Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/220

 Coaling a Liner with an Elevator

���An endless bucket-chain passes into the barge and thence up the conveyor to the discharging point at the top of the chute. This loader has coaled the " Vaterland" in twenty-one hours

��SPEED and certainty are the two principals upon which the great steamships which ply between con- tinents are operated. They are per- mitted only a liiiiited number of days in port; they must be swiftly unloaded and cleaned; and they must be no less swiftly loaded, and made ready for sea. In all these oerations, the machine which is in greatest demand is the one that can put the cargo aboard in less time and at less expen.sc than another machine. Especiall)' is this true in tak- ing aboard coal. The ocean greyhounds which carry from five thousand tons to nine thousand tons of coal, and which arc permittet! onl)- two or three days to take on such an immense cargo, must therefore be loaded in the most rapid as well as the most ec<jnmical way.

Cf)aling shi[)s by the old-fashioiied hoist-uperated tubs was a slow and

��expensive process. An apparatus was therefore made necessary which would reduce the coaling period, require less space, cut down the labor and mainten- ance costs, and eliminate the nui.sance of flying coal-dirt. The machine that was invented with these objects in \iew is seen in the illustration loading coal from the barge into the port-holes of a large ocean liner. Each of these loaders can be suspended from a boom by means of a rope and pulley, o\er any barge, and inasmuch as they are truly jiortablc, they can be swung from any ])ortion of the ship to the desired load- ing point. Herein lies their advantage o\'cr the floating unloading elevators which require a large water space, and have but one point of deli\ery.

The dri\-ing-motor is installed in the lu-ad of the elevator, and is operated by electric current supplied from shore.

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