Talk:R. G. LeTourneau

Timeline
Can a good timeline of R.G.'s life be created from his book? Maybe from the museum?

The answer is, yes. There is a lot of information about R.G. LeTourneau in Longview, particularly at the Museum located on the LeTourneau University main campus.

Someone should mention that LeTourneau Industries, founded by R.G. LeTourneau, was just up the street, about a block away from the LeTourneau University campus. Eventually, Marathon bought out LeTourneau Industries, but the buildings are still there, as strange-looking as ever. I've spoken with people who have worked in the large silver domes. They tell me that the domes are hot in the Summer and noisy.

I have been told that one of R.G. LeTourneau's biggest inventions involved the self-propelled wheel. Someone should look up the patents he held for it. Anyway, his self-propelled wheels allowed his equipment to change directions sharply.

As important as Christianity was to R.G. LeTourneau, someone should mention that he was a faithful member of a church on High Street, just around the corner from the college and a short distance from LeTourneau Industries. I'll have to come back later and fill in the name of it, because I can't recall it just now, even though I've attended it several times. Several of the professors at LeTourneau University still attend this church.

What I've written here comes from decade-old memories, recalled on insufficient sleep. I hope that someone--preferably me--comes back eventually and fills in the blanks and corrects the details.

Besides earth-moving equipment, LeTourneau Industries did a lot of work on oil field equipment, especially off-shore oil rigs. I was told that it was this work that brought R.G. LeTourneau into contact with the Bush family. I'm sure the details would be interesting.

What does all this have to do with R.G.? --Eliot 19:14, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Edited to remove personal commentary on LeTourneau University that does not pertain to R.G. LeTourneau ```` Randy

-Edited to give a better overview of his life. Used bio written on LeTourneau Technologies siteJason

Talk Page Guide lines

 * 1) Note to recent editors; Please read the Guidelines Links Added at head of page, as Cleaning up other peoples comments is bad practice as is not signing your comments.
 * 2) Agree comments were not realy relavent to article, but not WP:Vandalism to warrant removal -BulldozerD11 (talk) 23:09, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Christianity project assessment
Start as many more sources are needed along with more neutral tone. Low importance as this is not an important person to know to understand Christianity.Ltwin (talk) 02:52, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

What did he have against steering wheels?
I've seen a Le Tourneau earth mover steered by a toggle switch, and have seen video of a smaller "baby scraper" supposedly steered by pedals while the operator's unoccupied hands were fully visible. knoodelhed (talk) 20:45, 21 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Remember the time of these machines. These are large machines and power steering was still crude. I believe that the power steering was hydraulic and the toggle switch and foot pedals basically controlled valves that allowed hydraulic fluid to be pumped into the turn left or turn right hydraulic circuits. Crude but workable - and also much cheaper and reliable. This would not be acceptable on a consumer driven car but for a specialty machine driven slowly by a trained operator it was acceptable.  Stepho  talk 23:56, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Clean up of Personal pursuits
Removed/modified and replaced religion-based WP:PROMO, plus WP:PROMO for LeTourneau University. Tapered (talk) 20:07, 31 August 2022 (UTC)