Abstract: A power shovel is described in which the bucket describes a straight line loading movement under power from the luffing rams alone, different straight line movements being obtained by adjustment of the length of the lifting rams which form one side of a deformable quadrilateral. The movements may be level, sloping or vertical. The main arm is shorter than the backet arm so that the loading movements can start close to the chassis of the shovel and the quadrilateral is not deformed into a triangle. A parallelogram linkage for controlling the attitude of the bucket extends from the chassis so that changes in position of the main and bucket arms do not influence the attitude of the bucket.

Abstract: Control system for a variable performance torque converter on a vehicle which has a number of auxiliary services such as brakes or cylinders served by a power source driven by the vehicle engine includes an actuator operating a control element on the torque converter in response to signalling means connected to the auxiliary services to proportion power from the engine between the torque converter and the power source for the auxiliaries.