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tion of the forks is 214 inches. The ends of the boards at the corners are incased in a steel fittings with qa 45 degree angle projection. These pro- jections are provided with two holes each, one above the other, for the hooks which are used in hoisting the pallets into the ship. The pallet is tied together with tie rods running lengthwise in the space between the boards forming the top and bottom. When the pallets used have top boards only, the pallets are hoisted into the ship by a cradle type sling. The ropes are attached to an iron bar which engages the projecting ends of the pallet boards. How Fork Truck Operates The fork trucks have two steel fingers or forks, 45 inches long, 8 inches wide and 1% to 2 inches thick at the heel tapering to % inch at the toe. The taper is on the under side of the fork. The length of the fork is sufficient to allow the end of the fork to support the outermost board of the pallet. After the forks are run under the pallet the load is lifted and tilted back to a safe carrying posi- tion. The load may be tilted 15 de- grees back or 5 degrees forward. Tilting heights vary from 52 inches upwards, depending on the model of the truck. Trucks arriving at the terminal with outbound cargo discharge on two pallets either at the back of the shed where a platform is provided for level movement of cargo from truck to dock floor, or if the motor truck goes inside the shed, the load is dis- charged on to a pile of empty pallets placed alongside the truck. When the top pallet is loaded it is removed by a fork truck and the truck gang loads the second pallet. When the pile of pallets gets low, the fork truck places additional empty pallets on the pile. This level handling of freight reduces damage and speeds the discharge of trucks, which at times is an important factor in re- ducing terminal congestion. A OIS TING pallet load of apples from fork truck into ship at Seattle. Note type of bridle sling used 4 For long hauls the fork trueck-— pallet method is not economical, be- cause only one or two pallet loads may be carried at one time, and the economy of long hauls requires a Jarger load than one truck can handle. Ordinarily, the next step would be to load the pallets on to trailers and haul two or more trail- ers at one time. However, with the high piling ability of the modern fork truck it is possible to pile cargo three pallet loads high, which in- creases the possibilities of the fork truck, because it does not have to travel so far to handle a given amount of cargo as when the cargo is piled man high. Heavy Load Carried A Los Angeles stevedore moves two loaded pallets at a time, weighing 5600 pounds using a three-ton ca- pacity fork truck. While the truck returns for another two loaded pal- lets, the first two loads are hoisted into the ship and empty pallets re- turned to the dock. One of the illustrations shows a truck handling two pallets loaded with 5 drums each, total weight 5400 pounds. The average pallet load at Los Angeles is 2500 pounds. When it is advantageous to shift cargo on the dock, cargo stored on pallets may be shifted quickly, eco- nomically, as contrasted with slow and expensive shifting when the car- go must be handled case by case. Another advantage of the fork truck-pallet method as compared with the lift truck skid method is the small space required to store a large number of empty pallets. Also, be- cause the truck can carry 20 to 30 pallets at one time, they can be dis- tributed quicker than skids of which only a few may be handled in one ® BOVE—Lift truck han- dling 2650 pounds of sacked cargo at Los An- geles T right—Three-ton fork truck spotting a pallet load of 66 cartons of salad oil under ship’s sling. Sling hooks being engaged for taking load over ship’s side. Weight ordinarily lifted 2600 to 2800 pounds ® MARINE REvVIEWw—September, 1934 29