Popular Science Monthly 



661 



Machine Shovels Faster 

 Than Forty Men 



ON the Great Lakes, 

 where bulk cargoes 

 of coal and ore make up 

 the majority of loads 

 carried by the giant 

 freighters, one of the 

 greatest factors of loss 

 is that occasioned by the 

 difficulty in gathering 

 together the last rem- 

 nants of coal or ore 

 which remain in the out- 

 of-the-way nooks and 

 corners of the hold and 

 which the unloading ma- 

 chine cannot reach. 

 When the piles of ore or 

 coal have been dimin- 

 ished so far that the 

 bottom of the hold is in 

 sight, the customary 

 practice is to send gangs 

 of men with shovels to 

 shift the piles into the 

 convenient reach of the 



A sturdy "shover" which pushes coal or any other loose material 



into big piles under the hatches. The steam shovels can then 



hoist full buckets 



power-shovel, or "bucket" as it is called. 

 To do away with this waste of time, 

 a Cleveland concern has brought out a 

 machine which takes the place of the 

 shoveling gang. The machine does the 



The scraper-shovel 

 quickly sweeps out 

 the corners un- 

 reached by the lift- 

 ing-bucket 



work of about forty 

 capable sho\elers. 

 On one occasion, the 

 automatic shoveler 

 moved one hundred 

 tons of ore into the 

 path of the bucket, 

 approximately in 

 two hours less time 

 than the hand gang 

 formerly required. 

 The machine con- 

 sists of a high-pow- 

 ered gasoline engine 

 operating a lift- 

 showl at the front of 

 the machine. When tlie shovel is raised 

 as far as it will go, it is turned over 

 in a dumping position and the load 

 discharged. The w!u>els are fitted with 

 rubber tires. 



