The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

332 THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL could be transferred at the rate of one a minute without great difficulty, although the rate of loading was somewhat slower, the average being 3 or 4 tons per hour less. The experiments which were conducted by the American Navy with this system aroused such interest that a numbtr of American shipowners aie considering the idea of utilising the apparatus for supplying coal to liners at such points in harbours where the water is too shallow to admit of placing the fuel on board their ships when loaded by the usual methods. It is understood that further official trials are to be made with a view to supplying victuals as well as the necessary coal supplies while at sea. The matter was then taken up in England by the late Temperley Transporter Co., who, in co-operation wiih Spencer Miller, and without changing the original idea, have paid great attention to the details of the scheme, making various improvements with undoubted success. The diagram, Fig. 471, serves to illustrate the general principle involved. The collier is in tow of the battleship, being drawn by two hawsers, which are secured along the stern and to the collier well back from the bow. There is every reason to believe that this apparatus will be an ultimate success, provided that the coal can be conveyed in sufficient quantities, which appears now to be the only difficulty, although portions of the apparatus are still in the experimental stage. The principle of coaling at sea under way can hardly be considered as established Fig. 471. Diagram showing the Temperley-Miller Plan for Coaling at Sea. by the comparatively few experiments already made. It is to be tried off and on for a year or so with various battleships and cruiseis, but the final official adoption of the scheme may, however, be considered certain with the above proviso, because of the strategical advantages involved. The difficulties which have been mentioned bear out Lieutenant Bell’s misgivings as to coaling from broadside. It is, however, not unlikely that, with adequate means to keep the ships apart, broadside coaling will be neither impossible nor impracticable. One of the latest schemes brought forward is that of Mr A. C. Cunningham, civil engineer in the United States Navy, and Mr William Seaton, of the C. W. Hunt Co., of New York City, by means of which it is alleged that broadside coaling from ship to collier can be effected with impunity. The vessels are kept apart by a current of water pumped from one ship against the other either by special pumps, or by the use of existing bilge pumps. The lashings will be kept taut by means of water jets which are the equivalent of elastic struts. These jets take the place of the fenders, which were, owing to their unsatisfactory work, the cause of the abandonment of broadside coaling. Any breakdown to the pump or pumps might, however, prove fatal to the success of this scheme. Fig. 472 represents the Spencer Miller marine cableway, as used for coaling vessels at sea, and shows the U.S. battleship “Illinois” receiving coal from the collier “Sterling”; in this instance the operating winches are placed upon the battleship. Fig. 473 shows the adaptation of the Spencer Miller method of coaling ships at sea