Moving earth with pick, shovel and barrow

William Otis had patented a steam shovel in Philadelphia in 1839, but it competed against cheap labour, and the navvy with a barrow dug the canals and railways of the nineteenth century all the same. Hydraulics and full slew made the difference, because one operator could then dig, swing, place and backfill without a gang behind him. The bucket is a blunt tool, so hand digging is still the rule around live services, in archaeology, at the bottom of a trench and wherever a machine cannot be got to. Setting out, reading the ground, shoring and the safety of anyone standing in the excavation remain human responsibilities, and satellite machine control has moved the operator's skill from the levers toward the plan.