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194 shutters. The room contains small square tables in bays, writing tables and easy chairs, and a fine mahogany piano. A handsome dome. skylight over the center. ae The smoke room, on the boat deck, is in oak, relieved with carving; ceil- ing white; upholstery moquette. The windows are of large size, arranged in pairs, with jalousie and_ stained glass shutters. Small square tables are arranged in bays, and there is a large skylight over the center of the room. All these rooms are elegant apart- ments and well in keeping with the traditions of the line. A veranda has been arranged ad- joining the after end of the smoke room, providing an open air smoking room. This is sure to be a popular part of the vessel. There is a hand- some teak tbalustrade round the after end, with turned newel posts. The general finish of the apartment is in white, and small tables andi chairs are arranged on the cafe principle. TAeE Marine REVIEW The staterooms are arranged on the bridge deck and upper deck. Those on the bridge deck (in three separate houses) are all outside rooms, and those on the upper deck are all ar- ranged on the tandem principle al- ready referred to. The decoration of the staterooms is well in keeping with that of the public rooms--the framing is in white; the furniture mahogany; upholstery moquette; Brussels carpet; and jalousie shutters to windows. The whole of the passenger accommoda- tion is arranged in the central portion of the ship. The vessel's refrigerating appliances are ample to insure always having a good supply of ice, and for the storing of fresh provisions, fruit, etc. The electric light and other appliances throughout the vessel are 'complete in every way. Captain G.H. Harris was in com- mand of tthe vessel, and Arthur W. Bibby (the chairman of the line) and a party of friends crossed over in the ship. The Sewell' Point Coal Pier of the ' N order to secure speed and economy in the trans-shipment of coal in large quantities, the Virginian Rail- way has recently constructed a mod- ern coal handling pier at its seaboard terminal, located on Hampton Roads, at Sewell's Point, Va. This pier is 1,045 ft. long from bulk- head to out-shore end, 65 ft. wide, and 76 ft. high at the in-shore end, from which point it slopes to a height of 69 ft. at the out-shore end. Except for the trestle approaches at the in- shore end, which 'are constructed of timber, the pier is built entirely of heavy structural steel erected on sub- stantial concrete foundations; it has a greater capacity than any other pier on the Atlantic coast, and 'can deliver 1,500 tons of coal per hour to vessels, or 'a total of 4,500,000 tons per year. 'of 300 ten-hour working days. This 'does not represent the limit of its cap- acity, as it is at present equipped with only one car dumper, which meets the 'present requirements and handles one 50-ton car every two minutes. The remainder of the pier equipment could readily handle double the present quantity if an additional car dumper were installed. The normal operating output of the pier can be, and occa- sionally is, augmented 'by coaling ves- sels at night. All of the machinery used in handling the coal is electrical- Virginian Railway ly operated, and both tthe pier' and terminal yards are lighted by means of arc lamps. Method of Handling Coal. The following outline of the meth- ods employed in handling the coal, from the time it leaves the mines un- til it. is received by the collier or steamship, indicates the thorough man- ner in which the various factors that ordinarily add a large percentage to the first cost of coal have been con- sidered, and shows the economy that has 'been obtained by providing at the terminal an unusually complete mechanical equipment, which is es- pecially designed for this class of work and which is practically auto- matic in operation. : The Virginian Railway is primarily a single-track coal transporting road, although some passenger traffic is handled. The road is 442 miles long, and extends inland from Sewell's Point to Deepwater, near Charleston, Wi Va., tapping an extensive coal mining region. At Princeton, W. Va., 350 miles from the seaboard, a large. gathering yard has been provided where the product of the various mines, located along the main and branch lines, is assembled for ship- ment to the coast in 80-car trains. In order to have the cars suitable May, 1910 for carrying return freight, a gondola type of car is used instead of the usual "hopper" coal car, this feature rendered it necessary to provide ap- paratus for dumping the cars at the terminal pier. When the the terminal yards at Sewell's Point, the trains arrive at cars are classified and are then run into a gravity yard and dropped one at a time to the foot of an incline, after which they are lifted to the car platform by an dumper electric "mule" or "barney" hoist. Upon ar- riving on the dumper platform, the car is firmly gripped by huge steel clamping arms; the platform is then tilted sideways and finally turned up- side down, with a total turn of 115 degrees, thereby instantly dumping the entire contents of the car into a special steel conveyor car which runs on a track located below the dumper. When the next loaded car is pulled onto the dumper, it pushes the empty car from the platform, whereupon it travels by gravity into the empty re- ceiving yard, where the service cars are assembled in trains to be returned to the mines. The car dumping proc- ess is electrically operated through- out, and is under the control of one man. The pier is provided with 10 of the special conveyor cars. referred to above; these are made of steel with hopper bottoms, and have a carrying capacity of 60 tons each. They are motor-driven and are provided with an air compressor outfit for controll- ing the brakes and for operating the Pnopper' jbottoms of the. cat.. An operator's cab is located at each end of tthe car. Current -is received through an overhead trolley system. The Conveyor Cars. After receiving the coal at the dumper, the conveyor car 'travels by its own power over an automatic scale, where it is weighed without be- ing stopped. The cars are all of the same weight, which fact simplifies the weighing of the coal, as the tare weight of the cars is set on the tare beam of the scales, and the automatic weighing machine records only the net weight of the coal in the cars. After. leaving the scale the car runs to the foot of the long incline on the main pier, where it passes over 2 "barney" pit sunk between the tracks, in which the "barney" car is located. The main hoist starts the "barney" car, which runs from the pit on a narrow gage track laid between the