The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

634 THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL required -for the boilers. The coal is discharged from the railway trucks into a hopper over a coal-breaker, in which it is reduced to the size of road metal, before being carried by a worm conveyor to one of the elevators (see accom- panying illustration). It is then elevated to the top of the building, where it is deposited in a push-plate conveyor which delivers it to the hoppers over the boilers. The ashes and clinkers from the boilers slide down through suitable outlets on an underground push-plate conveyor, and are conveyed to the opposite side of the building, where they are carried by a second elevator into a special receptacle, whence they can be lowered at intervals into railway trucks. The hopper for ashes is shown in the cross section, as well as the movable shoot which leads to the railway trucks. It will thus be seen that coal is received at one end of the building whilst the ashes are delivered to the railway trucks at the opposite end. The description of this plant has been given because of its historic interest. In a modern plant, worm con- veyors would not be used. Coal-handling Plants at the Brooklyn Heights Railroad Co.—Fig. 885 shows a longitudinal section through one coal-handling plant, which consists of a coal store, gantry, and boiler-house. It is installed at Fifty- Seventh Street Station of the Brooklyn Heights Railroad Co. The coal store has a capacity of 8,000 tons. The coal is loaded in trucks and conveyed to the store by rope haulage, the distance from the store to the wharf being about 800 ft. A gravity bucket conveyor takes the coal from the store across the gantry to the boiler- house proper. Fig. 886 shows a further installation of the same railway company, but in this instance the top portion of the building is occupied by a large coal bunker, whilst the boilers beneath are arranged on two floors. Coal-handling Plant at the Brooklyn Water- works.—Fig. 887 represents this plant, which includes a large coal bunker of 2,000 tons capacity erected above the boilers. The coal is brought to the spot by self- emptying railway trucks. The receiving hopper is con- nected with the coal-breaker, which reduces the coal to a size of in. cube before it enters the gravity bucket conveyor, which distributes it over the whole store. It will be seen from the illustration that although the con- veyor runs the whole length of the boiler-house, the feed- ing end changes its direction and runs at right angles to the main length of the conveyor. The ashes from the boilers are removed by narrow gauge self-emptying railway trucks. Coal-handling Plant at the King’s County