Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/597

 Loading Ashes Automatically

The endless belt conveyor saves the janitor's back and the landlord's money

��THE endless belt has been found to be a solution of a wide variety of problems. It is even being used now as a conveyor of ashes from large buildings. Thus applied, it far outstrips the older methods of carting up the ashes from the boiler-room by the barrel. Instead, it brings them up and discharges them in one continuous stream directly into waiting wagons. The conveyor for this purpose must be portable; it must be one which can be raised into position when in use, and lowered below the level of the sidewalk immediately after- ward. This is be- cause no obstruction can be allowed for any length of time above the sidewalk on any city street.

To accomplish the raising and lowering, the conveyor is en- closed in a casing of sheet iron. Two flat rack gears are at- tached to the casing, one on each side. In these, two pinion gears mesh, and when these pinions are turned by the hand-crank with which they connect, the casing, belt con- veyor and all are moved in the direction desired. Hence, when the ashes collected in the engihe-room are to be removed, the

���conveyor is first lifted from its casing in the ground, up through its trap- door, and stationed on the sidewalk. The ashes are then shov- eled into a suitable pit built in the en- gine-room floor, and the belt is started going by the small electric motor geared to it. The buckets on the belt dig into the pile of ashes as they pass through the pit. They are filled automatically and travel upwards to the surface. On reaching the belt- sprocket at the top of the conveyor, the buckets swi n g around with suffi- cient speed to throw the ashes off into the sloping chute at the side. From here they slide into a waiting wagon, and are ready to be carted away.

��The buckets on the revolving end- less belt dig into the piled ashes and carry them up to the street where they are dumped into wagons

��Stolen Cars Send Automo- bile Insurance Rates Up

THE increasing number of stolen cars and the small proportion recovered by the police are the reasons given for the raised rates on automobile insurance in Chicago. More than four thousand cars were stolen in that city during the first nine months of last year. The advanced rates on cars val- ued at less than $700 are from twenty-five cents on new cars to $2.25. On 1 91 5 models the advances are from fifty cents to two dollars, and on the 1914 models from fiftv cents to one dollar.

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