AL

Historically, Farm Tillage Tools Were Designed Without Scientific Knowledge Of How Tools Work The Soil. Thus, A Tool Designed To Operate In One Soil Pulled By A Mule Might Not Operate Satisfactorily In Another Soil Or When Pulled By A Tractor At Higher Speeds. Traction And Flotation Problems Appeared With The Introduction Of Tractors. The Importance Of Developing A Scientific Approach To The Study Of Tillage And Traction Became Apparent During The Transition From Animal To Mechanical Power.

Used to lift molten iron to molds where it was cast into pipe, jib cranes were the sole means of conveyance in the pit-casting process. When pit casting was replaced by centrifugal casting in the 1920s, many pits were filled and the cranes were used to produce cast iron fittings or general maintenance work. Only one jib crane remained at the American Cast Iron Pipe Company in recent years, and it was probably the last pit-cast jib crane to operate, which it did until it was given to the Sloss Furnace Museum in early 1986.

The Advanced Engine Test Facility was built in 1964, three years after President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to world leadership in aeronautical science. Conceived and designed by Wernher von Braun, the first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, this facility was used to perform static tests on the booster of the Saturn V rocket, which launched Apollo 11 to the moon on July 16, 1969. The stand has four concrete legs, each four feet thick and rising 144 feet to a steel superstructure supporting a 200-ton crane.

The stone was set by the joint U.S.-Spanish survey party on April 10, 1799.  Made of sandstone, it is roughly two feet high and eight inches thick. On the north side of the stone is the inscription "U.S. Lat. 31, 1799." On the south side is "Dominio de S.M. Carlos IV, Lat. 31, 1799."