The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

454 THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OE MATERIAL of open construction, to admit the grain to the elevator well to be received by the buckets. Fig. 630 is a similar design of a barge elevator feeding a band conveyor. The elevator itself is driven from the conveyor, the latter receiving its motive power at the opposite end. It is suspended by two steel ropes; one end of each can be wound upon one of two drums, on either side of the elevator casing. The hand wheel a controls the gear for lowering and raising. This is effected by means of power obtained from the band terminal. Each drum is fitted with a worm and worm wheel. The elevator must always be in a perpendicular position, and is there maintained by four small guide rollers which prevent any side movement, but allow of an up-and-down motion. As the rise of the elevator is only a few feet, owing to the barges being shallow and there being no tidal variation in the river, the gearing of the band to the elevator is in Fig. 631. Perspective View of Barge Elevator and Granary at Dresden-Reisa. no way detrimental to the arrangement, for even if the elevator and band are at their highest points the efficiency of the latter is not in any way impaired. The whole of this installation is equally suitable for unloading grain, etc., with the slight modification at the elevator well already mentioned. Barge Elevator for Grain in Connection with Granary at Dresden-Riesa, on the River Elbe.—-This installation is unique, and varies from those previously described in possessing two unusual features. The first is inability to erect the receiving terminal close to the quay wall, owing to the portable cranes of the Harbour Authorities having to travel in front of it; the second is the great distance the grain has to be conveyed to reach the warehouse, there being no site available nearer the harbour. As a matter of fact the distance the band conveyor has to deliver from the edge of the quay wall to the granary is 812 ft., and the raised gantry which encloses the band traverses fifteen lines of rails and three roads. A good general idea of the installation is given by Fig. 631, which shows the