Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/535

 Piping Oil to Ships at Sea

���A steamship on the other side of the bar plays the part of a hauUng locomotive. Flags are used for signaling and an elevated disk designates a station to the ship out at

��GREAT oil regions lie to • the west of Tuxpan, w hich Mexican city, in conse- quence, has become a most con- venient point for exporting oil. However, there are neither dock- ing nor harbor facilities, because of an imniense sandbar which cfTcctually prevents ocean-goiiii; vessels trom approaching thr city much nearer than a mile.

To o\ercome this dilViculty, the oil companies devised a novel method of loading oil. Long pipe lines were run out under the sea and over the sandbar. To the outer ends of these lines flexible elbow joints were attached. Nipples on the upturned ends of theelliow joints were i)ro\ided for ihe attaciimeiit i)f rubber or other hose, leading from the pi|)e lines to the siirfact'. their position being [ilainly indicated by large buoys.

��At left: Transport- ing the pipe-line sections into the ocean by railway

Below: Vessels to be loaded pick up buoy with liose at- tached and signal a pumping station

���In loading oil, vessels simplj- ride at anchor in the open roadstead, pick up one of the buoys with hose attached, signal a pumping plant on shore, and take on oil at the rate of one thousand. se\en hundred barrels an hour. E\en though the \'essels roll, the intake of oil is not seriously retarded. Indi-i'd. oil is taken aboard with almost the same

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