The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

COKE FROM COKE OVENS 371 platforms or hearths which are nearly level, and have only sufficient slope to allow the quenching water to run away, and some of the appliances must be looked upon as the best that could be done under existing circumstances, whilst the tendency in new cokeries, both in England and on the Continent, is to place the ramp at an angle of 15° to 30° to the horizontal according to the method of loading which may be chosen. Fig. 520 shows such an arrangement. In front of the oven doors is a nearly level space a, about 6 ft. wide, which rounds off into the slope b; the former serves for quenching the coke when done by hand, affords a suitable passage to attend to the ovens, and finally forms prac- tically a continuation of the oven base and a support for the head of the coke-pusher, so that the coke can be, ejected to a suffi- cient distance. If a quenching machine is employed, the rail track is arranged on this upper nearly level platform. The slope ter- minates in a lower horizontal portion c, and at the bottom of the slope is a gutter d covered with perforated plate to carry off the superfluous quenching water. The rail- way track is sunk so that the upper edge of the trucks is either flush with the lower plat- Fig. 521. Peel’s Antibreaker. form, or better, projects somewhat above same, as shown in the illustration ; in either case the coke has to be lifted into the trucks by means of forks, which separate the large coke from the small. These sloping platforms are convenient, so far as the hand- ling of the coke is concerned, as the coke falls' to pieces as soon as it overhangs the greater slope of the ramp, and thereby saves hand labour; it also, after cooling, slides down with little help, and avoids the use of barrows. Such an installation is, however, more expensive on account .of the necessary excavations and the higher elevation of the ovens themselves. Ironworks, West Hartlepool, the ovens are mounted at a sufficient elevation to allow the At the cokery of the Seaton Carew Fig. 522. Coke Oven Installation at Rheinhausen. sloping platform to deliver direct into the coke bunkers, from which the quenching water is excluded by a rail and gutter at the bottom of the slope ; this rail also keeps back the small coke and breeze. The water main and hydrants for the quenching machine are carried on a bridge above the bunkers. The arrangement is convenient, as enabling the coke to be delivered to the bunkers, and again from there to the trucks, with a mini- mum of hand labour, and without mechanical appliances ; but is expensive to construct owing to the height of the substructure of the coke ovens. Mechanical quenchers are nearly always used with such installations, but with these steep ramps there is a tend- ency for portions of the coke to become detached from the solid mass during the quenching, and roll down the incline and so break up. This is practically prevented by suspending a number of rods about a yard long in front of the quencher so as to give the coke a little support, but “Peel’s” Antibreaker, Fig. 521, is more effectual.