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* etree enter THE MARINE RECORD. 17 pace 5 laa RCSA LL THE KING ORE HOISTS AND CONVEYORS. (SEE ILLUSTRATION), _ The accompanying illustration will probably be of in- terest to railroads and other parties operating and con- nected with handling ore and coal from vessels to docks and carsand yice versa. It will give a general idea of a plant of this description recently designed and built un- der patents and rights granted The King Bridge Co., of Cleveland, on the docks of the P., Y. & A. Ry. Co., at Ashtabula, O., operated by M. A. Hanna & Co. Although perhaps the King Bridge Co. is not widely known as in this line of business, they have built a number of machines of this character, the first being as far back as 1882, which is probably the first plant of the kind known, built for handling ore and coal in this manner. Although the machine shown in the illustration does not vary a great deal from the earlier type built by this company, it is vastly superior in the improvements that have through long experience been found to be of ben- efit in despatch and economical maintenance, which means SO mtich when the shortness of the navigation season upon the lakes is considered. As will be seen, the hoists are built entirely of wrought and cast steel which has been subjected to thorough in- spection throughout its manufacture. Care has been taken that the structure should be well designed and de- P., Y. & A. Ore Docks, Ashtabula, tailed from an engineering standpoint, which is of the first importance when the very hard usage that is re- quired of it is considered, which point is ordinarily over- looked in other plants designed for similar work, where the design in detail is generally of such a description as should not be accepted by railroad or bridge engineers for structural work of any description. The hoists shown in illustration are arranged in pairs; that is, two bridges have one support in common at the rear, designated as the rear tower, while there isa sep- arate support or leg at the front for each bridge. All of the towers are supported on wheels placed on substan- tial tracks, consisting of two rails at the rear and one in front. The moving of the plant from one point to another is done by steam or electric power at the rear, and at the front by means of hand gearing. The bridges are hinged to each side of the top of rear tower and at the top of the front tower they are hung by means of adjustable connections. This mode of at- tachment allows the bridge or projecting apron, with- out being strained in the least, to be operated directly from the hatchway of a boat without moving the whole machine. ‘The principal dimensions of the machine are 180 feet between towers, with 88 feet cantilever and 34 feet apron on front tower which can be raised and lowered by power at will so as not to interfere with the masts of vessels when they are taking” position in front of the plant. There is a clear space under the’ bridges from top of dock of about 30 feet, which gives ample room for storage purposes, providing it is not convenient to unload a vessel directly into the cars. The bridges are on a grade to increase the storage capacity of the dock. In arranging and placing the operating. machinery for a plant of this kind, the primary object in view-was to combine the greatest possible efficiency with a simple and durable design, for while the work per day expeeted of a machine of this kind is considerable, yet at the Same time the men who operate it are not apt to be skilled mechanics with an understanding of the proper endurance of a piece of machinery. It becomes, there- fore, imperative to the successful operation of the plant that there’ be few points depending on the judgment of the operator for their being kept in good condition. Keeping this in view, the design has been to confine all machinery to the engine room, where it is under the constant watch of the engineer, and outside the engine room on the bridge are only the sheaves and steel ropes, not so apt to get out of order and not requiring constant attention. The hoisting engines used on the plant described are of the well-known Lidgerwood pattern, with reversible link motion, and these, together with the boilers, etc., than enough to handle boats of the latest style, which are designed some 432 feet in length over all, with 12 hatches, and a capacity of 6,680 net tons of ore on 19 feet draft. Mr. George B. Raser, the manager of the P. Y. & A. dock at Ashtabula, O., selecting at random from hi& re- ports, advises that on September 26, 1895, the steamer Roman, with 2,500 tons of ore, commenced unloading in cars at 6:30 a. m., and finished at 5:30 p. m., and on September 28, 1895, the steamer German, with 2,540 tons of ore, commenced unloading in pile at 7:00 a. m., and finished at 5:30 p. m. An allowance, in each case, of course, should be made for a shut-down of one hour at noon, and in neither of these cases was any special effort made to obtain a record of special good showing. They represent the ayerage daily work of the eight legs in the plant, which will, of course, be increased when the others are in operation. It should also be remem- bered that this work was done when the plant was new and the operators new to it, and it has been found that later in the season, when they had acquired more experi- ence in handling the machinery better time was made. Although the foregoing reports are for average work each day under ordinary circumstances, they do not represent the actual efficiency of the hoists, as these boats were unloaded into cars standing on the two tracks near the water front, and not into pile, and = PORTABLE HOISTING AND CONVEYING PLANT, are placed in an engine room built in the rear tower from which two legs on bridges are operated. The rear tower is also propelled up and down its track on the dock by a gearing machine located in the engine house from which also power is furnished to raise and lower the apron at the front tower. The bridge is constructed with an upper and lower runway, the upper forming the track for the hoisting andthe lower for the convey- ing carriage from which are operated wire conveying ropes to which the buckets are attached and can be operated so that the bucket can be hoisted and conveyed at the same time and take the shortest line between two points and be stopped at any height and place. It does not have to be brought directly in contact with the car- riage before the conveying takes place, and requires no complicated latch mechanism, as is usually employed in machinery of this description, which is a point of great benefit to this machine in the matter of time of opera- tion and simplicity of construction. The plant which the King Bridge Co. has just built at Ashtabula has thus far given ‘entire satisfaction and when it had only been in operation a few weeks, the party for whomit was built ordered an additional set of two legs, which is now being constructed ready for operation next spring. The dock will then have a plant of ten legs, which is now considered no more Patented, Designed and Built by the King Bridge Co., Cleveland. there is, of course, always aloss of time from switch- ing necessary in pulling out the loaded cars and re- placing them with empties, which consumes from 30 to 50 per cent of the time. This loss of time occurs ina large measure for the reason that the hoists are neces- sarily very close together, on account of the short dis- tance between the hatches in the vessel; and therefore the cars have to be placed alternalely on the tracks and one hoist can only have one car to load in ata time, and while this is being taken away and replaced by an empty, the hoist must necessarily lie idle. This is under the present arrangement of operating the tracks at the plant under discussion, but we understand that itis the intention of the managers of the dock to add two more tracks, making the number four in all, in order to be able to place twocars under each hoist at the same time, thus making the work continuous, so that there need be no interruption in hoisting for lack of cars. This will, of course, lose acertain amount of space for storage, but when direct shipment from ves- sel to cars is the principal requirement in a very busy season, the storage capacity of the dock is a secondary matter, and towards the close of the season can be in- creased, if necessary, by simply doing away with the two additional tracks, and using the room for the pur- pose of storage. This mode of rapid unloading by con-