Popular Science Monthly
��661
��Machine Shovels Faster Than Forty Men
ON the Great Lakes, where bulk cargoes of coal and ore make up the majority of loads carried by the giant freighters, one of the greatest factors of loss is that occasioned by the difficulty in gathering together the last rem- nants of coal or ore which remain in the out- of-the-way nooks and corners of the hold and which the unloading ma- chine cannot reach. When the piles of ore or coal have been dimin- ished so far that the bottom of the hold is in sight, the customary practice is to send gangs of men with shovels to shift the piles into the convenient reach of the
����A sturdy "shover" which pushes coal or any other loose material
into big piles under the hatches. The steam shovels can then
hoist full buckets
power-shovel, or "bucket" as it is called. To do away with this waste of time, a Cleveland concern has brought out a machine which takes the place of the shoveling gang. The machine does the
��The scraper-shovel quickly sweeps out the corners un- reached by the lift- ing-bucket
work of about forty capable sho\elers. On one occasion, the automatic shoveler moved one hundred tons of ore into the path of the bucket, approximately in two hours less time than the hand gang formerly required. The machine con- sists of a high-pow- ered gasoline engine operating a lift- showl at the front of the machine. When the shovel is raised as far as it will go, it is turned over in a dumping position and the load discharged. The w!u>els are fitted with rubber tires.
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