2-799-094 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Patent American steam pile-driving engine, 1844. Workers operating 'Cram's Patent Steam Pile Driver', a machine used in the construction of railways in the United States. 'As a considerable length of this line passes through a deep swamp, a foundation of great permanency was required...Piles were adopted as the cheapest and most efficacious means to secure a durable and substantial basis...The men employed in operating this machine on the Utica and Syracuse Railway, were a foreman, a steam-engineer, two brakemen, and two men in front at the saws; also a horse and cart to furnish water for the boiler...This machine was manufactured in the United States, complete, at the cost of 2000 dollars'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V.