The History of the Excavator — Dead 9 Months After His Patent

On February 24, 1839, William Smith Otis was granted US patent 1,089 for his steam shovel. Less than nine months later, he was dead at 26. His distant cousin Elisha put the Otis name on elevator doors around the world. William's name almost vanished. Enjoyed this documentary? Subscribe for more deep dives into the world's most powerful machines: 👉 Construction Legends:    / @constructionlegends   ☕ Support our work: https://buymeacoffee.com/Construction... 📘 Steel, Steam and Nerve, the book from the video (134 pages, American landmarks): https://www.construction-legends.com This documentary follows the machine generally credited as the first working steam shovel, from a railroad cutting in Canton, Massachusetts, in the 1830s, where two men on ropes swung the boom and horses dragged it forward. It covers the Patent Office fire of 1836, the patent of 1839 and William's death the same year, the brother-in-law who took the machine to Canada, the four American excavators on the railway from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, and the cousin who married William's widow and rebuilt the machine in Boston as the Otis-Chapman steam shovel. Then the other Otis, the elevator, the 102 steam shovels that dug the Panama Canal, and the Captain, the giant stripping shovel that burned in 1991. More from Construction Legends: 🛗 The Machine That Killed People for 200 Years Before One Man Fixed It:    • The Machine That Killed People for 200 Yea...   ⚙️ The History of the Diesel Engine — The Machine That Killed Its Inventor:    • The History of the Diesel Engine — The Mac...   🚂 Before Hydraulics: Panama Canal Steam Shovels (1904-1914):    • Before Hydraulics: Panama Canal Steam Shov...   📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 The Other Otis 01:03 Canton, 1835: Two Men on Ropes 06:12 The Fire, the Patent and Nine Months 12:41 Canada, Russia and the Widow 21:09 The Elevator Otis, Panama and the Captain SOURCES US Patent 1,089, W. S. Otis (1839): https://patents.google.com/patent/US1089 Hermann, Steam Shovels and Steam Shovel Work (1894): https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/... Newman & Holton, Boston's Back Bay (excerpt, Olmsted Now): https://olmstednow.org/the-steam-shov... Canton Public Library blog (2021): http://library.canton.ma.us/Blog.aspx... National Archives, The Unwritten Record, Patent Office fire of 1836: https://unwritten-record.blogs.archiv... USPTO, The search for lost X-patents: https://www.uspto.gov/blog/the-search... Stueland, Technology and Culture 35/3 (1994): https://muse.jhu.edu/article/887838/s... Chiles, Invention & Technology, The Steam Shovel: https://www.inventionandtech.com/cont... Russian Ministry of Transport, Melnikov award history: https://mintrans.gov.ru/ministry/awar... Mining Foundation of the Southwest, William Otis: https://www.miningfoundationsw.org/Wi... Library of Congress, HAER Canton Viaduct: https://www.loc.gov/item/ma0186/ National Inventors Hall of Fame, Elisha Graves Otis: https://www.invent.org/inductees/elis... ASME, Elisha Graves Otis: https://www.asme.org/topics-resources... Elevator World, Elisha Otis' Improved Elevator: https://elevatorworld.com/?p=44063 Dave Lang, Panama Canal steam shovels: https://www.czbrats.com/Builders/Stea... Panama Canal Authority, End of the construction: https://pancanal.com/en/end-of-the-co... Hektoen International (2021): https://hekint.org/2021/09/17/death-d... Haddock, The Captain's Dying Hours, Coal Age: https://www.coalage.com/features/the-... Big Brutus Museum: https://bigbrutus.org/plan-your-visit/ #excavator #steamshovel #heavymachinery #engineering #history #documentary #inventors