The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

LOADING COAL LNTO SHIPS OTHERWISE THAN BY TLES 603 The Loading of Coal on the Humber.—In order to cope with the increased trade created partly by the development in the South Yorkshire coal field, the Hull and Barnsley Railway Co. have erected and put into use upon the western portion of their new pier at the Alexandra Docks, Hull, two electrically driven coal conveyors, by means of which coal is being shipped at the rate of 600 tons per hour over each conveyor, the total being 1,200 tons when the two appliances combine their efforts on the same steamer. They have since added a third conveyor of the same capacity. The question of breakage of coal has for a long time engaged the attention of the exporters, and in this connection consideration has been paid by the above named railway company to the necessity of reducing breakage to the lowest possible minimum, and the design of these new conveyors is calculated to achieve this end. The loaded wagons gravitate to a turntable, then to a hydraulic tip, and the coal when tipped slides out of the wagon into a hopper, and on to an inclined rubber belt placed beneath this hopper, which immediately conveys the coal to an adjustable telescopic shoot which is capable of reaching the coamings of the ship’s hatchways, and is provided with a lateral shoot to reduce trimming. The empty wagon passes over the turntable and thence to the empty sidings to make room for the next loaded wagon, which follows immediately in its wake. The conveyors manufactured by Spencer & Co., Ltd., to the requirements of Mr R. Pawley, the engineer of the Hull and Barnsley Railway, are similar in design with the exception of the difference of a few feet in length. Each apparatus consists of an endless band conveyor 42 in. wide, and approximately 475 ft. long, running at a speed of 400 ft. per minute, and fed by a tipping gear and hopper, at the shore end, delivering the coal at the water side by a system of adjustable jib and steel shoots. In order to obtain the advantage of an entirely unobstructed area at the top of the receiving hopper, the rail girders along the top, instead of being fixtures, are carried by substantial brackets from longitudinal fulcrums, and are carefully balanced, so that by means of a series of levers connected with the hydraulic ram, these girders swing outwards