THE CUBA R i: V I E W 2-, 



For taking out the ore steam shovels were nrst installed, and are still used where the 

 conditions permit: but the contour of the ground at many places is not well adapted to 

 steam shovel operation. Not only is it irregular, but the depth of the ore varies con- 

 siderably, and pockets are formed by projection to the surface of the underlying rock. 

 Therefore, it proved difficult to find many areas where a steam shovel could be operated 

 for any extended period in a cut of economical depth, without including a great deal of 

 rock in the ore excavated. 



Another point of importance was the fact that the top layers of ore differ in com- 

 position from the bottom levels, as nickel and chronium are concentrated with depth. 

 Accordingly it was considered desirable to remove the ore. not in horizontal layers, as 

 with a steam shovel, but in inclined slices, so as to insure even mixing of the grade. ' In 

 looking for some machine which would set on the ground level, and allow its buckets to 

 penetrate into all of the pockets of the Ijed rock, it occurred to the management to try 

 dragline excavators, and this was accordingly done, with the most successful results. 

 The apparatus selected, and now in operation, comprises three excavators, each of which 

 has a capacity of 900 to 1.200 cu. yds. in S to 10 hours, depending upon the character of 

 the ground and the placing of cars for loading. With the difficult nature of the ground 

 for laying trackage, this latter operation is not easy, and tends to prevent working the 

 excavators to their full capacity. The bucket on each machine swings through a radius 

 of 60 ft., and removes all of the ore, down to rock bottom, within 100 ft. Coal for the 

 shovels, excavators, locomotives and other purposes, including a large power plant on the 

 bay, is secured from mines not far distant and owned by the company, illustrating another 

 of the mineral riches of Cuba. 



The ore excavated is loaded into standard-gauge, side-dump cars of 50-tons capacity. 

 These cars are then hauled to the head of an inclined plane, about 6.800 ft. long, with a 

 grade varjang from 6 to 25 per cent. From the foot of this incline there is a short 

 railroad to the head of a second incline, 1,950 ft. long, 25 per cent grade, which ends in a 

 gravity switching yard 130 ft. above sea level. By means of these inclines and the con- 

 necting trackage, the ore is lowered from a vertical height of 1,491 ft., or elevation 1,621 

 ft., to 130 ft., the total length of track on each side being 2.44 miles. Both inclines are 

 double-tracked, 14-ft. center to center, and the lowering and hoisting of cars on the 

 inclines is in balance. The equipment for the lowering planes was furnished by the 

 Nordberg Mfg. Co. 



The main cables, 3-in. steel ropes, pass over heavy 20-ft. diameter drums, of which 

 there are two at the head of each incline. These drums, set in tandem, both carry heavy 

 gears which mesh with a common pinion. Half-turns are made over each drum by the 

 cable. The pinion shaft is also the crank shaft of 30 by 30-in. vertical engines, which 

 control the speed on the incline, with the aid of post-brakes also operated by steam. 

 The principal function of the pair of engines is to give sufficient motion to the cable to 

 carry the cars over certain parts of the incline, where the descending loads are on too 

 low a grade to pull the empties, in balance, up a steeper grade. Two to three cars are 

 sent down at a time. The lower incline is arranged like the upper, but the cable used 

 dift'ers. The upper cable is made of 6 strands of 19 wires each, of plow steel, with a 

 6-strand. 1%-in. center, also having 19 wires, which is twisted around a hemp core. The 

 lower cable, while having the same diameter to keep the mechanical details uniform, is 

 made of cast-steel wire on a hemp center. 



From the gravity yard, where loads are made up into a train by gravity, and empties 

 taken from train by a switch-back arrangement, the ore is hauled over a single-track, 

 narrow-gauge line, 13 ^/i> miles long, to Felton on Nipe bay. There a nodulizing plant, 

 for drying and sintering the ore to be smelted in northern blast furnaces, is situated. 



This plant is equipped with 12 rotary kilns, 10 by 125- ft., of the type commonly used 

 in the manufacture of cement, each driven by a 35 h. p. variable-speed motor. To feed 

 these kilns there are revolving tables kept filled with ore by a grab bucket taking its 

 supply from the adjacent stock yard. Under the edge of the kiln side of each feeder 

 table is a wide hopper, ending in a chute set at a steep angle. The ore is gradually and 

 regularly plowed off the table by a fixed deflector, which makes an acute angle with the 

 direction of motion of the ore, and the latter falls to the kiln. 



The sintered ore, in the form of nodules, is delivered from the kiln, at its lower end, 

 to an open-cast, iron chute, which passes under the floor to a wide, deep trough outside 

 the building, extending its full length of 240 ft. A small stream of water trickles down 

 each chute^'into the trough, facilitating the movement of the nodules and cooling them, 

 as the trough fills to a depth of 8 or 9 ft. An electric carrier over the trough, with a 

 grab bucket, removes the nodules to 50-ton electric transfer cars for delivery to the 

 foading wharf. These cars run on an inclined trestle. 



The rockv bottom of the bay, however, prohibited the drivmg of piles for a break- 



