The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-09-13
10 UNLOAD SHIPS.
EXTENSIVE COALIEG STA
TON ERECTED BY THE
o. X q l.. Co.
A Description Of How the liant Is
operated-E1ght Hundred Tons
of Coat Discharged Ia
Twenty Hours.
EXTENSIVE COALIEG STA

The Oahu Railroad and Land !
Company, with its characteristic
enterprise and foresight, have cree !
ted upon its terminal division and |
water front very extensive coaling
station Of the latest and most inn
proved description, calculated to IA
cilitate the discharge Of vessels and
to coal steamers or vessels coming
to its docks, with great rapidity.
Since the return Of Mr.. Dilling-
ham changes have been made and
are in process by which two coal
ships may be locked at the rail
road wharf at the same time, in
place Of one, as first contemplated,
thus enabling every possible adj
vantage to be taken of the facilities
provided.
The discharging apparatus, stu
ated upon the company's wharf,
consists of movable tower placed
upon an elevated trestle some
thirty-six feet high; above this
rises the tower, to an additional
height of sixty-eight feet, or total
of one hundred and ten feet above
the water. This tower contains
two hosting engines made by w.
O. Crook q Bros. Co of New York,
one of which is OF special design,
construction and great power; 1T
Is used to operate, by means OF
crucible steel hosting ropes, a
steam shovel of peculiar construc-
ton, adapted to work through
matches of coal-carrying vessels;
the smaller engine is used to oper-
ate a trolley device running ON a
horizontal boom extended over the
vessel, said trolley regulates the
position of the steam shovel, alter
nately placing it in position in the
hatch of the vessel and then in
board over the coal hopper, some
fifty feet above the wharf level,
into which hopper the coal is
dumped.
The method of operation is to
run the trolley cupboard to position
over hatch of vessel, at same time
rapidly lowering the steam shovel,
which is opened as it approaches
the coal, and upon which the
shovel is dropped from height of
foot or two. The engineer in
etantly begins to close the shovel,
which, as it closes, grasps over
twenty-five hundred pounds of
coal if it be anthracite and in pro-
portion if the softer varieties. The
steam shovel is then rapidly hoist
ed, at the same time being brought
in-board where the coal is DIS
charged from the shovel into a
hopper. The two engineers re-
quired are so placed they can look
directly down into the vessels
hold, and thus facilitate their work
by enabling them to handle their
levers instantly, as the facility with
which the vessel may be discharg-
ed requires quick action. These
engineers require the assistance OF
a guyman, whose business is to
keep the wire ropes from becoming
twisted about each other. Three
operators only are thus required.
Experienced engineers operating
similar apparatus in discharging
the latest and most improved coal
carriers, find no difficulty in main
tanning two complete round trips
of the steam shovel per minute,
the greatest facility yet attained
being three complete round trips
in fifty-four seconds on a hoist
of fifty-five feet. From such
coal carriers as the whalebacks,
steam barges, and many deep sea
vessels on the Atlantic coast this
apparatus is easily discharging on
an average five to six hundred tons
per day, and spurts of speed are
made when one hundred and
thirty eight tons per hour have
been discharged. Eight hundred
tons in twenty hours is record
made here already.
The coal having been discharged
to hopper, it is thence run into
cable cars and carried away to the
storage grounds where it is dump
ed in pile, which can be made
twenty-eight feet high, eighty by
one hundred broad and nearly five
hundred long.
There is upon the wharf a work
ing platform at height of twenty
six feet, provided with scales, etc,
and leading from it all connecting
trestles running to storage trestles,
these support an outward and in
ward track with loop at either end.
Upon these tracks are run cable
cars of about two tons capacity,
and calculated to make a round
trip in eight to twelve minutes as
desired.
The storage trestle is very heav-
ily timbered, is twenty-nine feet
high, and upon it is a track OF
seventeen feet gauge upon which
a screw fitted practically with sim
liar machinery to that OF the dis