The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

558 THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL Upon the anti-breakage box being filled with coal, it is lowered into the hold through the descent of the main lifting rope of the box ; the auxiliary rope tightens and the box opens as shown. As soon as the contents are discharged and the main rope is lifted to bring the box back up to the shoot again, the auxiliary rope becomes slack and the box automatically closes, and is then ready for loading again. The box is made of steel plates, angle irons, and T irons. It may be added that this box is a great improvement upon the former system of anti-breakage boxes used at Cardiff. The old style of box had a bolt for securing the door, but when working rapidly it frequently happened that this bolt did not drop into the right hole, consequently the door would open at the wrong moment and the coal was liable to be dropped too far and broken. The Penarth installation was built to the design of Mr T. H. Riches, M.I.C.E., chief engineer to the Taff Vale Railway Co., by Messrs Fielding & Platt, Ltd., of Gloucester, whilst the engines and hydraulic machinery were built by Messrs Tannett, Walker, & Co., of Leeds. Fig. 784. Plan of Immingham Dock, showing Position of Coal Tips. Coal Tips at Immingham Dock.1—Probably the largest installation in this country for loading ships with cargo coal is that recently equipped by the Great Central Railway Co. at Immingham (opened on the 22nd July 1912) on the estuary of the Humber, where this company spent nearly 2| millions sterling on the dock. The coal shipped from this newest English harbour comes from the coal fields of South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire. The equipment of the harbour includes seven large tips on the south bank of the dock. The tips are generally of the same type as the six large tips at Cardiff, but with an increased capacity of 300 tons each per hour. This enhanced capacity is chiefly due to the more perfect general arrangement of approaching the tips, in respect of the facility with which the full trucks move on to the tips and the empty ones move out of the way. The general disposition of the railway lines and the position of the tips will be seen from Fig. 784. Six of the tips a are stationary, whilst F is movable on rails (those at Cardiff are all six movable). Whilst the capacity of the Cardiff tips is handicapped by the time lost in disposing of the empty trucks, at Immingham this loss is reduced to a minimum by having special 1 For full description see Engineering, 14th and 21st June 191'2.