The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

464 THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL elevator supported on the land side on a movable carriage which travels up on an inclined path, so that the relative position of all parts shall be the same for varying water levels. The unloader is portable so as to reach the different holds of the large Danube barges. It travels at a speed of about 3 ft. per minute, and the height of the tower carrying the jib is 22 metres or 72 ft. The modus operandi is as follows: A gang of men place the sacks upon the receptacle of the elevator, which delivers them on to the belt conveyor in the jib (for details of this see Figs. 646 and 647). Inside the receiving shed, and parallel with the inclined part of the land support of the jib end, is a second band conveyor which removes the sacks from the first one, and deposits them through one of the windows into the Figs. 643 and 644. Barge Elevator for Handling Goods in Sacks. (The dimensions are in metres.) warehouse, where a similar elevator receives them and delivers them at the top of the building, there to be ^disposed of, by sliding and spiral shoots, all over the warehouse, or into carts and railway trucks. The elevator inside the building is so arranged that by the removal of a portion of the back board of the elevator the sacks may be delivered on any floor. Electricity is the driving power used and is supplied by an 8 H.P. motor for the travelling gear, the winding tackle for raising the jib end up its inclined path if necessary, and also for driving the second band conveyor. The second motor is of 5 H.P. and manipulates the sack elevator and the band in the jib. Five hundred or six hundred sacks of 160 lb. each are handled per hour, equal to an annual total of 100,000 tons. This installation has now been at work for a sufficient length of time for it to be pronounced a complete success, and the cost of unloading has been reduced by it to one-third of the cost of the hand labour previously employed.