Part of one of the Ashtabula Huletts, including the operator station, bucket, and about one-third of the arm, was saved through the idea of Joseph L. Rose after being donated by the A & B Dock Company to the Maritime Museum, although only 18 feet of the original unit could be moved and preserved. All of Ashtabula's Huletts were scrapped in the early 1980's. George H. Hulett patented his first iron-ore-unloading machine in 1898 for use on lake freighters. One of the largest and most cumbersome machines ever built, the Hulett stood 88 feet high, was 36 feet wide at the base, weighed 950 tons, and could dig 17 tons of ore in fifty seconds. Its main girder was 134 feet long and extended over five railroad loading tracks, its walking beam was 94 feet long, and its digging leg with attached bucket was 58 feet long. Operating the machine required extensive training. The operator sat in a small booth just above the bucket inside the digging leg and controlled the digging device as it moved in and out of a vessel's hold, then trolleyed the Hulett back from the vessel along the main girder so the loaded bucket could dump into a hopper. A larry car operator beneath the main beam weighed the ore and dumped it from the hopper into waiting rail cars below. The first Hulett was built in Conneaut, Ohio, in 1898. Andrew Carnegie agreed to try the new machine only if it cost him nothing unless it worked, and it was ready by the start of 1899. The first Hulett was steam powered and eliminated many of the expensive cables used by other unloading machines, and later Huletts operated by electric DC power. By 1908, Ashtabula had eight Huletts, and the Hulett era ended in the early 1980's when lake boats began using self-unloaders.