The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

u8 THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL The Weiss Feeding Appliance.—The feeding device illustrated in Figs. 162 and 163 is the invention of Mr Weiss, manager of the gasworks at Zürich, and has been designed for the purpose of automatically and uniformly feeding this type of One of the most important conveyor with coal from silos or stock heaps. The illustration represents the apparatus in elevation and cross section. The conveyor ts fixed in a tunnel, with the feeding appliance over it, in connection with the hoppered bottom of the coal store. The feeding device consists principally of a table above which the coal enters. This table is set into an oscillating movement, and thus allows the coal to drop from its sides into a small hop- pered trough, from which it finds its way on to the conveyor. The oscillating motion is imparted to the table by a lever connected to the conveyor. This lever can be thrown in and out of gear, and it is obvious that when thrown out, and the table at rest, the flow of coal will cease. The Norton Conveyor.—This is another type of reciprocating conveyor, and unlike those previously described, the trough is supported on inclined links, the stroke is much larger, and the speed of running much less. The conveyor con- sists of 'the usual wrought-iron trough, which in this case receives its reciprocating motion from an eccentric, and in order to balance the conveyor, the trough is made in two equal portions, which reciprocate in opposite directions. The motion is given by rocking levers (see Fig. 164), which shows the principle in diagrammatic form, which will be understood from the previous remarks. The diagram shows the development of this conveyor for screening purposes to classify the coal as well as to convey it. The number of inclined supports are comparatively few, as compared with the pre- viously described conveyor. The speed of the eccentric is about 90 revs, per minute, and the stroke imparted is from 5 to 6 in., which is said to produce a forward motion of the material in the trough at the rate of 40 ft. per minute. From these particulars the capacities of the various sized troughs can be ascertained. features of this conveyor in connection with its use in collieries is the reciprocating loading extension, which is worthy of more than a passing remark. The loading or lowering device is so coupled to the conveyor or screen proper, that the stroke is automatically, adjusted, and thus made suitable to every incline of the shoot, that is to say, at the steepest downward gradient, when the loader reaches to the bottom of the coal truck, and when the coal would run