Past and Future of Construction Equipment — Part I

The Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century brought about an expanding economy in a rapidly expanding world. Manual labor was changing to mechanized. Man had to enlarge his physical effort by creating new machines to keep up with his ever-growing needs. This paper traces the various changes in construction tool development from ancient man, through the pre-World War I period, the rapid development prior to the Great Depression of the 1930's, the slowdown during the depression, the tremendous requirements placed on the Construction Industry at the start of WW II, the war itself and immediate post-war periods. Culmination of the paper is the release of the pent up demand which brought on the post-war inflation and boom that laid the ground work for changes in the construction equipment industry during the 1960's and 1970's, the like of which the world had never seen.