600

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

September 29, 1916.

25 ft. From the hopper the coal is delivered through
an adjustable telescopic chute, which provides for a
variation in position of loading from 2 ft. to 55 ft. above
water level. The control of the delivery from the bins
is effected by gate valves connected with the bottom of
the bin and with the chute, these gates being operated
by winches on the deck of the pier. There is a minimum
depth of water of 30 ft. at either side of this pier, and
loading can be effected into vessels on both sides at the
same time, and at a total rate of 1,500 tons per hour.

Lamberts Point.

Lamberts Point, as mentioned, serves for coal ship-
ment vid the Norfolk and Western Railway, and
although there are three coaling piers, the latest one
constructed is the one now mostly used, the shipments
averaging about 25,000 to 30,000 tons per day. The
railway storage sidings will accommodate about 3,500

2

>2 U.

Coal Loading Equipment at Charleston.

Charleston.

Further south is the port of Charleston (Carolina),
which is being developed to provide for coal shipping.
The port is entered by a bay, and is 7| miles from the
Atlantic, there being a channel 700 ft. in width, with a
high-water depth of 33 ft., and an average range of tide
of 5 ft. A new equipment just recently provided there
by the Southern Railway Company is of somewhat novel
design, and different from the arrangements in evidence
at Hampton Roads. This equipment comprises a
movable wagon dumper capable of travelling on an
elevated steel trestle track over a distance of about
300ft., parallel with and in front of the dumper track;
but at the quay level, 17 ft. below, is another track
for a movable loader, which travels over a similar dis-
tance. This loader supports a hopper with a capacity
of 100 tons, which is capable of being tilted, and this



Railway and also the Clinchfield Coal Company have
arrangements for coal shipping there. The coal shipped
at Charleston is mined at the Virginia, Kentucky, and
Tenessee fields, which mostly produce a rather harder
coal than that of Western Virginia, with a higher vola-
tile content, averaging about 35 per cent. The qualities
obtainable from the seams vary, however, somewhat
considerably, ranging in heating value from about 13,500
to 14,500 British thermal units, and having an ash con-
tent of from about 11 to 6 per cent. They are, gener-
ally, less friable coals than those from Western
Virginia, and are in demand for railway use.

Another port to be mentioned, situated a little further
south of Charleston, is Savannah, which is the principal
port on the Atlantic coast between Hampton Roads and
the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and has a consider-
able shipping commerce. For bunker coal supplies,
therefore, it is of some importance, and to improve the
facilities for quick despatch, mechanical equipment in
the form of conveyor elevators has recently been pro-
vided at one of the wharves.

Gulf Ports.

Attention may now be briefly directed to some of the
ports of the United States situated in the Gulf of
Mexico. The Alabama fields serve the ports of Pensa-
cola, Mobile, and New Orleans; and supplies from
Illinois, Indiana, and the western portion of Pennsyl-
vania are also consigned to New Orleans.

The Alabama coal field is the nearest to these ports,
but the production is mostly in demand for inland use
for industrial, metallurgical and railway purposes.
Alabama coal varies to some extent in character, but
the average analysis is about 35 per cent, volatile, 58
per cent, fixed carbon, and 7 per cent, ash, with a
heating value of about 14,000 British thermal units. It
is a hard coal, and is largely used for coking. The
Illinois and Indiana coal fields are a greater distance
from New Orleans, but from the southern portion the
coal is waterborne in barges dowm the Mississippi River.
The seams of these fields produce steam and gas coals
high in volatile constituents. The supplies from the
western Pennsylvania field are a still further distance
from New Orleans, but they, too, can be waterborne in
barges vid. the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The
general character of this coal is hard, with a rather high
ash content, the different seams producing fairly good
quality steam and gas classes. The Gulf ports are more
particularly concerned with bunker coal supplies,
although it is anticipated that cargo exports are likely
to be increased.

Mobile.

