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World Record #152 – The largest and heaviest terrestrial machines
by Marshall Brain | November 5, 2010
The largest and heaviest terrestrial machines in the world are the bucket wheel excavators used for coal mining. According to the following video, the machines cost about $100 million. The two people operating the machine do the work of 40,000 people using shovels: Getting up close: According to the following video, a bucket wheel excavator [...]
Coal-fired power plants produce a majority of the electricity in the United States. According to this article: Coal is primarily used to generate electricity. In fact, nine out of every ten tons of coal mined in the United States today is used to generate electricity, and about 56 percent of the electricity used in this [...]
Underground mining is what we traditionally think of when we think of “coal mining”. Miners dig tunnels down into the earth to find coal seams. A seam is layer of coal that can be hundreds of feet deep. Using automated equipment, miners then start digging caverns or rooms into the seam, leaving behind large pillars of coal to support the roof. This is called room and pillar mining. As the miners dig, a conveyor system carries the coal back to the surface…
You Asked:
How is coal converted to oil and gasoline? — Al, S Prairie, Wash.
Marshall Brain Answers…
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