876 



Popular Science Monthly 



Formerly it took ten men 

 a whole ten-hour day to do 

 a single job, and inclined 

 planes had to be built to 

 load the upper boxes from, 

 using rollers and crowbars. 

 Now four men can load about 

 forty-eight boxes a day, and, 

 if necessary, one man does it. 



This Moving Van Loads 

 From the Side 



H 



OUSEHOLD goods and 



I The lifting tackle travels on a track extended from loading 

 \ room across track. One tackle performs the operation 



Wafting Five Tons About as Though 

 They Were Thistledown 



"A' 



^LL ready below there?" 

 'Yep, let 'er come." 



There is a whirr and the rattle of a 

 running chain, and a huge packing-case 

 floats airily out of a second-story window 

 and smoothly descends towards the 

 flat-car which is waiting below to receive 

 it. "Easy now — bit further — whoa! — 

 back a bit — a-a-all right." 



That is about the sum total of the 

 operation of loading a packing-case con- 

 taining five tons of motor-truck onto the 

 cars for shipment, at the plant of one of 

 the big truck manufacturers in Michigan. 



The reason for the ease with which the 

 thing is done is due solely to an ingenious 

 bundle-carrier that the company has 

 installed. There is nothing very 

 new in its essential parts, for 

 it is the regular chain-and- 

 puUey type of purchase, 

 but the application to 

 special conditions is very 

 interesting. The track on 

 which the lifting tackle 

 travels is extended across 

 the track and into the 

 loading room too. Conse- 

 quently the cases are 

 moved around, swung out, 

 lowered, and everything 

 is done with the same 

 tackle. Four boxes are 

 loaded onto one car. 



things that had to be moved 

 for some considerable dis- 

 tance, formerly went by 

 railroad. Recent railroad 

 congestion, however, and the 

 difficulty of getting box-cars for anything 

 that does not come under the head of 

 war necessities, has brought home to many 

 people the fact that it is often cheaper 

 and handier to have their household 

 furniture moved by vans. Even if it 

 did cost a little more, there is a great 

 deal gained in convenience, because the 

 goods are actually taken right out of your 

 own dwelling into the same van that con- 

 veys it to your new abode. But as a mat- 

 ter of fact, it is actually cheaper in many 

 cases than to pay freight plus cartage. 



As an aid to dispatch, a Los Angeles, 

 California, moving man has equipped his 

 truck-van bodies with side-moving doors 

 that make it possible to load heavy pieces 

 of furniture, such as pianos, right onto 

 the van from the sidewalk. Formerly 

 special tackle had to be used 

 for doing this, so it is 

 evident that a considera- 

 ble saving in time and 

 labor is effected, 



imi 



Showing a side-opening arrangement whereby heavy 

 goods can be loaded without aid of special tackle 



