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February, 1905 COAL AND TIMBER 15<br />
bills comparatively light. On account of<br />
the coal being carried the full length of the<br />
hopper before being pushed into the car,<br />
the breakage of coal is very slight. One<br />
objection raised by a company using a<br />
number of these loaders is that the coal<br />
is not pushed far enough into the ends<br />
of long box cars, on account of which fact<br />
it is impossible to load them to their rated<br />
capacity. This difficuhty has been overcome<br />
in the latest machines which have<br />
longer hoppers than the earlier ones.<br />
An Illinois mining engineer wrote: "The<br />
coal at this mine is delivered to the loader<br />
by a shaking screen and it works admirably,<br />
with very light repair bills. It is<br />
the only loader with which I am familiar<br />
which allows the pickers to get into the car<br />
and pick the impurities out of the coal<br />
while loading at alternate ends. It will<br />
handle all the coal delivered to it by a large<br />
shaking screen. I should rate its capacity<br />
at from 100 to 125 tons per hour." The<br />
general manager of the largest coal company<br />
in West Virginia wrote: "We have<br />
several of these loaders in use, and our<br />
experience with them has been decidely<br />
satisfactory. We load from 20 to 25 box<br />
cars a day with each loader. The cost of<br />
repairs at one mine at which we have kept<br />
an accurate record amounts to about $8 to<br />
$10 per month." The superintendent of a<br />
Maryland Company wrote: "Our Ottumwa<br />
loaders have been doing very satisfactory<br />
work, although they require considerable<br />
expenditure for repairs. This<br />
item has not been so heavy recently as<br />
heretofore on account of improvements<br />
made, but even at its worst, the machine<br />
effected a very decided economy as compared<br />
with loading by hand. If everything<br />
is working right, we can count on<br />
loading about one car in 25 minutes. They<br />
break ihe coal very little." The superintendent<br />
of the mining department of one<br />
ot the western railroads, in discussing the<br />
OttMimwa loader at one of their Wyoming<br />
mines, wrote: "We have been using this<br />
loader for a number of years and believe<br />
it lo be superior to any other loader on<br />
the market. The first loaders we had were<br />
continually breaking down and causing a<br />
great many deiays, but since then most of<br />
the parts have been made heavier and reinforced<br />
so that breakage is reduced to a<br />
minimum We still have breakdowns, but<br />
they are caused mostly by loading small<br />
cars to large capacity when the loader has<br />
to force the coal into the ends of the cars.<br />
About 1000 tons per day is what the loader<br />
can. handle without very much cost for<br />
repairs. It does not break the coal much,<br />
except in cases where the cars are small<br />
for their rated capacities, and then in<br />
crowding the coal back, there is some slack<br />
made by the constant grinding of the hopper<br />
and chain on the coal."<br />
The Christy loader, invented by J. M.<br />
Christy of Des Moines, Iowa, and manufactured<br />
by the Christy Box Car Loader<br />
Co., of that city, was the first successful<br />
loader which operated by throwing the coal<br />
into the car from an endless conveyor.<br />
The first loader was installed at a Des<br />
Moines mine in 1898 and the second at the<br />
Divernon, 111., mine of the Madison Coal<br />
Co. One hundred of these loaders have<br />
been placed on the market since 1900.<br />
Numerous changes and improvements have<br />
been made and the "Christy" is now recognized<br />
as one of the few really successful<br />
types of loaders. It is made to run with<br />
either steam or electricity.<br />
Ihe Christy loader is built on a movable<br />
platform consisting of a pair of 10 inch I<br />
beams 15 feet long carried on four 12 inch<br />
wheels, which are keyed to two 2V; inch<br />
axles and run on a pair of rails set 40 inches<br />
apart. The long axis of the platform and<br />
the rails upon which it moves, are perpendicular<br />
to the track upon which the box cars<br />
are loaded, and the platform rests upon a<br />
timber foundation of sufficient height to<br />
bring the bottom of the I beams a little<br />
above the height of the bottom of a car.<br />
The engines or dynamo are securely<br />
bolted to the 1 beams at the inner end of<br />
the platform and a conveyor or loading<br />
belt is located at the outer end. In the<br />
steam machines, a pair of 10"x8" reversible<br />
Christy engines are connected to a 3 inch<br />
shaft running the full length of the platform<br />
between the I beams, while in the<br />
electric machine a 50 H.-P. Western<br />
Electric Co. motor wound for 220, 250 or<br />
500 volts is geared to the shaft. In either<br />
style of machine the platform is moved<br />
forward and back a sufficient distance to<br />
place the loading belt in a car or to remove<br />
it, by bringing a bevel gear on the main<br />
shaft into play with one on the front axle<br />
of the platform, motion being produced by<br />
traction.<br />
The loading belt is 8 feet long over all,<br />
30 inches wide, and at the center is 354<br />
feet above the rails upon which the platform<br />
moves, but curves upwards at each<br />
end. Tts sides are heavy sheet steel and<br />
support three shafts, one at the center and<br />
one at each end. The center shaft is<br />
geared to the main engine or dynamo shaft,<br />
and by means of a link chain and sprockets<br />
Mit the rear of the belt, drives one of the<br />
end shafts. Each end shaft carries a pair<br />
of 17>/j inch sprocket wheels around which<br />
pass two endless link chains. To these<br />
chains are bolted l / 2"x3}4" steel plates, 30<br />
inches long, and 2 inch angle irons are<br />
fastened to the belt at intervals of 2 feet.<br />
The belt being too long to pass through a<br />
car door when in position to load, is turned<br />
on its pivoted support through an angle of<br />
90 degrees by means of a 4'x6" steam<br />
cylinder in the steam machine or a 4'x2"<br />
screw in the electric machine. The entire<br />
platform is then moved forward on its<br />
wheels until the belt is inside the car,<br />
when the cylinder or screw returns the belt<br />
to a position in line with the car. Two<br />
5"X3J/MM" angle irons, just above the platform<br />
wheels on each side, hold the loader<br />
in eqiulibrium in all positions.<br />
OTTUMWA BOX CAR LOADER<br />
Made by the Ottumwa Box Car Loader Co , Ottumwa, Iowa<br />
When the belt is in position to handle<br />
coal, the engines or motor are started up<br />
and coal is discharged upon the moving<br />
belt from a chute which passes through<br />
the other car door. The coal is carried<br />
to the end of the belt and is thrown towards<br />
the end of the car with somewhat<br />
of an upward thrust. After the extreme<br />
end of the car is loaded the speed of the<br />
machine is gradually reduced and the coal<br />
pile recedes towards the center of the car<br />
After one end has been loaded, the direction<br />
ol the machine is changed by reversing<br />
the engines or motor and the other end<br />
is loaded. The belt is then turned and the<br />
platform is backed sufficiently to remove<br />
the belt from the car, and a few wagons of<br />
coal are dumped directly from the chute<br />
into the center of the car if it is not already<br />
loaded sufficiently.<br />
It takes longer to describe how a car is<br />
loaded than it actually takes to load it.<br />
At the m.ine of the Lorain Coal & Dock<br />
Co., at Bridgeport, Ohio, which the writer
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