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Practical Ideas for the Engineer What is Learned in Study os Handling Methods at British Ports--Ratchet Wrench--Landing Pole HILE Liverpool is not as old W a port as London, the growth of the city has restricted dock space, and it has not been able to ex- pand as freely as has the port of Lon- don. The greater part of the dock system is comparatively old. In gen- eral it may be stated that the typical sheds are two stories high, with hydraulically operated cranes upon the roof. Liverpool has also been handi- capped in the matter of railroad con- nections, and there is much trucking through the city. The most modern installation is the Gladstone dock, which can be used, when required, as a drydock. At the time of inspection, the AQUITANIA was taking on 6000 tons of coal and it was said four days would be required. Lighters were placed on both sides of the ship, and the bunker- ing was being performed by hand. The coal was shoveled into baskets, which were hoisted by a single whip to the sige ports. of the ship. It may be stated that in fact bunkering at ports of England is usually dione in this manner, although some few me- chanically equipped barges have been built. Several of these are said to have a capacity of 1000 tons, with chain belt elevators running the en- tire length of the barge. At the new Gladstone dock, are four electric gantry cranes, with 60-foot booms, the front leg of the crane resting on the track at the edge of the quay, and the back leg on the eaves of the build- ing, At Langton dock is a 100-ton fixed base, revolving crane. How a Jigger Works Both at Liverpool and Manchester an interesting installation was \ob- served, called locally a "jigger", with which single bags of material were lowered from the upper stories to Waiting trucks below. The apparatus consisted of a single pulley and a brake. The bag was fastened to one end of the line and lowered until it almost reached the truck below. The Bier eid of the line was attached to 'nother bag, and when the brake was released' the jerk of the falling bag lifted the Be Gihed of the edge of the sill, When it. in. turn was stopped by the brake just before it landed, when the oe neluding installment Meeting of a paper presented at a feta of the Material Handling Machinery Manu- association. The author, F. 1. Chambers, Be © BG. United tstes "har other bag so that it could' Operation just 'described was repeated. At Manchester most of the cranes travel on standard gage tracks, but have a wider reach of base, which ig Stabilized by means of screw jacks Some interesting examples of me- chanical handling are to be seen at the Trafford Park estates. This is a private enterprise on the edge of the Manchester ship canal. It specializes in sites for works, and in warehousing. Many prominent concerns are located upon these estates, notably, the British Westinghouse Co., Guinness Son & Co. and the Ford Motor Co. The warehouses are quite different from the transit sheds along 'the docks. The main ones are locally called "safes." | They are 45 feet high, 36 feet wide and 165 feet long, and are equipped at the extreme traveling cranes extending the entire width. The trolleys with which these cranes are equipped travel on one rail, and are thus enabled, by means of a small turntable, to transfer to tracks at right angles to the axis of the storehouse, and to deliver goods along the entire face of the ware- houses, or over the waterfront at the end, or,to transfer material from one safe to another. At the time of our visit, considerable quantities of Egyptian cotton were stored in some of: the 'safes., This was stored 15 bales deep, these bales weighing from 750 to '800 pounds each. The manager of the estates based his design for these safes upon the cotton ware- houses of New Orleans. Also, he had installed a considerable amount of handling machinery in the shape of chain belt. conveyors and stackers in others of his storehouses. In one of these houses, belt conveyors with port- able *sections are being"used end on for the entire length of the building and feed bags of sugar to a stacker. All this material is said to be of American manufacture. At Birkenhead docks, Liverpool, a traveling crane is used which has an extension track upon which a trolley with a jib could be run out over a vessel, the jib enabling the crane to handle material flexibly over a good sized area. At Hull, while there are not many transit sheds, in some cases the ar- rangement and equipment are excel- One set of sheds has two lines lent. and rear, besides the of track front ATT top ' with. vided, { gantry crane track and belt con- veyors in a subway for grain. One basin has 12 cranes on each side, or a crane for each 100 feet of length. Some of the 2-story transit sheds have cranes running on the roof at the rear, the roof being designed of sufficient strength to receive heavy freight. The gantry cranes in front handle ma- terial from ships to roof, and the roof cranes pick this material up, and serve it into the cars at the rear of the building, How Coal Is Handled At Immingham, which is essentially. a coal port, they have sidings for 170,- | 000 tons of coal stored in cars, with capacity for 5500 empty cars in addi- tion. The mineral quay at Imming- ham has cranes with a reach of 75 feet, serving four standard gage rail- road tracks. There are 10 of these cranes, ranging in capacity from 3 to. 5 tons. At the Royal dock, cranes are alternately of 3 and 5 tons .capacity. Also at Immingham, as at some other ports, small jib cranes were observed on the dock, and inside the 'buildings. They are equipped with ordinary wheels, so that they can run any- where. A chain belt bucket installa- tion is also used, feeding high level belts which carry grain to a neighbor- ing granary. A 50-ton crane at one of these basins for fitting out is also available for handling coal. Avonmouth has a 2-story concrete transit shed with a flat roof for heavy weights. Two lines of rails are pro- front and rear, both under cover. Six 1%-ton electric cranes have sufficient reach to plumb the hold of a vessel, with lighters between it and the quay, and to transfer 'the load to the roof, or. into the transit shed build- ing. The floor of this building slopes from quay level in front to height of car floors at the back. Another shed at Avonmouth has four lines of trolley rails supporting 1-ton differential block trolleys. Seven lines of railway run in front of this shed, and it is ex- plained that this is necessary on ac- count of the classification of mixed cargo direct to cars, this cargo com- ing from Australian ports. Here also, portable grain elevators of the chain | belt bucket type were observed sus- pended from ships' booms. : At many of the English docks small hydraulically operated capstans are