Edwin “Ed” Malzahn, who invented the first compact trenching machine and built his family company into global manufacturer Charles Machine Works on the success of his “Ditch Witch,” died Dec. 11. He was 94.
Malzahn is best known for inventing the world’s first service-line trencher, originally known as the Ditch Witch Power, in 1949. The innovation of mechanizing the demanding task of digging trenches for buried utilities revolutionized the underground-compact-equipment market. Today, Ditch Witch, a Charles Machine Works company, has produced and sold more than half of the world’s trenching machines, according to the manufacturer.