Patten (shoe) dung and human effluent (from chamber pots)– was usually thrown directly into the street (often with minimal advance warning). Making full foot contact with such an unpleasant surface was, understandably, highly undesirable. Thus, pattens tended to only make contact with the ground through two or three strips of wood and raised the wearer up considerably, sometimes by four inches (ten centimetres) or more in contrast to clogs which usually have a low, flat-bottomed sole integral to the shoe. A later pattern of patten which seems to date from the 17th century, and then became the most common, had a flat
Marion Steam Shovel (Le Roy, New York) Marion Steam Shovel (Le Roy, New York) The Marion Steam Shovel, also known as the Le Roy Steam Shovel, is a historic Model 91 steam shovel manufactured by the Marion Steam Shovel and Dredge Company of Marion, Ohio. It is located on Gulf Road in the Town of Le Roy, New York, United States. Representative of the type of technology developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century to provide large, inexpensive supplies of crushed stone for the vast American railroad network and later for the road construction, it is believed to be the largest intact steam shovel