ENGINEERS' BLACKSMITH SHOP, CLOSED.
ONE OF THE ENGINEERS' PORTABLE MACHINE SHOPS.
The Engineering Department approved this design and ordered 32 such clam-shell units. Nine of these were delivered before the armistice was signed. The company has continued production of these derricks with a view of selling them to road builders and excavators in civil life.
For use of the various Engineer units we manufactured 1,610 tool wagons and shipped most of them to France. Because of the rough nature of the shell-torn ground over which these wagons must be used, we designed each to be uncoupled and operated as two 2-wheeled carts.
The development of mobile industrial units mounted on motor trucks is likely to have a profound effect on American industry in the future. For instance, the special derrick or crane trucks which we built are almost certain to be adopted in commercial use. The locomotive crane has always been a useful machine, but its chief use has been in handling heavy materials which were being loaded on or off railway cars. A crane which can be moved rapidly to places where railway tracks are not located should be of almost equal importance. An accompanying illustration shows in operation one of the derrick trucks which we built for overseas use.
In the same way the mobile pile drivers designed by the Engineer Corps should be of great future service in road building in this country.
The various machine shops which were built for war purposes will, in their duplications and adaptations, undoubtedly serve a useful purpose in future commercial activities in this country. The increased use of motive power on farms has created a demand for machine repairs. The day may come when the traveling machine shop will be a familiar sight on our rural highways.
The Engineer troops required a great quantity of hoisting machinery. Our purchases in this respect amounted to 700 cranes, mostly of the locomotive type, and 886 hoisting engines, at a total cost of $4,996,000. About two-thirds of this equipment was sent to France and installed at the ports of debarkation and at depots. The rest was used at the shipping points in this country. This machinery was of great aid in the rapid handling of materials at tidewater.