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October, 1926 other freight, it has been possible to add the movement of thousands of tons of cement a month through the prop- erty without in any way interfering with the established traffic. This has been done by using space in the vast second floor area of the pier sheds and by transporting the sacks to and from this space entirely from the outside of the shed. The sacks are stored on the concrete floor in piles nine sacks deep as shown in Fig. 3. Most of the cement is taken from the pier by motor trucks, and to facili- tate loading zine lined chutes have been built. One of these is shown in Fig. 4. Holes cut through the outer concrete wall of the shed en- able the sacks of cement to be placed on the upper end of the chute. The sacks are carried close to the holes on raised platforms so that gravity takes care of most of the work of feeding them on the chute. Loading by this method is simple and inex- pensive with the added advantage that trucks wait at a point on the pier remote from the regular channels of freight movement. Cement Trade of Recent Origin To date nearly 50,000 tons of cement have been handled at the pier since this traffic was started in the fall of 1925, and at present vessels carry- ing cement are docking regularly at the pier. The whole procedure is systematic and_ business-like. The piles of sacks in storage are labelled with the names of the consignees, Record is kept of name of vessel and date of arrival, and any ordinary amount of breakage is taken care of on the regular pier charges which cover the first month’s storage. A MARINE REV IE W six-day free period is allowed from the time the boat is docked. After this period and the thirty days of the first month have elapsed, the regular month to month charge for storage is greatly reduced. As soon as the first cargo of cement was unloaded at the pier last year, increased interest in the pier was apparent among building materials dealers of Boston, and this interest has grown until at present several of these dealers are utilizing part of the pier space. The cement business is to a large extent a business of handling material. The cement is purchased at a certain price already sacked at the plant of the manufac- turer. From this point costs accumu- late due to the problem of transport- ing the sack from its point of origin, which may be in Belgium, to its des- tination, which may be the new Stat- ler hotel in Boston. First there is the handling charge on the _ boat, then the freight paid to the steam- ship company, then the insurance, the duty into America, the overboard charge, the cost of placing in storage, the storage department, cost of load- ing in trucks, and finally the truck- ing charge. On top of all this comes operating expenses, loss due to shortage and shrinkage, expense of resacking, beside general over- head items. It is usual practice for shippers in foreign countries to load from % to 1 per cent overcount to make up for loss in transit. Resacking and Reclaiming The docking problem in connection with handling cement is largely one of providing ample sheltered space with a smooth floor, strong enough % ae 2 ? 29 to hold the dead weight of close piled cement. At the Tidewater Terminal pier the concrete floors have been designed to safely carry 400 pounds per square foot. In addition to storage and handling, space must be provided for resacking and for empty sack reclaiming and handling. It is common practice of cement dealers to charge customers ten cents a sack on top of the charge for cement, and then to allow a refund of ten cents a sack when they are returned. These empty sacks are returned dusty with cement and dirt and otherwise in poor shape. Many foreign sacks, par- ticularly those from Norway, are thick and heavy and retain within the material a large amount of cement which in many cases is still usable, if it can be separated from the bag- ging. Sack cleaners have been de- signed to take care of this separation. Bundles of the returned bags are dumped into such a machine where by a combination of centrifugal and oscillating action the dirt and cement is removed and falls to the bottom of the machine. Special Tools Used One of the cement dealers at the pier has devised an ingenious scheme for screening the cement out of the mixture of dirt and cement secured from the bags. He has taken the crankshaft and flywheel of a light automobile and mounted this with two of the piston rods fastened rigid- ly to one end of a screen frame. The other and lower end of this frame is left free to slide over a support. A - small motor belted to the fly wheel rotates the crankshaft and thus im- (Continued on Page 62) FIG. 3 THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE PIER MAKES A CONVENIENT STORAGE SPACE FOR CEMENT—ABOUT 300,000 BAGS ARE CONSTANTLY ON HAND—FIG. 4 (AT RIGHT) SHOWS ONE OF THE ZINC LINED CHUTES FOR QUICK LOADING OF TRUCKS FROM STORAGE AT A COST OF LESS THAN 2.00 CENTS PER BAG