Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/221

 Popiiliir Scinirc Mont/ili/

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��The starting aiul stopping of I Ik- iic\a- tor as well as the hoisting, shifting, and lowering of the unloaders is controlled hy two men, one on each side of the \essel. On \-ery large liners as many as twelve or fourteen of these electric load- <rs are employed for rushing the coal into the holds of these impatient mon- sters. And even when a fresh bargeful (jf coal is brought up, there is no delay in the operations; the loaders are simply raised and swung over the coal in the barge, and the loading continues.

What contributes most essentially to the efTectiveness of these portable load- ers, is the fact that they arc self- contained. Within the elevator, steel buckels are connected with rolled steel hinge-pins, so as to form an endless chain. The chute, on account of its telescopic construction, is adjustable to the desired

��length, and distribution is thus made (le.vible. Such floating marvels as the "Imperator" and the "Vaterland" have been coaled by these loaders in twenty- one hours, during which eight thousand five hundred tons were put aboard by ten such machines — a performance that could not have been achieved by the old- fashioned system of hoisted bucket:;.

Any bulk material, such as sand, gravel, or stone may be loaded or unloaded from one point to another, rapidly and economically. These electric loaders are used to transport a cargo from a freight-car into a truck; or from a barge into storage bins. And when one considers that none of the material loaded is lost, and that the skilled labor of an engineer or his assistants is nf)t needed to operate this device, its claim to economy becomes undeniable.

��An Auto Mountain Railway

���Above, the automobile engine mounted in its accustomed position. At right, the rail- way car with the low-slung body on car-wheels. There is enough room in the ton- neau for twenty people, be- sides the chauffeur-motorman

��FOR the transportation of passengers up Mount Tamalpais in California a number of automobile railway cars of unique design have been devised. The ears arc proi)elled by a sixty-horsepower, water-cooled engine, and there is room in the spacious tonneau for twenty pco- I'le, in addition to the driver.

The chassis, which is of sjjecial design, is mounted on railway car-wheels form-

��ing four trucks in all. A special gear- reducing mechanism cuts the speed of the engine down to where it is most efficient for climbing steep mountain grades. The seats arc upholsteretl simi- lar to those in railway cars, and every- lliing possilile has been done to cater to the c(jmfort of the passengers. It is said that this method of transportation has enjoyed great popularity.

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