34 WALDON FAWCETT 



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. 



The exigencies of handling great quantities of coal for 

 shipment have been quite as productive of ingenious mechan- 

 ical devices as have the requirements of the iron industry. 

 Bridge tramways have been employed extensively for both 

 loading and unloading 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, pre- 

 eminent among all the varied forms of coal handling appa- 

 ratus stands the car dumper, a class of machine, each step 

 in the evolution of which has been marked by a distinct type 

 of apparatus, but which has finally reached a point of de- 

 velopment where it is possible for one of these machines to 

 hoist a loaded coal car into position alongside a vessel, pour 

 its contents into chutes communicating with the hold and 

 return the empty car to the track in the elapsed time of one 

 minute. In the case of the most approved styles of car 

 dumpers the loaded car is clamped to the track in a sort of 

 cradle in such manner that it may be turned completely over 

 and yet by means of a reciprocating movement on the part 

 of a huge pan suspended in the framework of the machine and 

 connected with the chute leading to the hold of the vessel, 

 the coal is transferred with a minimum amount of breakage. 



A class of coal handling machinery in which recent years 

 has witnessed great development is found in the various forms 

 of chain elevators and link belt machiner3^ This form of 

 equipment is used extensively at railroad coaling stations 

 designed to supply fuel to locomotives. In a representative 

 installation one run of the upper conveyor is for stocking the 

 coal and the other for distributing it into chutes, while the 

 lower conveyor delivers coal from storage. Each convej^or 

 is an endless chain interspersed with metal partitions forming 

 pockets, is 600 feet in length and has a capacit}^ of 120 tons 

 of coal per hour. In many stations an inclined conveyor de- 



