Popular Science Monthly 



491 



Dumping a Whole Carload of Coal 

 at a Time 



THE speediest way of loading coal 

 from a freight-car into a steamer is 

 embodied in a mechanical loading plant 

 installed on a Avharf at Char- 

 leston, South Carolina. 



Instead of unloading the 

 coal from the cars and stack- 

 ing it to await the steamer, 

 then retransporting it to the 

 steamer's hold, the car, filled 

 with coal, is merely lifted 

 bodily from the track by a 

 powerful elevating mechan- 

 ism and its contents poured 



Machine Fills Cracks in Pavement 



FILLING in the cracks between pav- 

 ing-stones is a process known as 

 "grouting," and proper grouting, when 

 done by hand with the aid of a wheel- 



into a great chute, from wiiu ii ii streams 

 into the hold. 



Thirty coal-cars, each with a load of 

 one hundred tons, can be handled in an 

 hour. The entire plant is electrically 

 operated. In ac- 

 tion, the elec- 

 trical loader is 

 spectacular. The 

 loaded cars roll 

 down an incline 

 upon the eleva- 

 tor. A motor is 

 started, the car 

 swings upward 

 until it is turned 

 l)ottom-side-up, 

 the coal pouring 

 into the hopper, 

 thence to the sliip. 



This giant coals steamers and 

 loads barges by picking up rail- 

 way cars and turning them up- 

 side down over the hopper 



barrow and a trowel or a 

 spade, is a slow and time-con- 

 suming task. A compact 

 grouting-machine has been 

 brought out, which, while 

 operated by only one man, is 

 able to do the work better and 

 in less time than a small gang 

 of laborers. Aconcrete-mixing 

 machine is mounted on wheels with a long 

 sj)out protruding in front. As the con- 

 crete is needed, it is poured through the 

 spout and out upon the pavement, whence 

 the cement finds its way into the cracks. 



A machine which fills in the cracks btt . 



lag stones 



