The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 MARINE REVIEW. Plan of Dock Equipment for Rapid Handling of Soft Coal. . ; The accompanying engravings show a portion of the of the Ludlow Manufacturing Company of this city for a de k equipment, specially adapted to rapid handling of bituminous. ao coal. Improvements in coal handling machinery have not k | d) 4 pace with the great advance made in the ore business, but i 6 es evident now that within a short period the present method 14 Tau be very much changed. Larger derricks and buckets of f I 5343 and five tons capacity will take the place of the plants now bs re ae use and the coal will undoubtedly be dumped from the cars" : 3 3! stead of being shoveled as at present. The increasing lake tra - les fic in coal between the mines of Ohio and Pennsylvania and the ae northwest, which has now reached an aggregate of about 4 500,000 tons for a single season at Ohio ports alone, demands ; : improved dock facilities, and the different companies engaged i i : equipment work are directing a great deal of attention in this" direction. : cabal The plan of the Ludlow company, shown here, presen many improvements, being guaranteed to load 300 tons an hou In the first drawing the ground plan of machinery and cars wit the arrangement of buckets and sockets at the sides of the cars, to cause all coal to fall into the buckets, is shown, while in th lower drawing a side elevation of the plant is presented. The -- buckets used are what are known as the Ludlow buckets of four ~ tons capacity. Six are required on each side of the car and their dimensions are 51% feet in diameter by 7 feet high. The car is the Ludlow side-dumping gondola of about twenty-five tons capacity. The car is elevated about 5 feet, as showu in the small cro sectional drawing, and the buckets are so fitted to the sockets as to not admit of any coal falling behind them. A plant after which this system is planned has beenin use at Sandusky for ten years. ; : . The caris one that in ordinary service is a gondola, but when brought to the dock, or such point as may be equipped with the necessary power, can be dumped inside of one minute from both sides into the buckets. As the twelve buckets hold forty-eight to fifty tons, two cars must be dumped in order to fillthem. The buckets are tripped automatically with another device patented by Mr. Ludlow. 'The derrick to be used is the a McMyler new ro-ton machine, which is guaranteed to put aboard a bucket every two minutes. This machine is a self-propeller -- and is being operated with great success in connection with the -- work of constructing the new St. Mary's Falls canal lock. Seven of the machines are now in use on this work. They were guar- anteed to carry ten tons and travel 800 feet a minute and they have been fully up to requirements. ' The working of the car in connection with this plan of 4 dock equipment will be illustrated and explained later, probab- | ly in the next issue. | DOCK EQUIPMENT PLAN, LUDLOW MANUFACTURING COMPANY, CLEVELAND, 0. Another Interesting Report From Gen. Poe. In a letter accompanying his report to Gen. Casey, chiefof | army engineers, on the St. Mary's Falls canal traffic during 1891 Gen. Poe discusses the canal business in a very interesting man- ner. Following is a copy of the letter and the report: : UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE. 34 West Congress Street. DETROIT, Mich., Dec. 16, 1891. Brig. Gen. Thomas L,. Casey, Chief of Engineers,U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.--Sir: 'I have the honor to submit the follow. ing report upon the commerce passing St. Mary's Falls canal, 4 during the season of 1891, just closed. At this work statistics ~ for the season are necessarily those of the calendar year. The canal opened for navigation April 27, 1891, and closed © Dec. 7. The season was therefore 22 5 days long, or three days = shorter than in 1890. 'T'he average number of vessels passing per day for the whole season was 45.3 and for the months of © 4 June, July, August and September, the average was 54.6. The