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Handling Bulk Cargoes On Coast Improvements Are Being Made in Methods of Loading and Unloading Coarse Freight--New Equipment Ordered ® THE past four years, ) several factors stimulated interest among shippers of heavy bulk materials in a cheaper and more rapid scheme of handling such commodities. The manufacturers of apparatus, especially the pioneers in this line, started 4 movement in this direction some 20 years ago, and succeeded in getting 4 limited number of plants installed as early as 1902. The development of plants for handling large tonnages of coal and iron ore was the most obvious necessity and it was naturally the first problem attacked on a large scale. The necessity for such. devel- opment centered around the Great Lakes region and the pioneer installa- tions were put in that vicinity. The short season of navigation for carrying ore' from the Minnesota, Wis- consin and Michigan fields to the blast furnaces of the lower lakes and the Pittsburgh district, requires a move- ment of 12 months's supply of ore in about seven months. The coal sup- ply of the states bordering on the iron Ore region is largely. taken from the lower lakes on the return trip of the ore boats. In order to perform this task with the minimum of equipment and at lower operating costs per ton, it was plainly neces- Sary to provide machinery for cheap and rapid discharge of cargo from ship to. dock -or railroad "and vice versa, the length of time the ship was tied up to the dock being a vital factor in costs. The result has been a high state of development and con- centration of bulk cargo handling plants in the lake region. In the late nineties, the Wellman- Seaver-Morgan Co., Cleveland, brought out its ore unloader, each machine being capable of handling ore at from 500 tons per hour upward. At about the same time the car dumper, for overturning standard railway cars and dumping their contents, was developed. The latter have been evolved until at present they will handle 30 dumps per hour and upward, some installa- tions handling as much as 3000 tons per hour of net material, two cars in tandem. Conditions largely due to the great war caused a more general interest to be developed along the coasts in these - methods. Prior to America's partici- pation in the war, a few installations had been made on the Atlantic coast especially in the line of loading cargo and bunker coal. Rising labor costs and necessity of: rapid "turn around" on the comparatively few vessels available brought the issue of im- proved dock facilities to the forefront. It was a question of time, tonnage Capacity over a given waterfront, and cost per ton. All the above items in the problem are satisfactorily an- swered by equipment of the type previ- ously mentioned, and solve what is still more vital, the item of labor, which in normal volume is unobtain- able at any price. Two contracts recently secured. by the Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Co. on the Atlantic coast are interesting at this time. A contract with the Lehigh Valley railroad covers an automatic ore unloader carrying a 15-ton clam-- shell bucket on the unloader leg and designed to make a complete cycle or round trip in 50 seconds. The ma- chine, electrically operated through- out, is illustrated in Fig. 1. This view, together with Fig. 2, illustrates the general appearance of similar ap- paratus in action. The automatic unloader illustrated is unique in design and. has_ proved through many years of service to be one of the most successful devices for unloading ore cargoes from steamers with suitable hatches that has ever. been devised. Although of immense proportions, the design has been sim- FIG. 1--ORE UNLOADERS AT WORK ON LAKE BULK = 525 FREIGHTER