Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/421

 Popular Science Monthly

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��Loading Platforms That May Be Moved from Place to Place

MANY large factories and other plants are confronted by the problem of moving quickly thousands of boxes, barrels, sacks and packages from storage to wharf and from wharf to shipboard or railroad car. Using hand trucks, it would take a force of thirty men to handle one thousand, five hundred box- es an hour. Several types of portable machines have been put on the mar- ket to relieve this situation. One of them is a moving

��platform on wheels. Han- dled by a force of half a doz- en men, it can do the work

���containers. The loader is designed for use in putting barrels into freight cars and onto high platforms. It is constructed on an iron frame and is provided with wheels so that it, too, is portable.

All of these machines are equipped with electric motors to furnish the power. They are so light in weight that they are easily

transported from one place to another by one man. The amount of current necessary to run them and the cost of operation are comparatively small.

��A barrel loader for placing barrels on freight cars or onto high platforms. The apparatus can easily be rolled from place to place as shown on the right

��of thirty, eliminating confusion and avoid- ing the delay of unloading hand trucks. One of these conveyors is one hundred and forty feet long and is made up of seven sec- tions. It can move one thousand, five hun- dred boxes of eighty pounds each every hour.

For the benefit of warehouses and manu- facturers who find it necessary to stack large quantities of bags and boxes, a stacking machine has just been put out. It is an in- clined moving platform supported on an iron frame equipped with rollers, making the apparatus "portable." It is physically impossible for men to stack heavy bags very high up. The new machine, however, is de- signed for heavy work. It can handle three hundred and forty -pound sacks and stack them up as high as fourteen feet and six inches. It is also used for "breaking down" piles when necessary.

The quick loading of barrels has also been solved by machinery

����The cord prevents any kickback

��A barrel load r, which can handle five hundred-pound barr 's at the rate of one hundred and eigl; ' an hour is coming into use in plants whei>_ barrels are the principal shipping

��A Simple Device for Taking the "Kick" Out of a Revolver

THE ability to shoot straight with a revolver is a gift possessed by very few. It is easy enough to sight accurately along the barrel, but the "kick" of the re- volver causes the barrel to swerve.

To obviate this, John E. Webster, of Washington, D. C, has invented a muzzle controller which prevents the revolver from jumping up- ward when the trigger is pulled. To the under side of the barrel at the end is welded a flange, similar in appear- ance and size to the sight above it. Attached to this is a flexible cord. At the other end of the cord is a metal ring large enough in diameter to slip readily over the little finger on the firing hand. The length of the cord is regulated to suit the person firing the revolver, the idea being that when the weapon is raised to shoot, the cord is held taut and consequently it is impossible for the revolver to swerve.

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