[11376] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: "1997, the Year of the Backhoe" ...Re: Fiber Cut In Sterling
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Goldstein)
Tue Jul 29 12:10:36 1997
In-Reply-To:
<E1814778D2F6D01192F000E02906AF29018D0C@exchange.server.demon.net>
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 11:30:35 -0400
To: Peter Galbavy <peter@demon.net>, Henry Clark <henryc@bbnplanet.com>,
nanog@merit.edu
From: 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
