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TTAE MARINE REVIEW AUTOMATIC TRIMMING MECHANISM FOR SHIPS BUNKERS THE MICHENER STOWAGE COMPANY 90 WEST ST NEW YORK WILBUR M STONE ENGINEER and corresponding with the sectional line -B cof Big. Figs 3 is a. ctoss sectional elevation on line C of Fig. 1. In these diagrams the Michener apparatus is illustrated as serving an H shoped bunker running entirely across the vessel and then in each direction along the outboard side of the boat, One of the great fea- tures of economy of this device is its ability to take all the coal from the off side, thereby permitting the boat to lie close against the dock. This reduces materially the cost of loading and unloading cargo and keeps the dirt and dust away from all cargo handling. The coal is introduced through a single porthole 2 and di- rectly into the receiving foot of. the elevator 3. This elevator, contrary to the usual method of elevating materi- als, is under-fed and its rectangular plate-like blades 4 scrape the coal up along a boot or bottom 5. It will be observed that this boot is located a material distance from the edge of the flights 4 so that those flights have a soft bed of coal under them at. all times: One feature of high importance in coaling ships is that not only the bunkers be evenly trimmed but that during the coaling the vessel itself must be kept trimmed. To this end the elevator of the Michener appar- atus carries the coal not only up to the top of the bunker but over to the middle of the vessel and there depos- its it in a conical pile which falls through the deck opening 6 into the lower bunker if the vessel is equipped with a two-decked bunker. When the pile of coal nas accumulated sufficiently in the lower bunker, it is attacked by the blades or flights 7 .of a. horizontally arranged -elain operated at a suitable speed and which continually scrapes off the top of the accumulating pile and spreads it farther and farther from the point of delivery. When the pri- mary trimming member at 8 has trimmed the coal within the reach of its travel, the surplus coal is de- livered to other trimming units by means of an ingenious device which will be described more in detail pres- ently. Assuming that the lower bunker has been entirely filled, we will turn our attention now to the upper bunker. As the pile of coal accumulates in the middle of the upper bunker un- der the point of delivery 9 of the elevator, the coal will presently be dumped upon the transfer discs 10 and 11 lying between the delivery ends of elevators: 9 and 19, it will. of course be understood that only one of. the elevators 9, 19 is used- at a time, the elevator in use being the one that serves the off side of the ship. carries the coal dumped on them up- wardly and away from the point of delivery and into the path of the flights as 12 of the horizontal trim- ming member 13. The scraper blades as 14 are arranged above the discs to. prevent the coal being carried around and around. When the ac- cumulating pile of coal has been dis- tributed nearly to the ends of the cross bunker, it will be delivered to horizontally arranged transfer discs 15 by which it is in turn delivered to other trimming chains 16, 17, having flights similar to flights 12 of chain '59 @ 13. These trimming chains, 16 and 17, run lengthwise the vessel to the extreme ends .of the bunkers and steadily scrape the coal delivered to them to the extreme' ends, corners 'and middle of the bunkers, filling them evenly full and that without any. manual assistance whatever. The various conveyor and transfer units are all handleable for starting and stopping from one switch-board, and are provided with mechanism so that when any bunker portion is filled 10°14 ik eM FIG. 3. Lh bedded The rotation of these discs , the: faet.: 4s indicated automatically to the man in charge so that that particular' element or unit can be stopped. The arrangement of these trimming units is such that the coal will be carried first to the ex- treme ends of the various bunkers and the last portion to be filled will be that nearest the point of delivery ino the bunker. The simplicity of construction and ease of installation makes this appar- atus applicable to vessels already afloat, while its adaptability to long, narrow spaces opens new fields for