engineering

The Silver Spade

The Silver Spade is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Silver Spade rather than just read about it. In short: The Silver Spade was a giant power shovel used for strip mining in southeastern Ohio. Manufactured by Bucyrus-Erie, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Silver Spade was one of two model 1950-B shovels built, the other being its sister ship, the GEM of Egypt.

Key takeaways

The Silver Spade belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Silver Spade to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Silver Spade from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Silver Spade was a giant power shovel used for strip mining in southeastern Ohio. Manufactured by Bucyrus-Erie, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Silver Spade was one of two model 1950-B shovels built, the other being its sister ship, the GEM of Egypt. Its sole function was to remove the earth and rock overburden from the coal seam. Attempts to purchase and preserve the shovel from Consol to make it the centerpiece of a mining museum exhibit for $2.6 million fell short. A salvage company began scrapping the machine in January 2007. The boom was dropped using explosives on February 9th, ending any rescue attempts. By March 1st, much of the machine had been cut away.

Facts and figures

Began operations – November 1965 Ended operations – April 2006 Speed – 1/4 mph (400 m/h) Bucket capacity – 105 cu yd (80 m3) Operating weight – 14,000,000 lb (7,000 short tons, 6,400 metric tons) Height – 220 ft to top of boom (67 m) Boom length – 200 feet (61 m) Width – 59 ft (18 m) Height of crawlers – 8 ft (2.5 m) Length of crawlers – 34 ft (10 m) Maximum dumping height – 139 ft (42 m) Maximum dumping radius – 195 ft (59 m) Rating on A.C. motors – 13,500 hp (10.1 MW) peak Entire operation of the shovel was controlled by two hand levers and a pair of foot pedals. Dug 315,000 lb (143 metric tons) of earth in a single bite, swung 180°, and deposited the load up to 390 ft (119 m) away from the digging points at heights up to 140 ft (42.5 m). Machine's four 2+5⁄8-inch-diameter (67 mm) hoist ropes totaled 3,000 ft (914 m) in length. Fourteen main digging cycle motors could develop a combined peak of 13,500 hp (10.1 MW) at peak load. Automatically leveled through four 54-inch-diameter (1,400 mm) hydraulic jacks. Swung a 105 cubic yard (80 m3) dipper from a 200 ft (61 m) boom and a 122 ft (37 m) dipper handle. The "GEM of Egypt," the other large shovel, had similar size and weight, etc. statistics. The primary difference was the bucket and boom. The GEM was a 130 cubic-yard (99.4 m3) bucket and 170 ft (52 m) boom, while the Spade sported 105 cubic-yard (80 m3) bucket and 200 ft (61 m) boom.

Dipper arm The design is unusual, as it uses a knee action crowd, and only these two Bucyrus-Erie 1950-Bs were fitted with this technology. In a power shovel

crowding is pushing the bucket at the end of a "handle" ("dipper" or "dipper stick") in or out to control the depth of cut or to position for dumping With knee-action, the handle is connected to a moveable pivot point rather than being supported directly by the boom. Knee action design made possible the largest shovel ever built, increased digging power, allowed the bucket to move horizontally into the cut and improved swing efficiency, distance, and radius. The technology was a requirement of the owners and had to be licensed from Marion Power Shovel, with Marion being allowed to use Bucyrus-Erie's cable crowd system in return.

See also Big Brutus Big Muskie Dragline Haul truck Excavator Marion 6360

References

Information about the Preservation Effort Extreme Mining Machines, by Keith Haddock, Pub by MBI, ISBN 0-7603-0918-3

External links Silver Spade on the Road(date Unknown) The picture of The Silver Spade on the road was taken in April 2001 when the shovel was being moved across Route 519 in New Athens, Ohio Cable Blasted 2007 Harrison Coal and Reclamation Park

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Silver Spade

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Silver Spade claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Silver Spade before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Silver Spade ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Silver Spade

In research: The Silver Spade appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Silver Spade in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Silver Spade is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bucyrus-Erie, Coal mining in Appalachia, Engineering vehicles, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Silver Spade outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Silver Spade in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Silver Spade means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Silver Spade out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Silver Spade in simple terms?

Why does The Silver Spade matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Silver Spade?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Silver Spade.