The famous Gradall excavator traces its roots back to the start of the 1940s. During this time, World War II had created a scarcity of laborers since most of the young men went away to war. This decline in the labor force brought a huge need for the delicate work of grading and finishing highway projects.
Ferwerda-Werba-Ferwerda was a Cleveland, Ohio based construction business that experienced this particular dilemma first hand. Koop and Ray Ferwerda were brothers who had moved from the Netherlands. They were partners in the company which had become among the major highway contractors in the state of Ohio. The Ferwerdas' set out to make an equipment which will save their livelihoods and their company by making a model which would do what had previously been manual slope work. This invention was to offset the gap left in the workplace when so many men had joined the military.
The initial apparatus these brothers created had 2 beams set on a rotating platform and was connected directly onto the top of a truck. They utilized a telescopic cylinder to move the beams out and in. This allowed the attached blade at the end of the beams to push or pull dirt.
After a short time, the Ferwerda brothers improved on their first design. They made a triangular boom to create more strength. Then, they added a tilt cylinder that allowed the boom to rotate 45 degrees in either direction. This new model could be equipped with either a blade or a bucket and the attachment movement was made possible by placing a cylinder at the back of the boom. This design powered a long push rod and allowed a lot of work to be finished.
Not a long time after, numerous digging buckets were introduced on the market. These buckets came in 15 inch, 24 inch, 36 inch and 60 inch sizes. There was also a 47 inch heavy-duty pavement removal bucket that was offered too.