators

Mega-Exacavators

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