University of Wisconsin - Extension

Throughout the world, Wisconsin has gained a reputation for producing gigantic, one-of-a-kind industrial machinery. That large tradition and some of the people who helped create it are featured in the April 5 episode of the series Wisconsin Stories on Wisconsin Public Television (WPT).

"Really Big Stuff," the final program in the 10-part Wisconsin Stories, premieres at 7 pm Thursday, April 5, on the six WPT stations, with an encore at 2:30 pm Sunday, April 8. WMVS-TV/Milwaukee will air this episode at 6:30 pm Saturday, April 7. Tracy Will and Debbie Kmetz are the hosts of Wisconsin Stories.

"Really Big Stuff" focuses on Wisconsin's long history of making the heavy machinery used in other industries. Many times, these were items made for just one purpose or one project, such as the turbines on the Hoover Dam.

The program begins at Bucyrus International in South Milwaukee. The firm still builds items like drag lines, huge shovels that have been used in mining and on projects such as digging the Panama Canal. Wisconsin Stories talks with some of the retired Bucyrus employees who produced unique machinery.

"Really Big Stuff" examines how Henry Harnischfeger and partner Alonzo Pawling made a better overhead factory crane, and their creation was crucial to the many factories popping up around Milwaukee. Originally delivered by horse wagon, Harnischfeger cranes provided the horsepower to do the heavy lifting of many growing industries.

"Really Big Stuff" talks with Mell Anderson, who operated Harnishfeger cranes at A.O. Smith in Milwaukee for more than 25 years.

Overhead factory cranes are not the only cranes helpful in making big stuff. To build submarines during World War II, Manitowoc Shipbuilding used its own Manitowoc Speed Crane. In fact, the company made many more speed cranes than subs for the military, including six used for salvage in Pearl Harbor.

At Milwaukee's Falk Corporation, crane operators had an important job besides hauling loads-warning workers when president Herman Falk was prowling the shop floor. The mechanically inclined Falk parlayed the profit from sale of the family brewery into a business specializing in enormous gears.

Another Wisconsin company that made huge things was Beloit Iron Works, later Beloit Corporation. Beloit Corporation won an international reputation by running a paper-maker at the 1893 world Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In the year 2000, the Beloit Corporation held one of the largest industrial auctions in the world, as it was forced to shut down and sell assets.

In its day, Allis-Chalmers in West Allis was the biggest company in Wisconsin and the largest facility of its type in the world, manufacturing all manner of grand industrial products. Its output included such big stuff as flour milling equipment, electrical generators, mining equipment and tractors. The company fell on hard times and entered into a joint agreement with German firm Siemens, which eventually closed the plant in 1999. "Really Big Stuff" looks at what has become of the site and talks with former employees who built great equipment with great pride.

In the final sequence of the program, heavy machinery collector Peter Burno of Stoughton describes his efforts to preserve Wisconsin's heavy machinery past, refurbishing one of the oldest existing Bucyrus steam shovels.

Wisconsin Stories combines the resources of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and WPT's award-winning producers. Program support for Wisconsin Stories is by provided by the Mead Witter Foundation; the Halbert and Alice Kadish Foundation; Philip J. and Elizabeth B. Hendrickson; an advised fund of the Community Foundation

of Southern Wisconsin; The Alliant Energy Foundation Inc.; ANR Pipeline Co.; Ann Bardeen-Henschel; Daniel W. Erdman; Mr. and Mrs. W. Jerome Frautschi; the Hamilton Roddis Foundation; Duard and Dorothea Walker; the Oscar J. Boldt Construction Co.; and the Evjue Foundation Inc., the charitable arm of The Capital Times.

WPT is a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

Wisconsin Public Television celebrates and connects the people of Wisconsin through programs such as Wisconsin Stories on WHA-TV/Madison, WPNE-TV/Green Bay, WHRM-TV/Wausau, WLEF-TV/Park Falls, WHLA-TV/La Crosse and WHWC-TV/Menomonie-Eau Claire.