RE: "1997, the Year of the Backhoe" ...Re: Fiber Cut In Sterling VA.

[Steve Goldstein <sgoldste () nsf gov>]

At 11:16 AM -0400 7/29/97, Peter Galbavy wrote:
...
> For those of us who have not grown up with the (what sounds like)
> delightful vagaries of US road management - what is a backhoe ?

Simple answer: a mechanical shovel.

More precisely: a relatively small-size outdoor excavation machine,
petrol-energized and driven, that is used for digging trenches of the order
of a meter wide and up to several meters deep.   The digging apparatus is a
toothed box with a trapdoor in the bottom which is placed at the end of an
articulated boom.

> From my on-line dictionary:  An excavator whose bucket is rigidly attached
to a hinged pole on the boom and is drawn backward to the machine when in
operation.

Backhoes have [inadvertently, one would hope] been a major factor in
network disruptions throughout the United States (weed-whackers and
sharp-shooting good ole boys hunting in the southern-state bayous,
notwithstanding).

--Steve