Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/752

 Exit the Stevedore

A mechanical device does the work of fifty men in a given tim^

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���The mechanical loader and unloader carries goods from the deck of a steamer direct to the truck for final delivery to the wholesaler. It has a capacity of one ton per minute

��A COMBINED mechanical loader and unloader which will carry packed goods from the deck of a ship direct to the body of the waiting motor vehicle for final delivery to the wholesaler or to the consumer, with but one handling, is designed to materially reduce the final cost of goods to the purchaser by reducing transportation charges.

The appa- ratus consists of portable sec- tions of belt con V e y o r s mounted on small stands with castor wheels. These are moved about the wharf or freight sta- tion to meet the physical condi- tions existent, and when made into one con- tinuous convey- or will carry any kind of packed goods from any desired point

to any other in remarkably quick time. The apparatus shown has a capacity of a ton a minute. One unloader is thus able to unload a ship having a carrying tonnage of four thousand in about sixty hours or six days of ten hours each. With two such unloaders the vessel could be unloaded in three days, whereas a crew of perhaps a

���The apparatus consists of portable sections of belt conveyors mounted on stands with castor wheels

��hundred men working in day and night shifts would be required to accomplish the same result and at a much greater cost.

The conveyor sections are simply steel latticed beams carrying endless belts driven by gears through the mediurn of electric current, steam, compressed air, oil under

pressure or by means of inter- nal combustion engines accord- ing to the mo- t i ve power most available. The power is ap- plied to one of the belt sections and then trans- ferred to the one adjacent to it by means of small sprockets and chains on the sides, as shown in the accompanying illustrations.

In the case shown, the goods being unloaded travels down a grade from the deck of the ship to the level section on the wharf and then up a twenty per cent incline at the other end directly into the body of the waiting vehicle. If it is not desired to load it directly, it may be stored in piles. The entire operation is performed with but one handling, that of loosening the sling by means of which the bundles are lifted.

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