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the hook was delayed one and one- half minutes because the four wheel truck was not centered under the hook. The load had to be swung back and forth to get it on the truck. The second part of the first prin- ciple—Cargo should be moved in largest practical units—is applied by the use of skids, trailers and four wheel trucks for handling cargo. In- stead of handling five bags of flour on a two wheel hand truck, 20 to 25 bags can be moved on a fourwheel truck, on a trailer or skid. Instead of moving 20 cases of toothpicks on a hand truck, a three by six foot trailer will handle 210 cases at a time. Unquestionably much handling of cargo could be eliminated if ship- pers, shipping companies, railroad companies and consignees would co- operate so that cargo would be in heavier units. In some cases this has been done to advantage but the fullest development has been retard- ed by failure to understand the high cost of. handling, or from inertia or from resistance to the influx of new ideas. Other Important Principles The second principle is put into practice if the railroad car is placed close to the hatch into which the cargo is going and if trucking is in as straight a line as possible. At one terminal, while. trucking freight from the dock into the ship the trucking distance was increased 20 per cent because a hand truck was blocking the shorter route and no one, including the man in charge, re- moved it. The application of this principle of the most economical movement is not always so simple. The third principle is applied by the use of trailers with gasoline or electric tractors. Heavily loaded trailers can be moved up steep gang- ways and over rough floors by power tractors without difficulty. Part of the third principle—to per- form all operations by gravity wher- ever practical—is exemplified by the use of gravity conveyors in handling packages from the deck of a ship to the terminal. Another application of the gravity principle is the use of gravity roller conveyors for moving cargo from the wings to the square of the hatch and vice versa. Use of Short lengths of conveyor for this work often prove very profitable. The use of gravity roller conveyors for moving packages from the for- ward ends of street trucks to the Station platform has proved a good way to expedite the discharge. of trucks at the Boston and Maine freight station at Boston. The same method is applicable at many marine terminals. Gravity roller conveyors often prove economical in handling freight into and out of cars. The Clark Equipment Co. uses a simple ANNNNUUTUUEEGUUUUCUOQUQUOQUUNUEEEELLLAUNUAL Mechanical han- tng machinery can be used to cut cost. Conveyors ap- plied at Houston to handle bags of cof- fee and sugar from shipside to ware- house TT TTT OTT arrangement for loading automobile wheels into box cars. The wheels roll in a steel trough which has just enough incline to cause the wheels to roll at the proper speed. The five principles stated in the beginning are applicable also with respect to the cargo handling fea- tures of the ship. The first principle obtains by substituting steel hatch covers for wooden hatch covers which effect a reduction in handling costs. If the ship has bulwarks instead of rails, the second principle would be applied if the bulwarks were hinged opposite hatches. This permits a shorter distance travel for the hook and is therefore an application of the straight line production principle. The third principle applies to booms and winches. Many booms and winches are inadequate, the booms are short and insufficient in number, the winches slow. These five principles are also ap- plicable to the cargo handling fea- tures of terminals. A terminal de- signed without shipside tracks where direct rail deliveries and shipments are possible, overlooks the first prin- ciple. Cars arriving for a ship must be unloaded at the tracks in the center of the pier or at the bulkhead and handled across or along the pier to the hatch into which the shipment is going. If shipside tracks are pro- vided, steel plates, boxed automo- biles, etc., can be handled direct from PTTTUUUCCCCCUQCTTRUUULLULCUULLLOLUUUCcLLLLL Handling can _be reduced to a mini- mum by keeping cargo on wheels. Conditions must be studied to deter- mine type of equip- ment best suitable PTPTUUTATTUOUUUAUTALUULLUGLULA LLL LOCO MARINE REviIEw—February, 1931 car to ship. manner of handling as compared with handling over the pier is indicated by the following car loading and unload- The economy of this ing charges at Los Angeles. The charge for loading marble blocks di- rect into cars is 60 cents a ton. When the blocks are handled across the terminal into cars, the charge is $1, 66 2/3 per cent more. When the cargo is handled to and from box cars, unless sufficient space is provided between the outside track and the side of the pier to per- mit erection of a platform, direct handling of box car freight is either impossible or difficult and expensive. If box cars must be unloaded to the pier and then hauled to the hatch, there is extra handling and the short line production principle is not ap- plied as compared with terminals so designed that box car shipments may be handled direct from car to ship. The third principle is applied by the use of gasoline and electric trucks, hand lift trucks, cranes, ete. Good floors add much to economi- cal cargo handling and good lighting is essential to the best work. The fourth principle needs no dis- cussion in view of the treatment given it from time to time in articles appearing in the past. The fifth principle is covered by Mr. Morison’s article on lighting which appeared in the September 1930 issue of Marine Review. D1