The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

ROPEWAYS 283 House decided in 1899 to abandon the well-known lighthouse on that promontory and erect another structure on the foreshore beneath. It having been deemed desirable to establish the workyard at the top of the cliff at a height of about 400 ft. above the sea, it became necessary to construct a ropeway of a special character for the purpose of carrying loads to a staging erected a little beyond low-water line on the shore at the site of the proposed lighthouse, which lay about 600 ft. from the base of the cliff (see Fig. 413). Mr W. T. H. Carrington, the consulting engineer to Messrs Bullivant & Co., Ltd., having in consultation with Mr Matthews prepared the necessary designs for the ropeway, the construction of the latter was entrusted to that firm. I he chief Fig. 413. General View of the Ropeway. work the ropeway was required to perform was to transport blocks of granite weighing about 4 tons each for the construction of the lighthouse ; but it had also to tiansport the machinery needed in the building, such as pumps, steam engines, cranes, etc., as well as all the cement, shingle, etc. In addition to this it was also necessary that the ropeway should provide a convenient means for the conveyance of the workmen down to and up from their work on the lighthouse (see Fig. 414). As in ordinary working the descending load draws the ascending load up, a modifica- tion was necessary in order to provide for bringing up workmen when no materials are ready to send down. A small auxiliary steam engine is therefore provided. The arrangement of the plant is as follows: I wo fixed ropes one 6 in. in cir- cumference with 120 tons breaking strain, and the other 5J in. in circumference v3th 100 tons breaking strain—are stretched parallel to each other between the termini.