Thew Shovel

The Thew Automatic Shovel Company was a power shovel and crane manufacturing company established by Captain Richard Thew in Lorain, Ohio in 1899.

Captain Thew invented the first fully revolving steam shovel in the United States. The idea for this type of shovel came to Thew while he was captain of an ore-carrying vessel on the Great Lakes as a solution to the challenge of moving iron ore once it was deposited on the docks. The machines at the time tasked with moving this iron ore on the docks were "railroad-type" steam shovels with booms that had limited range of motion and therefore were not able to adequately reach all of the iron ore. Manual labor was required to hand shovel the iron and complete the project.

Thew worked with H.H. Harris, a shovel designer, to create a machine that a 360° range of slewing motion. The first prototype was constructed at the Variety Iron Works (Cleveland, Ohio) in 1895. The machine's design and scope was finalized. As orders increased for the machine, the Thew Automatic Shovel Company was established in 1899 in Lorain.

Thew Shovel continued to innovate the field of earthmoving machinery. In 1912 they were producing electric shovels which alleviated the pollution from steam shovels, and around 1914 were using gasoline powered shovels. The Lorain TL Series was a type of construction equipment produced in 1945 that offered a completely welded superstructure fabrication. They also received a patent in 1952 for a type of "shear ball" bearing slew ring.