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From the book "Allis- Chalmers and Fiat-Allis Construction and Industrial Machines," 2023 The first mechanical rock crusher was invented by Eli Whitney Blake in 1858. It was a steam-operated jaw crusher in which two heavy steel plates were continually pushed against pieces of rock fed from a small hopper. The invention caught the eye of Philatelus Gates, who, along with H.H. Scoville had formed the Gates Iron Works company in 1842 and was looking for a new product. Gates obtained the Blake patents, and by the late- 1800s, the firm had a wide range of crushers and was enjoying an international reputation. Steel wheels were available for the smaller crushers to allow movement within the mine or quarry or to travel to a new site. The gyratory crusher was developed by Charles Brown in 1878, and impact and cone crushers appeared several years after that, completing the four basic types that are in use today. The jaw crusher involves moving a hinged plate to break the material against a stationary plate. The gyratory crusher uses a rotating eccentric shaft inside a large steel crucible to pulverize the rock and is generally used for high- volume operations. The impact or hammermill crusher utilizes the force of a high-speed hammer to break the material against a solid surface. The cone crusher uses a rotating head inside a steel bowl to break the rock; the material then passes through a narrow opening at the bottom for further reduction in size. The development of large steam-powered shovels and drills pushed the need for larger crushers and the expansion of railroads in the second half of the 19th century provided a great need for crushed stone. From its earliest days in existence, Allis- Chalmers was in the crushing and milling machinery business. In its formation in 1901, A-C gained the lines of mining and ore processing equipment from the Gates Iron Works and the Frasier and Chalmers Co., including jaw and gyratory rock crushers. Gates acquired the Brown patent for the gyratory crusher in 1878 and by 1896 had sold over 4,000 units. F&C also built crushers and developed their Comet gyratory model in 1884 that could be adjusted to produce different sizes of rock, ideal for the aggregate industry. By the late-1800s, the two companies became bitter rivals in An A-C 500-tons/hour portable crusher is pictured. Photo courtesy of Calvin Schmidt. From left are an A-C No. 248 Fine-Reduction Jaw Crusher (1930), Gates portable gyratory crusher, early-1900s and A-C Fairmount single-roll crusher. Photos are from Motorbooks International. They're crushing it Allis-Chalmers had long history in rock crusher market By Roger Amato, Warrenton, Va. 14 OLD ALLIS NEWS