Bulk Cargo Handling Crane Installed at Baltimore By W. G. Hildebran Co. has recently put into opera: tion on pier 6, Port Covington, Baltimore, a bulk material handling gantry crane which incorporates a number of unusual features. This crane, which is used for the unloading of special ores and other bulk materials from ocean going ships, is of the self propelling, full portal gantry, man trolley type, with a hinged horizontal cantilever on each side over-hanging the water. The trolley is equipped with a multiple rope, heavy duty ore bucket. Separate duplicate hoist units lift and lower the booms. The bucket discharges into a travel- ing receiving hopper, fitted with a mo- tor operated gate, which delivers the material, in selective quantities, into a traveling hopper carried on scales, where it is weighed, and discharged through a second motor operated gate, through hatches, either directly into open railroad cars, or into box car loaders, one being mounted on each main sill of the crane. When weighing is not required, the weighing hopper serves merely as a chute. The crane is carried on 24 spring mounted truck wheels, one half of which are driven by two motors, through gears and shafting, one motor being located over each end sill on the main structural framework. The bucket, hoist and hold, and T HE Western Maryland Railway The author, W. G. Hildebran, is as- sistant secretary of the Wellman En- gineering Co., Cleveland. a ST ee teeny Hooennnqaons reenter ae eramivecween Bulk Cargo Handling Crane for Western Maryland Railway Co. on Pier 6 Port Cov- the trolley travel and main crane travel units are controlled from the operator’s cab on the trolley. Receiving hopper gates, the weigh- ing hopper gate, scales and hopper travel are controlled from a cab on the traveling hopper framework. The loading chutes are operated from a platform accessible from the cab on the traveling hopper framework. Incoming power is 550-volt, 3 phase, 25 cycle alternating current and all motions are operated with this power, with the exception of the bucket hoist which is operated on 230-volt direct current, supplied by a motor genera- tor set to secure close regulation of this motion by means of Ward-Leon- ard control with the advantages of dy- namic braking when lowering. The hoist clutch and brake are power operated, by a single hand lever in the operator’s cab. The principal dimensions of the crane are as follows: Span, center to center of crane tracks, 57 feet 10 inches, trolley travel, 163 feet 10 inches; lift above pier rail, bucket closed, 52 feet lift below pier rail, bucket closed, 40 feet; overall length of crane at sill, 70 feet; height from top of pier rail to top of trolley runway, 73 feet. The crane, which was designed and constructed by The Wellman Engi- neering Co., Cleveland, is fitted with a 9-ton bucket and has a capacity of unloading at the rate of 400 to 650 tons per hour depending upon the material and type of boat. “iy ae" * vw a | Ss <—y Saad mnt eins shen wae ae Sata < MS ee: oe Seas Sag “s ington, Baltimore. Designed and Built by the Wellman Engineering Co. 52 MARINE REVIEW——May, 1931 A car puller, located at each corner of the crane, is used for Spotting cars. The various motions are driven with General Electric motors and control. lers (there being a total of 17 mo. tors having a combined horsepower of 855) as follows: Horse- Motion Number power Bucket: hoist. ck 1 450 Trolley. travel:.icassaies 2 50 BOOM NoOist..). can 2 50 Receiving hopper gate.... 1 15 Weigh hopper gate ........ 1 1% Hopper. travel cckige.... 1 1% Loading chutes ..4.22.0...; 1 5 Box car loaders: icc: 2 20 Bridge travel vic6 kkk 2 50 Car DUllerssissiiicieseoe cue 4 Ty Science Aids Ship Stowage (Continued from Page 51) under the direction of the company’s research department, American-Hawai- ian masters took over 35,000 tempera- ture readings in the holds while ves- sels were in all intercoastal latitudes and longitudes. The results of these thousands of readings may prove of the most far-reaching benefit. For one thing, the ships’ holds have _ been forced to relinquish at least some of their age-old secrets, and the knowl- edge thus gained is bound to be help- ful in developing measures to stop damage before it occurs. A good illus- tration of this is in the case of sugar, which is often found on discharge to have become caked. Diligent research was carried on, preventive measures taken ond now, while the trouble has not been completely eradicated, the cause is believed to have been deter- mined and to be one that will come under very nearly absolute control. The same thing holds true of “white rust.” While we do not claim to be able to prevent this, we do believe we have discovered the cause, and in time persistent effort will perhaps establish a means of prevention. These are only a few of the examples of the efforts being made toward accomplishing per- fect outturn on our vessels, and we believe that these efforts will be in- creasingly effective as time goes on. While bearing in mind that the sci- entific measures being taken by the American-Hawaiian company to solve some of the most acute stowage prob- lems are still in the experimental stage, they have already yielded excel- lent results. Scientific research ap- plied to commodity relationship has helped materially in keeping damage claims of 1930 down to 89/100 of 1 per cent of the freight revenue—by far the lowest of any major cargo carrier. United Fruit Co. reports for the quarter ended March 31 a profit of approximately $3,087,000 after de- preciation, but before Federal taxes, compared with $3,800,000 in the same period of 1930.