Loading Ashes Automatically 



The endless belt conveyor saves the 

 janitor's back and the landlord's money 



THE endless 

 belt has been 

 found to be a 

 solution of a wide 

 variety of problems. 

 It is even being 

 used now as a 

 conveyor of ashes 

 from large buildings. 

 Thus applied, it far 

 outstrips the older 

 methods of carting 

 up the ashes from 

 the boiler-room by 

 the barrel. Instead, 

 it brings them up 

 and discharges them 

 in one continuous 

 stream directly into 

 waiting wagons. 

 The conveyor for 

 this purpose must 

 be portable; it must 

 be one which can be 

 raised into position 

 when in use, and 

 lowered below the 

 level of the sidewalk 

 immediately after- 

 ward. This is be- 

 cause no obstruction 

 can be allowed 

 for any length 

 of time above the 

 sidewalk on any city 

 street. 



To accomplish the 

 raising and lowering, 

 the conveyor is en- 

 closed in a casing of 

 sheet iron. Two flat 

 rack gears are at- 

 tached to the casing, 

 one on each side. In 

 these, two pinion 

 gears mesh, and 

 when these pinions 

 are turned by the 

 hand-crank with 

 which they connect, the casing, belt con- 

 veyor and all are moved in the direction 

 desired. Hence, when the ashes collected 

 in the engihe-room are to be removed, the 



conveyor is first 

 lifted from its casing 

 in the ground, up 

 through its trap- 

 door, and stationed 

 on the sidewalk. The 

 ashes are then shov- 

 eled into a suitable 

 pit built in the en- 

 gine-room floor, and 

 the belt is started 

 going by the small 

 electric motor geared 

 to it. The buckets 

 on the belt dig into 

 the pile of ashes as 

 they pass through 

 the pit. They are 

 filled automatically 

 and travel upwards 

 to the surface. On 

 reaching the belt- 

 sprocket at the top 

 of the conveyor, the 

 buckets swi n g 

 around with suffi- 

 cient speed to throw 

 the ashes off into the 

 sloping chute at the 

 side. From here 

 they slide into a 

 waiting wagon, and are 

 ready to be carted away. 



The buckets on the revolving end- 

 less belt dig into the piled ashes and 

 carry them up to the street where 

 they are dumped into wagons 



Stolen Cars Send Automo- 

 bile Insurance Rates Up 



THE increasing number 

 of stolen cars and the 

 small proportion recovered 

 by the police are the reasons 

 given for the raised rates 

 on automobile insurance in 

 Chicago. More than four 

 thousand cars were stolen in 

 that city during the first nine 

 months of last year. The 

 advanced rates on cars val- 

 ued at less than $700 are 

 from twenty-five cents on new cars to $2.25. 

 On 1 91 5 models the advances are from 

 fifty cents to two dollars, and on the 1914 

 models from fiftv cents to one dollar. 



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