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THe Marine REVIEW 61 DIAGRAM OF BELT CONVEYOR FOR DELIVERING COAL. TO STEAMERS. head pulley to a shoot which may be hoisted or lowered to correspond with the conveyor. The belt conveyor is driven by an arrangement so de- signed: that there is no slip between the conveyor belt driving pulleys. The motive power is a 100 H. P. gas engine situated in a motor house on the pier. The railway cars are drawn over an underground dis- charge hopper and a full Joad of 8 to 10 tons of coal is delivered into the latter, and passes down to the con- veying belt. The belt occupies but little room on the pier, and it may be so arranged that it will not in any manner interfere with ordinary traffic. This installation was intro- duced by the North-Eastern Railway Co. as an experiment, and lalthough it was thought that difficulties might arise in discharging large pieces of coal through the bottom door 'of the. hopper, it has been proved by actual experience that these fears were un- founded. In fact in the official trials it was necessary to reduce the speed of the flow of the coal as the driving engine could not take the abnormal load on the belt. It has been possible to discharge large size coal from railway wagons to the steamers at the Victoria Docks, Hull, at the rate of between 600 and 700 tons per hour, and it is claimed that 1,000 tons of run of mine coal may be discharged on one belt, so that the limit of speed will not be one of discharging from the shoot, but simply that of receiving and trimming the coal in the steamer. As however, the present-day tendency is towards the provision of larger sized and more numerous hatches in new _ colliers, this will facilitate the extended use of these belt conveyors. 'The two sal- ient features claimed for the system are (1) the increased loading capaci- ties obtained, and (2) the small initial cost. It is self-evident that consider- able economy in power may also be effected, as the railway wagons have not to be lifted but simply the actual load of coal and as there is a con- stant "flow" of coal being discharged and no time is wasted in lifting or lowering the wagons, it is clear that the capacity exceeds that previously accomplished by one single mechani- cal appliance. The cost of mainten- ance and attendance is, it is pointed out unimportant, because the belt con- veyor consists of two parts only--the moving belt and the stationary sup- porting rollers: As the plant at the Victoria Docks, Hull, was simply laid down experimentally, nothing special was provided so as to insure quick movement of wagons, and in more permanent installations special. gravity roads would be laid down for full and empty wagons and also hydraulic or electric tipping rams for end-door discharge wagons. : THE LATEST IMPROVED PAD- DLEWHEEL STEAMBOAT ENGINES. The cut accompanying represents the latest type of paddlewheel steam- boat engine, which is being manu- factured by Gillett & Eaton of Lake City; Minn, VU; So A. The valve gear embodied with the by what is known as their independent inside valve drive. This device is a recent invention for which application for patents has been made. Engineers and boat owners will readily récog- nize the advantages attained by hay- ing their engines equipped with an in- dependent inside valve drive, instead of having the valves driven from eccentrics or cams out of the en- gine shaft which are inaccessible, liable to extreme wear from grit, freezing in cold weather and the cam rods liable to be bent or broken from debris of all kinds being carried into them, with a consequent danger of disabling and, possible, wrecking the boat. This device being entirely in- side of the boat is very accessible for care, thus doing away with the dan- gerous work out on the guards. Some of tthe devices formerly 'brought out to accomplish this same purpose, while they have operated the valves successfully, were not in- dependent, but dependent upon the other engine. Not so with this de- vice, as each engine is entirely in- dependent of the other and if one engine should become disabled from ONE OF GILLETT & EATON'S PADDLE-WHEEL' STEAMBOAT ENGINES. engine as shown, broadly speaking, has been manufactured by Gillett & Eaton for some years and has given excellent satisfaction. It is thor- oughly covered by patents. They have recently made a change in the method of driving the valves any cause, the boat could be brought in with the one engine. | As will be seen by referring to the illustration, the arrangement is "simplicity itself'. and in every way mechanically and _ substantially de- signed.