644 REPORT—1883. 
tide. The first coal drop on the Tyne was put up by Mr. Thomson in 1813, and all 
subsequent drops have followed the same principle, which was the invention of 
Mr. William Chapman, of Newcastle. The loaded waggon in its descent raises a 
counterbalance weight, and when the coals are let out of the waggon, the counter-- 
balance weight brings the waggon back to its original position. The machinery is. 
controlled by efficient brakes. At Middlesbrough, from 1830 to 1842, the coal 
waggons were raised from the railway to the ship’s deck, and there emptied; but 
when the dock was constructed, special means were adopted for shipping coal 
rapidly and with as little breakage as possible. Ten drops were erected, connected 
with the railway by ten diverging lines; the loaded truck is run on to a cradle ' 
directly over the hatchway of the ship to be loaded, the cradle and truck descend 
perpendicularly to near the ship’s deck, and the contents are discharged by the man 
who descends with the cradle operating a lever, and a counterbalance brings the 
cradle and empty waggon to its original position. The movement of the cradle is: 
completely controlled by brakes, and it can be stopped with ease in any position.. 
Each drop can ship about 150 tons an hour, and in 1845 these ten drops shipped 
oyer half a million tons of coal. About the same time Mr. Robinson contrived 
for the Bute Dock, at Cardiff, a mechanical system of staiths or drops to supersede 
the barrow system, by which coal brought down in canal boats was wheeled along 
planks into the ships. As the anthracite and steam coal are generally in large blocks, 
it is difficult to use a shoot, and as the coal is very friable it cannot be dropped 
from any height. Mr. Robinson conveyed the ten-ton waggons along the staiths, 
lowered them to the ship on a balanced platform which tilted when on the deck, 
and the coal was allowed to slide into the hold. 
A great variety of hydraulic machinery has been designed by Sir William 
Armstrong for coal loading, and it is largely employed at Newport Docks and else- 
where. One of the best arrangements is thus described by the inventor :—‘ The 
waggon is lifted vertically upon a cradle by the direct thrust of a ram beneath, and 
then tipped into a shoot large enough to contain an entire waggon-load of coal. 
This shoot also rises and falls so as to meet the varying height of the deck, the move- 
ment being effected by connecting the shoot with the cradle, so as to lift or lower it 
to the point required, where it is secured by proper fastenings. A pair of doors is 
fixed across the mouth of the shoot to regulate the flow of the coal, or to stop it 
entirely. The tipping of the waggon is done by a press mounted on trunnions, 
which travels with the cradle and raises the back end of the platform, which is 
hinged in front, to the necessary elevation. For the initiatory process of forming 
a conical heap in the ship, an hydraulic swing-crane is affixed to the framework of 
the hoist, by which the coal is in the first instance lowered in an ordinary tub from 
the mouth of the shoot into the hold, and there delivered at the lowest possible 
level. All the movements are guided by valves, which are worked by a man who 
stands on an elevated platform at one side of the hoist. The same arrangement 
answers equally well for hopper waggons. In every case the waggons are brought 
up and taken away by means of hydraulic capstans, turn-tables, or traversing 
machines, according to the circumstances of each locality, and the rate of shipment 
is only limited by the trimming of coal in the hold, which must necessarily be done 
by hand labour.’ 
Many different kinds of labour-saving machinery, for dock and railway work 
in loading and unloading, have been invented during the last fifty years, and 
have had a most important influence on the development of railway and steamship 
transport. Without such machinery it would be impossible that the present 
enormous commerce of the country could be carried on. If this machinery were 
suddenly withdrawn or disabled, the great ocean steamships must lie idle in port, 
and the greater part of the goods trains of the railways must cease to be despatched. 
Adequately to describe the many kinds of cranes used at railway stations and in 
docks would occupy far more time than is at my disposal, according to custom, on 
these occasions. But you are all more or less familiar with them in daily use, for 
it is impossible to pass along a wharf, or through a dock or important goods 
station, without being struck with the rapidity and ease with which goods are 
transferred by them from ship to ship, or from ship to shore, or from the platform 