The port of Mobile, which is largely interested with
cotton shipments, is reached from the Gulf of Mexico
by a bay, and is about five miles down the river, the
channel being .some 33 miles in length, with a minimum
depth of 27 ft. The average railway distance to the coal
fields at the north of Alabama is about 225 miles, but

wagons, whilst the delivery sidings provide for some
450 wagons. The equipment arrangements are some-
what similar to those at Newport News, the shipping
of the coal being effected by two wagon dumpers, each
of which will handle about 35 wagons per hour, and
will deal with wagons having a capacity of up to 90 tons.
The wagon dumpers serve transfer oars which hold
about 110 tons, thus sufficing for one high capacity or
two average size wagon loads; these cars a.re electrically
operated, and travel to one or other of two hoists, which
lift them .to the deck of the pier, where they are dis-
charged through their hopper doors into the pier trestle
bins. This pier is provided with 64 bins, each having a
capacity of 110 tons, or one transfer car load. Shipment
of the coal is effected from the bins to a square-section
hopper, adjustable vertically, to which is connected a
telescopic chute, and this provides for delivery at from
5 ft. to 45 ft. above water level. The delivery of coal is
controlled from the deck of the pier by two gate valves
as in the case of the other equipments referred to, these
valves being operated by hand winches and counter-
weighted to reduce'the power required for their opera-
tion. This pier is 1,200 ft. in length and 90 ft. in
height, and has 32 chutes on each side, 30 ft. apart,
which will serve six vessels at one time. The equip-
ment of this pier is capable of dealing with 3,500 to
5,000 tons of coal per hour, according to the capacity of
the wagons discharged, and during the year 1914 over
5| million tons of coal were shipped.

It will be observed that the equipments at all of the
three Hampton Roads coal ports are somewhat similar
in the main features, the arrangement comprising, in
all cases, a ground level dumper, electrically-operated
transfer or pier cars, and, in two instances, elevators to
raise the transfer cars to the height of the trestle deck.
Now, in comparing that arrangement with the usual
high level trestle system of loading to be seen at north
east coast ports of this country, it will be noticed that
in the latter case the railway wagons are hauled to, the
staith tips and transfer cars are not used, the elevation
being obtained by a gradual incline, and facilitated by
embankment approaches. A particular feature of
loading from trestles is the arrangement of the chutes
and their 'control, to minimise breakage, to start, stop
and adjust the flow of coal. Although Newport News
serves more particularly for shipments of New River
coal, and the Norfolk ports of Lamberts Point and
Sewalls Point for Pocahontas coal, it may be remarked
that an interchange of railway traffic can be effected
by car floats between the former and latter ports. Coast-
wise coal shipments from Hampton Roads to Boston and
Providence are effected regularly by a large fleet which
make about 35 to 40 voyages per annum. This fleet
comprises steamers, schooners, and barges, and has a
total carrying capacity of over half a million tons. Also
there is a large coast traffic to New York with bunker
supplies,

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Mechanical Bunkering Barge at Mobile.

serves a steel flight or scraper conveyor carried by an
adjustable curved boom or jib truss, with a telescopic
and adjustable chute suspended from its outer or dis-
charge end. The illustration will assist in explaining
the method of operation of this equipment. The loaded
wagons from the railway sidings are pushed on an
elevated trestle track to the dumper, the wagons being
there discharged into the loading hopper, and the coal
delivered to the chute by the conveyors. The dumper
and loader are independently operated, and the chute is
controlled from a cabin immediately above it, the flow
of coal being adjusted by a gate valve and a curved
rotating trimmer. About 30 to 40 wagon loads, or about
1,500 to 2,000 tons, can be dealt with per hour by this
plant, and it is intended to provide similar equipment
at the port of Charleston, as the demand justifies. In
addition to the coal shipping facilities of the Southern
Railway Company, the Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio



an endeavour is being made to develop a waterborne
traffic, over a distance of about 50 miles, to obtain
supplies from a more southerly portion of this coal
field. The coal handling facilities at Mobile include
a trestle pier connected with the railway tracks
of the Mobile and Ohio Railway. This pier is
provided with a bucket conveyor equipment,
which serves loading chutes. The loaded railway
wagons are pushed by locomotive, from the sidings, up
an incline on to the pier, and are there dumped into a
bin, from which the coal is elevated by the conveyor
and discharged down the chutes. A discharging plant
for delivering into storage bins is also available at one
of the coal companies ’ wharves which is connected with
•the Louisville and Nashville railway tracks. This wharf
has a river frontage 900ft. in length, and bunker
supplies can be given alongside at the rate of about 80
to 100 tons per hour; and either rail- or water-borne