Unloading Freight Cars by Machinery 



No worry then about shortage of labor 



SOME of the con- 

 gestion of rail- 

 road traffic since 

 the outbreak of the 

 war has been partly 

 due to the detention 

 of loaded cars in rail- 

 road yards or on sid- 

 ings. In many cases 

 companies pleaded 

 that the scarcity 

 of laborers made it 

 impossible for them 

 to unload their cars 

 promptly. Hence, 

 mechanical unload- 

 ing of freight and 

 coal cars has be- 

 come of vital importance. 



Recently a Chicago inventor put 

 on the market a mechanical unloading 

 device, which, he claims, will not only 

 mean a large saving of labor but also re- 



Acceleratin;_, iIl mloading of railway 

 cars by the use of endless-chain buckets 



The traveling belt (at left) receives its burden from 

 V buckets unceasingly and depKjsits it where wanted 



duce the cost of un- 

 loading to one-third 

 of what must now be 

 paid to shovelers. The 

 device consists of an 

 endless-chain bucket 

 elevator carried by 

 projecting arms 

 which are counter- 

 balanced by a con- 

 crete block at the 

 opposite end and 

 mounted on a piv- 

 oted frame supported 

 on a traveling bridge 

 or crane which strad- 

 dles the car and can 

 be moved from car 

 to car as the work proceeds. 



One man is sufficient to operate this 

 machine, which, according to the mate- 

 rial, will unload from thirty to forty 

 tons an hour. At that rate one operator 

 with this machine can unload 

 five cars in one day. To do the 

 same amount of work by the old 

 method would require about ten 

 or twelve men. 



The bucket -chain elevates the 

 material to a horizontal belt 

 which deposits the material re- 

 moved from the car wherever 

 it is wanted. Both conveyors 

 are operated by small electric 

 motors controlled from the 

 operator's cab. 



The entrance of the United 

 States into the war has acted 

 as a stimulus to inventive genius, 

 and since the war necessarily 

 removes from ordinary channels 

 of labor a large percentage of 

 men, any device that holds out 

 promise of usefulness in sub- 

 stituting mechanical labor for 

 that of man is worthy of more 

 than passing consideration. If 

 this inventor's claims are sub- 

 stantiated, one of the most 

 serious causes of delay in 

 freight-handling will be elimi- 

 nated. 



8.S3 



