The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

45° THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL Fig. 627 shows an installation for the Danish Coal Co.’s store at Copenhagen, in which may be seen five transporters of this type which unload the coal into a store. Transporters at the Zürich Gasworks.—Fig. 628 shows a similar installation erected by the same firm, in which three transporters are working side by side. This is the coal-receiving installation for the gasworks, Zürich, Switzerland. After the coal has been received by these transporters, it is deposited in the cars of the “ Hunt” automatic railway. One of these is shown in the illustration just starting on its journey to the coal store. Transporter of the C. W'. Hunt Co.—A transporter of the most recent and improved type is that designed by Messrs C. W. Hunt & Co. for the Lincoln Wharf Power Station of the Boston (U.S.A.) Elevated Railway Co., which is remarkable for its enormous capacity. Bituminous coal is unloaded and raised to a height of 90 ft. above the water level from the hatch of the vessel, and delivered to the stock pile or into overhead bunkers above mechanical stokers. The coal is unloaded at the rate of 320 tons per hour by one transporter. The driving power is provided by an engine of 300 H.P. which also drives the coal-breaking machinery that forms part of the plant, and is for the purpose of breaking the coal into suitable sizes for automatic stokers. The capacity of the coal- breaker is 5 tons per minute. The grab in use with this transporter has a capacity of 2 tons with each lift, and the time occupied in raising the loaded grab to the overhead hopper is only six seconds. It is said that the whole cycle of unloading operations, including lowering the grab, running it out on the jib, opening it, filling it by its own action with 2 tons of coal, raising it again and discharging it, can be performed in twenty-two seconds. The crane is mounted on wheels, so that it can be adjusted to the hatchway. The jib end of the crane is 40 ft. long, so that the grab can be run out to a sufficient length to take the coal from the hold of the largest ships. See also Hoover & Mason’s Ore-Handling Plant, in chapter “ Handling Raw Material in connection with Blast Furnaces” (page 353); and the chapter “Storing of Coal and other Minerals in Stock Heaps and Silos” (page 650).