Improvements in or connected with Apparatus for Transferring Coal and similar Bulk Cargo from Barges, Colliers or other Vessels to Ships or Wharves.

摘要

252. White, T. Jan. 4. Loading and unloading; conveyers; elevators. -Twin pontoons of the type described in Specification No. 413, A.D. 1904, connected by a rigid superstructure, are employed for transferring coal or similar bulk cargo from barges placed between the pontoons to a wharf or ship. The cargo is raised by means of two chain-and-gravity bucketelevators each employed in unloading one barge, and provided with a weighted compensating loop to allow for relative vertical movement of the pontoons and barge, another loop of the elevator working in a shoe or pocket temporarily anchored in the hold of the barge and fed by a conveyer in the latter ; the cargo is finally discharged from bunker-loading shoots on the top of the superstructure, either direct or by means of conveyers. The apparatus may be arranged for use without the secondary balancing-pontoon. Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the pontoons and superstructure ; Fig. 3 an end elevation of the same ; and Fig. 6 shows details of the pocket in which a loop of the elevator works. Only a half of the apparatus is shown in Fig. 1, the remainder being similar, so that two barges can be unloaded at once. A platform is supported by pillars on the pontoons A, B, and carries the shoot a and the elevator c. The elevator is driven by the wheels b1, and guided by, and carried on the lead wheels b, b2 ... b5. The axle of the wheels b6 slides in vertical guides, allowing a loop to be formed in the elevator chain for adjusting the tension. The chain is kept tight by a weight W and rope W1 hauled by a winding-engine on the main pontoon A. A pocket or shoe i, Fig. 6, is anchored in the hold of the barge by a fastening i'. The elevator chain and buckets pass around a wheel in the pocket, rollers c5 on the chain moving in guides in the pocket. The buckets are fed by a conveyer G in the barge through the shoot i3 in the pocket. The rollers k on the buckets engage the sides of the pocket at i5 and tip the buckets into a position suitable for receiving the cargo. Small material that escapes the buckets can fall out of the pocket through the small hole i6. The buckets discharge their contents into the shoot a, by rollers engaging a tripping plate, and causing the buckets to tip up. In a modified arrangement, the cargo is loaded into a ship by conveyers, some of which are loaded directly by the elevator and discharge into the hatches of the vessel.