The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

FLOATING LOADING DEVICES 485 shown in Fig. 679, of which the barge is 114 ft. long by 40 ft. beam. It will be seen that this is hardly as advanced as some of the appliances previously described. The coal is taken by a grab out of an ordinary lighter on a 36-ft. boom, and shot into a receiving hopper <z, from which it passes to breaking rollers b, and thence up to elevators c and dy one longer and one shorter, from which the coal is paid out in a uniform stream through the shoot e into the bunkers ; the varying lengths of the elevators are to suit different sized steamers. The installation is one of a number built for the Hamburg-American Line in 1907 by Gebr. Burgdorf, of Altona, on the lines of similar loaders of the Electric Light Co., in the harbour of New York. A further example is shown in Fig. 680. Here the grab lifts sufficiently high in one operation to dispense with the elevators, a is the receiving hopper which delivers either to spouts c and d, which lead to the side bunker, or on to a band conveyor b, Fig. 676. Smulders’ Floating Coal Loader. which can be raised or lowered to feed into midship bunkers. It must here be pointed out that the arrangement of the cabin for the operator so high up (close to the receiving hopper a) is not very satisfactory, as the working is much slower on account of the care which has to be exercised by the driver not to injure the lighters with the grab. The lotider previously described has a grab which is only raised 25 ft. and will handle 150 tons per hour, whereas this plant with a lift of 75 ft. has only a capacity of 50 to 60 tons per hour. In this installation two men were necessary, as the winch was situated below in the barge and the two men, one on the top in his cabin, and the other below at the winch, had to be carefully trained to work together. This was afterwards altered, and the winch below with its brakes was manipulated by the man in the cabin by means of pneumatic connections, a decided improvement, although the capacity has not reached that of the earlier type with the elevator. The grab is raised at a speed of 12 ft. per second, lowered at 25 ft., and travels at the rate of 7 to 8 ft. per second.