The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

GRAVITY BUCKET CONVEYORS 123 The speed of travel of these conveyors is slow, and. the necessary capacity is obtained by installing buckets of a size corresponding to the load to be conveyed. The normal rate of travel is 40 ft. per minute, but it can be either increased or decreased within limits of 25 and 50 ft. ac- cording to circumstances. The power required is com- paratively small, and de- pends to a large extent on what proportion of the length is used for elevating. A conveyor of this type offers the undoubted advantages of handling material in the gentlest possible manner, and of consuming but little power. One main drive is sufficient for a whole installation. The material can be fed to or withdrawn from the conveyor at any point. But it has this disadvan- tage, that if one portion of the installation breaks down, the whole is at a standstill; whereas, if dif- ferent appliances are used for elevating and convey- ing, a portion of the whole may be at work. More- over, there are a large number of journals to be lubricated and kept in re- pair. The former opera- tion is, however, automatic- ally effected in some of the best conveyors. The Hunt Con- veyor.—The Hunt con- veyor, which was probably the first successful one of this class, consists of. a Fig. 168. The Hunt Conveyor. double link chain carrying a series of pivoted buckets suspended in such a manner that they maintain their vertical position, and are free to revolve on their axes at all points of their path except at the place in which they discharge, this operation being effected in a very simple and efficient manner by means of a cam action, whilst the buckets on being released right themselves and are ready to be refilled. The buckets pass through the cycle of their motions continuously, filling and emptying at any given points, the discharging being so simply performed that