This endearing piece of machinery, the Ruston Bucyrus dragline (RB22), was made in 1955 and used by Chailey Brickworks in Lewes, East Sussex. Draglines were originally invented in 1904 by John Page to help with the digging of the Chicago Canal. The Bucyrus Foundry and Manufacturing Company was later established in 1910 in the state of Ohio, and eventually partnered up with Ruston & Hornsby Ltd in Lincoln to form Ruston-Bucyrus Ltd in the 1930s – the firm this machine is a product of.

The dragline would have operated with a bucket which was (rather unsurprisingly) dragged along the clay using the dragrope, and subsequently raised with– you guessed it –the hoist rope. The bucket would then be swung with the intent of hovering it above a desired location, and finally the clay dumped in the desired spot.

Whilst incredibly popular, the dragline machines were limited in that they were very big machines and thus difficult to manoeuvre and were also restricted to the length of their dragrope. Additionally, the draglines inevitably reduced the workforce by replacing some men working at the brickworks, foreshadowing the gradual decline of the British industrial workforce in the late twentieth century in the wake of rapid technological advancement in the post-war world. However, despite their small setbacks, dragline excavators remain widely in use today (though they are now, of course, much more advanced!).

This blog was written by Museum Volunteer Molly Hunter.