Excavators are heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a boom, dipper, bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house" - although the largest form ever, the dragline excavator, eliminated the dipper in favor of a line and winch.
An excavator in Alicante, Spain
A dragline excavator is a heavy-duty excavator used in civil engineering and surface mining. It was invented in 1904, and presented an immediate challenge to the steam shovel (and its diesel and electric powered descendant, the power shovel. Much more efficient than even the largest of the latter, it enjoyed a heyday in extreme size for most of the 20th century, first becoming challenged by more efficient rotary excavators in the 1950s, then superseded by them on the upper end from the 1970s on.
Built by Bucyrus-Erie in 1969, Big Muskie was the world's largest ever dragline, being 487 ft (148 m) in length, weighing some 13,500 short tons (12,247 t), and hoisting a 220 cu yd (168.2 m3) bucket that could move 325 short tons (295 t) of material at a pass.