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that it avoids docking and reloading such freight, with the result that less man-hours are necessary and the bulkhead is kept open for the con- tinuous receipt of freight, thus re- ducing truck detention. The equip- ment now in use has greatly con- tributed to efficient operation, making possible the handling of greater vol- ume of business through the same pier facilities at reduced labor cost. At our largest pier, with very slight increase in facilities, it was possible to increase tonnage handled per an- num approximately 50 per cent. With- out the mechanical equipment this in- creased volume of business could not have been handled and our labor cost would have been approximately five cents per ton greater than present cost.” He further states that this estimate on labor cost is very conservative. In another case it was reported that the use of electric trucks carrying small eranes had cut in half the labor re- quired on the pier when handling cer- tain classes of freight. No figures were available on the number of piers, railroad terminals, and warehouses using power trucks and tractors, but their use has spread rapidly within the past six or eight years, and has probably been as fast as economic *conditions would permit. Install Power Ramps Power ramps have been put on a number of piers unloading from lighters, barges, and side-port vessels where tide and draft conditions make the grades too steep for one man to handle a hand truck and where the operating conditions on the pier are such that electric trucks cannot be efficiently used. On one such pier which is working up to capacity every day with night work part of the time, these ramps reduced the direct labor 33 per cent and the time of climbing the ramps was cut in half. The same type of power ramp is used on some piers between the first and second stories to replace elevators, but no statistics are available to show the economies of one over the other. Many warehouses are now using electric trucks with elevator service between floors, but here again there was not time to collect statistics on the savings effected thereby, although their increasing use indicates a sav- ing. This method of operation is re- placing the whip hoists for hoisting from ground to upper floors, which method requires trucking from ship or car to hoist, hoisting to upper floor, and trucking to destination. The electric-truck and elevator method maintains the load intact on the truck from ship or car to destination. Various types of containers are coming into more general use not only on railroads but in department stores for the delivery of goods and 56 the transfer of goods between warehouses and retail stores. The size of these containers requires power equipment, usually small elec- tric hoists, to handle them. The detachable-body auto truck with increasing capacities is coming into more general use, thus permitting the expensive power plant and chas- sis with its operator to be kept more continually at work. Conveyors of the power and gravity type are finding more general appli- cation for both bulk and _ package freight in manufacturing plants where the flow is sufficiently continuous to justify their installation and_ use. Pilers and stackers are economizing in expensive floor space by permitting higher piling with less labor. Small power hoists are being installed in large numbers, whereas few were used ten years ago. It can safely be said, as a general thing, material-handling machinery tends to create dispatch instead of delay, to bring order out of chaos, and to reduce the required area per ton handled. The entire material-handling branch of industry is being put on a firmer foundation by the accumulation of statistics and experience, and a com- mittee of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers has worked out a formula for calculating the econ- omies resulting from the use _ of power-driven material-handling ma- chinery. To sum up, the port of New York has progressed and will continue to progress in this field in spite of the conditions referred to previously in this paper, because competition and labor shortage will compel such prog- ress. The rate of this progress will be governed very largely by economic conditions and laws, but it will be ac- celerated to some extent by the ac- quisition of more complete knowl- edge on the application and use of mechanical devices. Recent Sales of Ships The United States shipping board has approved the sale or recondition- ing of the following government mer- chant tonnage: ABSAROKA, steel, steam, single screw, coal burning freighter, to the McCormick Steamship Co., San Francisco for the sum of $131,000. Twenty-five per cent of the price was paid in cash and the balance in ten equal annual installments. The purchaser will convert the vessel to be an oil burner. ConToocook, steel, steam, single serew, cargo vessel of 3630 deadweight . tons, burning coal, designed to steam at 914 knots, to the Cosmos Steamship Co. Inc. for the sum of $36,000. _ Five Forp VESSELS among those purchased from the shipping board for scrapping pur- poses may be converted to barges with ap- proval of the shipping board, on the additional payment to the board of $10,000 for each vessel thus utilized. The vessels are all of the lake type and were purchased from the MARINE REVIEW—June, 1927 d for $8530 each. The Ford Motor Co. is saceens 7 elaborate conversion spending ap- proximately $125,000 on each vessel. eee vessel will be completely dismantled and fitte up with donkey boilers and donkey engines but with no propelling power and will be used in handling bulk material needed by the. Ford company. The tugs bought from the shipping board will be used for towing these barges. World Markets ARABIEN, double deck steamship, 8720 dead- weight, 4714 gross tons, for about £387,500 to Globus Reederei Aktienges, Bremen. ELEVEEN, single deck steamship, 2616 dead- we:ght tons, 1687 gross tons, for about £22,- 000 to W. Swanston & Sons, Newcastle-on- Tyne. : fees, three deck steamship, 10,500 dead- weight tons, 15.588 gross_ tons, for about £300,000 to Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen. TRANSVAAL, single deck steamship, 7250 dead- weight tons, 4395 gross tons, for about £37,- 500 to Nordeutscher Lloyd, Bremen. ; ApMIRAL De RutstTER, single deck steamship, 8300 deadweight tons, 5545 gross tons, for £19,000 to Schulte and Bruns, Emden. John G. Euson, district manager of the Luckenbach line at Portland, has been appointed district manager at Seattle, succeeding Paul D. Chandler, who has resigned. T. G. Maddox, district freight agent at Los Angeles, has been transferred to Portland as district manager there. W. G. Perow, formerly port engineer at San Fran- cisco, has been appointed port super- intendent, with jurisdiction over all terminals and ships. Appoint Vice-Presidents for Merchant Fleet Under the recent re-organization plan of the Merchant Fleet Corp. pro- posed by President A. C. Dalton and approved by the shipping board, there will be two vice presidents. J. Caldwell Jenkins has been lected to be vice president for. ministration, while E. A. Kelly, the present director of the operations de- partment of the Merchant Fleet Corp. was made vice president for opera- tions. Both of the appointments were approved by the shipping board on April 26. The vice president for administra- tion will be concerned with all the administrative and fiscal affairs of the corporation and will have direct su- pervision of the executive department, the finance department, the comp- troller’s department, the insurance de- partment and the secretary’s office. Mr. Kelly, vice president for op- erations will direct all physical ac- tivities of the corporation which will include the traffic department, the op- erations department, the supply de-- partment, and the United States lines. The entire fleet of shipping board vessels including active and inactive ships have been placed under the ad- ministration of the operating depart- ment reporting to the vice president for operations. The ship sales de- partment will report to the vice pres- ident for administration. se- ad-