The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

596 THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL that three large steamers can load at the same time. In close proximity to the quay wall is an area set aside for storing coal. This is shown in Pig. 840, which represents a section through the general loading arrangement, which is as automatic and laboui saving as it is possible to make it. The coal is brought, after classification by standard gauge trucks holding 8 tons, from the five pits of the company; it is then either loaded immediately into steamers by two new loading devices or it is deposited on the storage heaps. There are five elevated lines of rails serving these stores, with five tunnels under, so that, with the exception of a little trimming, the coal may be withdrawn at a great rate of speed, and with a minimum of labour. The tunnels are each nearly 200 yds. long, and the depot will hold about 50,000 tons of coal. The loading system is on similar lines to a modern blast-furnace hoist but portable. Fig. 841 shows a perspective drawing of one of these loaders. From Pigs. 840 and 841 it will be apparent that the receiving ends of the loaders move along the quay in a trench, parallel to the quay wall, and this is widened into bays or pockets, separated by piers oi walls from each other, over which two lines of rails are laid which feed the loaders, ?•<?., Fig. 840. Elevation showing Arrangement of Coal Store and Loader at Port Miike. one for the full trucks nearest the coal store and the other for the empty trucks nearest the quay. The loading apparatus with its details may best be seen from Figs. 842 and 843, the former of which also shows one of the loading bays in section. Centrally in each bay is fixed what forms the lower terminal of the track of the loader, which latter is placed centrally with one of the bays. At the back of each bay is an adjustable hopper shoot, so that the contents of an 8-ton truck can be transferred instantaneously to the dumping skips/of the loader. The inclined plane of the structure forms an angle of 50J with the horizontal; it is provided with the rails a a and b, which are fixed to the structure, whilst a third pair of rails c is arranged in a telescopic manner, so that the rails with then upper or unloading terminals may be moved at will between the limits q and in order to accommodate themselves to the tide and the size of the ship to be loaded. As soon as the loader has been moved centrally with the bay where the coal is to be loaded the rails are coupled up at q ■, the gauges of the three lines of rails are 13, 14, and 15 ft. respectively; the upper ends of the rails c are bent first in a horizontal, then in a vertical direction, as seen in the highest position at cv The dumping skip/, which is large and shallow, runs on two pairs of wheels, the foremost pair of which run on rails b and r, and have a flange in the centre, whilst the hindermost pair run on the outer rails a. In