He Had 299 Patents and Caterpillar Laughed At Him - R.G. LeTourneau

Описание: He dropped out of school in the sixth grade. He never completed a single engineering course. And by the time World War Two was over, R.G. LeTourneau had supplied seventy percent of all the earthmoving equipment the Allied forces used to win the war.

This is the story of the machines that changed construction forever. From the first all-welded scraper built in a Stockton welding shop in 1921, to the Power Control Unit that cut crew costs by two thirds, to the rubber tires that let scrapers drive on public roads, to the Tournapull motor scraper that Caterpillar called "not feasible" and then copied within twenty years. And after selling everything to Westinghouse for $31 million in 1953, LeTourneau came back at age 70 with the Electric Wheel and built some of the largest machines the world has ever seen.

299 patents. One man. And an engineering legacy that is still moving the earth today.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 — D-Day Bulldozers and the 70% Statistic
1:22 — What Earthmoving Looked Like Before LeTourneau
2:38 — The Welder From Stockton Who Changed Everything
3:29 — The First All-Welded Scraper (1921)
4:55 — Patent No. 1,470,853 and 299 More to Come
5:23 — The Power Control Unit (1928)
7:55 — Hoover Dam, Santiago Dam, and $100K in Debt
9:09 — Rubber Tires on Heavy Equipment (1932)
10:58 — The Caterpillar Partnership (1935)
11:35 — Caterpillar Rejects the Tournapull (1937)
12:44 — Model A, Model C, and the Widow Maker Super C
15:56 — WWII: LeTourneau's Machines Go Everywhere
17:30 — Armored Bulldozers on Omaha Beach
18:43 — Pacific Island Airfields and the Seabees
20:34 — The Alaska Highway in 8 Months
22:03 — D4 Airborne Tournapull and Tournacranes
23:35 — The $31 Million Westinghouse Sale (1953)
24:25 — Jack-Up Rigs for George H.W. Bush
25:28 — The Comeback at Age 70: The Electric Wheel
26:36 — How Electric Wheel Drive Actually Works
28:18 — The Electric Wheel Patent (1950)
29:10 — The LT-360: Largest Scraper Ever Built
30:34 — Tree Crushers and Vietnam
31:41 — TC-497 Overland Train: Longest Vehicle Ever
32:41 — LeTourneau's Hatred of Hydraulics
33:26 — The L-2350 and Modern Mining Trucks
34:42 — The Bigfoot 5 Connection
36:17 — 299 Patents, A Sixth-Grade Education

Sources and further reading:
LeTourneau University Museum & Archives, Longview, Texas
Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA), Bowling Green, Ohio
"Mover of Men and Mountains" — R.G. LeTourneau (autobiography)
"R.G. LeTourneau: The Man Who Moved the Earth" — Farm Collector
OEM Off-Highway / HCEA: "The Great Innovator R.G. LeTourneau"
OEM Off-Highway / HCEA: "The Electric Wheel"
Texas State Historical Association: LeTourneau entry
US Auto Industry in World War Two: LeTourneau wartime production

Fair Use Notice: This video contains historical photographs and archival material used for educational and documentary purposes under Fair Use (17 U.S.C. § 107). No copyright infringement is intended.

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