The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

COKE FROM COKE OVENS 377 of the coke ovens, there being one pipe for each oven, so that no flexible pipes need be used. On a similar apparatus at the Cargo Fleet Works the conveyor truck carries its own motor, and the balanced receptacle for the coke can be raised and lowered by ropes and pulleys. While the coke is being pushed out of the oven past a quencher, the loader is moved slowly onwards so that the coke is evenly distributed in the receptacle, the small and breeze falling through the bottom grid into a bunker underneath, which is emptied at intervals. When full the loader is run to the railway truck that is to be loaded. The loading machine consists of a substantial framework on wheels which runs on a track in front of the ovens. The raising and lowering of the balanced coke receptacle is accomplished by the same motor which drives the machine, and which is fitted below the breeze bunker, together with its gearing and countershaft. The position of the a. 1 he hunker for small coke and breeze, b. The truck for the same. c. A balanced reciprocating screen, d. Electro-motor, f. Countershaft, h, i, i. Gate which admits the coke from the hearth, with adjustment, k. Trough for surplus quenching water. I. Steel standards supporting gate h and gantry m from which the coke is quenched. motor under the receptacle being unfavourable on account of its being exposed to the moisture and heat of the load, a simplified form of loader has been installed to serve the ovens producing blast-furnace coke; in this case the bottom of the receptacle is horizontal. The quenching of the coke is completed by hand, and. the coke itself is discharged by hand into the trucks for charging the blast-furnace. Some of the latest coke loaders have been built in connection with short and steep hearths, where the coke is quenched completely on the hearth, and when cool trans- mitted by gravity on to the loading machine. There is a rail track for such special loaders, running between the hearth and the siding for the coal trucks. These appliances have been built to suit ramps sufficiently high above the coke trucks for the coke to be transferred to the loading device (between hearth and truck) by gravity, and modifica- tions of the same principle have also been recently installed to suit hearths which are considerably below the coke trucks’ siding.