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20 : MARINE REVIEW. [December 28, CAR DUMPS AT FURNACES. LATEST TYPES OF MACHINERY FOR THE HANDLING OF IRON ORE IN FURNACE YARDS--EQUIPMENT AT THE NEW YOUNGSTOWN WORKS OF THE NATIONAL STEEL OO. Readers of the Marine Review who have followed the record in these columns during the past few years of the development of machin- ery for transferring iron ore from lake vessels to railroad cars or dock stock piles will be interested in some of the innovations recently intro- duced at blast furnace plants for transfer of the ore from the cars in which it is received from lake ports to stock piles or direct to the fur- naces. The latest practice in this line is well illustrated at the new works of the National Steel Co. at Youngstown, Ohio. We are indebted to the Iron Trade Review for permission to reproduce the illustrations and text dealing with this subject. The ore stock yard at the Youngstown works is spanned by two steel conveyor bridges. These with their power equipment, and the other ore handling machinery, consisting of a Hulett patent car dumper, were built 'by the Webster, Camp & Lane Machine Co. of Akron, O. The bridges have a span of 260 feet, with a cantilever extension of 41 feet over the ore bins at the end next to the furnaces. Each bridge is mounted on a two-track machine tower at its outer or receiving end, and on a one-track rear tower next to the furnaces. At their receiving ends the bottom chords of the bridges are 54% feet above the bottom of the ore pit and at the rear tower 80% feet, giving large storage room. the Webster, Camp & Lane Machine Co., to the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railroad for its coal docks at Buffalo, except that the overhead trolleys for conveying the material to vessels are omitted. Steam is piped to the engine for operating the car dumper from the blast furnace boilers. After the loaded car is run into the car dumper, the operator sets the deflector for either a short hopper car with ore loaded nearly uniform through the car or for a long gondola with ore loaded at each end over the trucks. The cars of seventeen tons capacity which receive the ore after it is dumped are of the side-dump pattern. The transfer car on which they stand side by side is pushed by a locomotive under the front or machinery tower of the bridge in alignment with the four tracks on the latter. These tracks converge to one main track on the bridge, the switches being automatically operated by the car as it passes over them. One by one the cars are drawn up the inclined track and on through the bottom chords of the 'bridge and dumped at any point desired. This is accomplished by a lever underneath the car engaging a knuckle, causing the two hinged side plates to be thrown outward. A second track is suspended below the chords of the bridge with a trolley running thereon, for rehandling the ore from stock pile, emptying it into cars whence it is dropped into the bins. An automatic bucket of ten tons capacity is used in rehandling operations. It is filled by dragging it up the stock pile, which is accomplished by proper manipulation ol the trolley by the operator in the machinery tower. In practice there will be no frequent moving of the bridge. When the stock pile from which ore is being drawn is not opposite the bin into which it is desired to put the ore, the ten-ton bucket will empty into motor cars which move HULETT OAR DUMPER AT THE BLAST FURNACES OF THE NATIONAL STEEL OO , YOUNGSTOWN, O. The bridges travel along their tracks at a speed of 50 feet per minute by means of gearings connected with two 130 horse power General Elec- tric motors to each bridge. These motors also furnish the power for handling the ore on the bridge, as well as rehandling it from stock pile, suitable drums and gearing being connected with the motors. The motors take their current from an overhead trolley above the machine tower. The machinery is located in the main tower, and an operator's house is placed next to the bridge in a position giving the operator an unobstructed view of the ore cars as they move on the bridge, for this machine delivers ore to the stock piles in small cars instead of buckets. From the yard in which loaded ore cars are delivered from the various connecting railroads, the track as it extends to the car dumper is down grade 1% feet in 100. The foot of the grade is 885 feet from the yard and the cars move this distance by gravity to the foot of a short incline which leads up to the car dumper. In a pit below the loaded car as it reaches the foot of the incline is a disappearing car. This is drawn up out of the pit 'behind the loaded car by winding drums located on the car dumper. A push bar on the disappearing car engages the drawhead of the ore car, pushing it up grade into the car dumper. The car dumper consists of a substantial steel structure, in which is a plat- form to receive the loaded car. This platform is pivoted at one side, and when the platform with the carload of ore is rotated around this axis, the car is raised sufficiently high to discharge the ore over an apron into four small steel cars of seventeen tons capacity each, mounted on a transfer car standing alongside the car dumper. To insure equal distribution of ore in the four smaller cars movable deflectors are pivoted to the apron of the car dumper. These are moved by a steam cylinder, with cataract locking cylinder, both being under the control of the _ operator Gondola, wood or steel hopper 'bottom cars of twenty to sixty - tons capacity can be handled. The car dumper is of the same general design as that furnished by to the proper bin and drop their contents. It is possible to bring a train of drop-bottom ore cars directly to the tracks over the bins, but the usual method will be by way of the stock yard and the conveyor ap- paratus. The capacity of the car dumper is thirty railway cars an hour. Each of the bridges is capable of handling fifty of the seventeen-ton cars per hour, or an equivalent of twelve and a half railway cars per hour. Three men are required for the operation of the car dumper, including the man who places the cars in position upon it. Two operators are re- quired for each conveyor 'bridge and three men on the locomotives for moving the transfer cars. The cost of handling ore from railway car to ore-pit or from pit to bins is estimated at less than 1 cent per ton. The Chesapeake, new full-rigged sailing vessel designed as a practice ship for the naval academy and built at the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Me., is credited with a very successful governmental trial, which took place off the Massachusetts coast a few days since. The ship was tried for sea- worthiness only, For two and a half hours the ship was sailed in a southeasterly breeze and moderate sea, carrying all the sail deemed ex- pedient. In a twenty-mile breeze the vessel made 8 knots close hauled. The performance was entirely satisiactory to the official trial board, which consisted of Commander W. H. Emory, president; Naval Constructor Washington Capps and Lieut. Commander Richard Henderson. Evidently the strikers at the works of the William Cramp & Sons Co., Philadelphia, have about come to the conclusion that they cannot dictate to that firm. They are said to be applying by letter for positions in ship yards in other parts of the country. The cost of maintaining the strikers in idleness has been almost $1,000 per week, and the funds of the national organization to which they belong have run low as a result of the constant drain that has been made upon them,