Big Brutus is the nickname of the

Bucyrus-Erie Bucyrus-Erie was an American surface and underground mining equipment company. It was founded as Bucyrus Foundry and Manufacturing Company in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1880. Bucyrus moved its headquarters to South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1893. In 1927, ...

model 1850-B electric power shovel, which was the second largest of its type in operation in the 1960s and 1970s. Big Brutus is the centerpiece of a mining museum in

West Mineral, Kansas West Mineral is a city in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 154. It is the home of Big Brutus, the second largest electric shovel in the world. History West Mineral was named fro ...

, United States, where it was used in coal

strip mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

operations. The shovel was designed to dig from down to unearth relatively shallow

coal seam Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

s, which would then be mined with smaller equipment.

Description

The fabrication of Big Brutus was completed in May 1963, after which it was shipped on 150 railroad cars to be assembled in Kansas. It operated until 1974, when coal was uneconomic to mine at the site. At that time, it was considered too big to move and was left in place. Big Brutus, while not the largest electric shovel ever built, is the largest electric shovel still in existence. The Captain, at – triple that of Big Brutus – was the largest shovel and one of the largest land-based mobile machines ever built, only exceeded by some

dragline A dragline excavator is a heavy-duty excavator used in civil engineering and surface mining. It was invented in 1904, and presented an immediate challenge to the steam shovel and its diesel and electric powered descendant, the power shovel. ...

and

bucket-wheel excavator A bucket-wheel excavator (BWE) is a large heavy equipment machine used in surface mining. Their primary function is that of a continuous digging machine in large-scale open-pit mining operations, removing thousands of tons of overburden a day. Wh ...

s. It was scrapped in 1992, after receiving extreme damage from an hours-long internal fire.

Museum

The Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company donated Big Brutus in 1984 as the core of a mining museum which opened in 1985. In 1987, the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...

designated Big Brutus a Regional Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2018. The museum offers tours and camping.

Fatal accident

On January 16, 2010, Mark Mosley, a 49-year-old

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental doctor, dental physician, dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in provi ...

from

Lowell, Arkansas Lowell is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, Benton County, Arkansas, United States. Located within Ozark Mountains, the Ozarks, the first settlement was along Old Wire Road in the 1840s, and although destroyed during the Civil War, the communit ...

, died attempting to base-jump from the top of the boom. Climbing the boom had been prohibited years earlier; after the accident, the attraction's board of directors considered additional restrictions on climbing. During the accident's investigation, examiner Tom Dolphin determined that Mosley had accidentally fallen off the boom while preparing to jump.

References

External links

*
Big Brutus, Sept. 1987, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
{{coord, 37.273882, -94.938827, region:US_type:landmark, display=title Stripping shovels Museums in Cherokee County, Kansas Mining museums in Kansas Mining equipment National Register of Historic Places in Cherokee County, Kansas Bucyrus-Erie

Description

Museum

Fatal accident

See also

References

External links