Online Catalogue last updated 28th of March 2011
The City of Lincoln is undergoing a period of change greater than at any other time in its long history and with these changes the tangible evidence of its great engineering past is rapidly disappearing. This book, with many photographs reproduced from original glass plate negatives, is a record of just a small part of a great industrial tradition that created in the phrase 'Made in Lincoln' a byword for engineering excellence around the globe.
For the Excavator enthusiast this first volume of Lincoln's Excavators offers a valuable reference to one of the world's leading manufacturers and a pictorial account of its products in the period from the first Lincoln built Steam Navvy in 1875 to the formation of Ruston-Bucyrus Ltd. in 1930, at which point a new era in the story of Lincoln built excavators begins.
Throughout this early period, Lincoln's excavators were produced by one Lincoln manufacturer and though the name of the company changed from Ruston Proctor to Ruston & Hornsby, the excavators which represented only a part of that company's products were known throughout the world as 'Ruston' Excavators.
There are supermarkets now where once Excavators were built and the only evidence of their passing are the pictures on the cafe walls. This book tells the story behind those pictures, of the factory, the machines, and the people who built them.
Lincoln Born, Peter was educated at the Lincoln School from whence, in 1949 he entered a Student Apprenticeship with Ruston-Bucyrus Ltd. Qualified as a Draughtsman, he was employed in the company's Engineering Department for seventeen years before taking an Hons. Degree in Education and embarking on a second career as a teacher. Specialising in Art/Design and Design Technology, Peter developed personal skills as a sculptor, exhibiting his work throughout the country.
Upon retiring from teaching, Peter returned to his 'old love', excavators, but this time in miniature. His scale models can be found in various displays and locations, including the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm and the Headquarters of Coal India, (N.C.L.).
Peter's wife Marcelle suffers his obsession with excavators with some understanding for they met and married while both were employed at Ruston-Bucyrus where she went on to give forty years service to the company and its successor Bucyrus-Europe, before retiring as Personal Assistant to the Managing Director.
It has been said that a characteristic of Lincoln's Engineering Industry has always been the 'families' of workers through the generations; this book is a filial tribute from one of those families.
Code No. 010682, 216 pages, ISBN 1871565421, $69.00