Coaling a Liner with an Elevator 



An endless bucket-chain passes into the barge and thence up the conveyor to the discharging 

 point at the top of the chute. This loader has coaled the " Vaterland" in twenty-one hours 



SPEED and certainty are the two 

 principals upon which the great 

 steamships which ply between con- 

 tinents are operated. They are per- 

 mitted only a liiiiited number of days in 

 port; they must be swiftly unloaded and 

 cleaned; and they must be no less 

 swiftly loaded, and made ready for sea. 

 In all these o()erations, the machine 

 which is in greatest demand is the one 

 that can put the cargo aboard in less 

 time and at less expen.sc than another 

 machine. Especiall)' is this true in tak- 

 ing aboard coal. The ocean greyhounds 

 which carry from five thousand tons to 

 nine thousand tons of coal, and which 

 arc permittet! onl)- two or three days to 

 take on such an immense cargo, must 

 therefore be loaded in the most rapid as 

 well as the most ec<jn()mical way. 



Cf)aling shi[)s by the old-fashioiied 

 hoist-uperated tubs was a slow and 



expensive process. An apparatus was 

 therefore made necessary which would 

 reduce the coaling period, require less 

 space, cut down the labor and mainten- 

 ance costs, and eliminate the nui.sance 

 of flying coal-dirt. The machine that 

 was invented with these objects in \iew 

 is seen in the illustration loading coal 

 from the barge into the port-holes of a 

 large ocean liner. Each of these loaders 

 can be suspended from a boom by 

 means of a rope and pulley, o\er any 

 barge, and inasmuch as they are truly 

 jiortablc, they can be swung from any 

 ])ortion of the ship to the desired load- 

 ing point. Herein lies their advantage 

 o\'cr the floating unloading elevators 

 which require a large water space, and 

 have but one point of deli\ery. 



The dri\-ing-motor is installed in the 

 lu-ad of the elevator, and is operated by 

 electric current supplied from shore. 



206 



