THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



the east. The first of these is from the mine to cars; 

 the second from the cars to the boats; the third from 

 the boats to cars; and the fourth from the cars to the 

 blast furnaces. 



For many years about the only hand work done in 

 any of these processes was that of transferring from 

 the boats to the ore-trains, and even here " automatic 

 unloaders" are now rapidly supplanting the tedious 

 hand method. By the older methods a travelling 

 crane, or swinging derrick, dropped a bucket into 

 the hold of the ore-vessel, where workmen shovelled 

 it full of the red ore. It was then lifted out by machin- 

 ery and the contents dumped into cars in much the 

 same manner as that of the steam shovel in the mines. 

 Recently, however, a machine has been perfected 

 which scoops up the ore from the ship's hold and trans- 

 fers it to the cars without the aid of shovellers. The 

 only human aid given this gigantic machine is to guide 

 it by means of controlling levers to furnish brains 

 for it, in short the " muscle" being furnished by 

 steam power. The great arm of this automatic un- 

 loader, resembling the sweep of the old-fashioned well 

 in principle, moves up and down, burying the jaws of 

 the shovel into the ore in the hold, and pulling them 

 out again filled with ore, with monotonous regularity, 

 quickly emptying the vessel under the guidance of 

 half a dozen men, and performing the labor of hun- 

 dreds. 



Thus the last field of activity for the laborer and his 

 shovel, in the iron-ore industry, has been usurped by 

 mechanical devices. From the time the ore is taken 



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