Popular Science Monihly 



2fU 



Moving Guns with an Electric Battery 

 Crane -Truck 



UNCLE SAM may be a bit slow in 

 getting his guns into action, but 

 when it conies to moving them he is 

 right on the job. Tlic photograph shows 

 a two-ton battery crane-truck used at 

 tiie Naval Gun Factoryat Washington for 

 the transportation of guns of all sizes, 

 except the big fellows wlio are given a 

 moving apparatus of their own. The 

 crane-truck eliminates all danger of fire, 

 and safety and speed are its two best 

 qualities. It can be operated wherever 

 there is room for it to glide about, and 

 it is just as useful on the street as it is 

 indoors. 



The batter%' which serves as the pro- 

 pelling power for the truck operates the 

 crane. The driving and crane control 

 handles are within convenientreachof the 

 driver and he operates them simultane- 

 ously. When the truck has completed 

 a day's task of lifting and transporting 

 guns it is used as a trackless locomotive 

 for hauling trailers or gun carriages. 

 Uncle Sam takes particular care to have 

 his shop vehicles electrically operated, 

 to avoid all possible danger of fire. 



Surviving Horse- Car Lines in the 

 United States 



HORSE-CARS still are operated in at 

 least two American cities, New 

 York and Middletown, Ohio. Tiny, low, 

 short, and mounted on a single truck, 

 these cars were built to haul about 

 twenty persons. To-day they often are 

 crowded with two to three times that 

 number and the horses are sorely 

 pressed to draw the load. 



When the Middletown horse-car line 

 went into bankruptcy several years ago 

 a junk dealer bought it for four hundred 

 dollars. His profits have been more 

 than three hundred per cent a year, and 

 if he were to pull up his tracks and sell 

 them and his equipment, he could re- 

 alize many times his original investment. 

 Recently an order has been given by 

 the public Service Commission of New 

 York that the horse-cars must go. The 

 reason for the demise of these municipal 

 curios is that the picturesque equipment 



of i860 can 

 not meet the 

 traffic de- 

 mands of the 

 1916 public. 



The cr.'ii.. -t:-':.-!: ,■• . ■ li- 

 the guns except the big fel 



one part of the factory to another, transporting all 

 lows which need a special apparatus of their own 



