UTILITIES FOR HANDLING RAW MATERIAL. 



7i 



Bridge tramways similar to those in use on the ore-unloading docks 

 are employed in the furnace yards to convey the ore from the railroad 

 cars to stock piles, and a patent furnace hoist automatically conveys 

 the ore together with the coke and limestone to the top of the blast 

 furnace and performs the operation of ' charging. ' The automatic hoist 

 consists of an inclined iron-trussed bridge reaching from the floor of 

 the stock house to the top of the furnace shell and from thence over the 

 top opening of the furnace. On this bridge is laid a track of T rails 

 on which travels a skip or ear, containing the charge of one to three 

 tons as may be desired. The track is so arranged at the top that the 

 contents of the car are automatically dumped into the hopper on the 

 arrival of the car at the top. The skip car is hoisted or hauled to the 

 top by a double engine with a friction clutch drum. 



Car Dumping Machine. 



The exigencies of handling great quantities of coal for shipment 

 have been quite as productive of ingenious mechanical devices as have 

 the requirements of the iron industry. Bridge tramways have been 

 employed extensively for both loading and unloading of fuel, and in 

 the case of anthracite coal clam-shell buckets and bucket shovels which 

 scoop up the coal have been introduced in connection with the bridge 

 tramway instead of the ordinary bucket. However, preeminent among 

 all the varied forms of coal-handling apparatus stands the car-dumper, 

 a class of machine, each step in the evolution of which has been marked 



