The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

5oo THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL The same firm also make a number of other trucks specially designed for different purposes. Figs. 701 and 702 show one of their special trucks for ore, coal, coke, slag, sand, etc. It is hoppered in both directions and fitted with two large outlets. Figs. 703 and 704 show a truck specially designed for the conveyance of furnace slag. The illustrations represent the truck in longitudinal and cross section, and explain themselves. The truck can be tipped by pushing the fastenings to one side, and the slag is discharged together with the top portion of the truck. The latter is afterwards picked up by the crane and put back into position. The sides of the car being tapered, the slag readily leaves the truck. The Goodwin Coal Truck .—In Figs. 705 and 706 are shown an end view and cross section of the Goodwin coal truck, built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co., Ltd., which has been adopted on several of the American coal carrying lines. Figs. 705 and 706. End View and Cross Section of Goodwin Coal Truck. The body of the truck is built upon two plate girder sills 21 in. apart. These girders are 18 in. deep at the middle, and 9| in. deep at the ends. The space between the sills is left clear for dumping the load between the rails, and from each sill there is an apron or floor inclining downwards. The two ends of the truck are connected by top side plates 18 in. deep, and it is divided in the centre by a transverse bulkhead, so that either of the two compartments can be dumped independently of the other. To the top side plate on each truck, in each compartment, there is hinged a swinging door which, when the truck is loaded, rests on the projection of a movable section in the bottom of the hopper, which is composed of two narrow movable sections hinged to the longitudinal shaft. Each bottom section is held in position by a tripping device, by means of which the said movable section on either side of the truck may be released as it swings downwards, inclining towards the apron, thus releasing the swinging door and permitting the discharge of the load. The apron is hinged along its middle line longi- tudinally, so that the upper portion can be swung upward. When the upper section of the apron is set in this position and the swinging door released, the latter strikes against