Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-09-24
Monster Vehicle Capable of Car
rying Eighty Tons-Sixty Horses
Sometimes Draw IL.

capacity of which exceeds $50, 900
pounds. The owners of these giant
trucks, who are Philadelphians, con-
troll the heavy hauling business of the
entire American continent. Whenever
a heavy boiler, sugar roll, submarine
or street cable is TO be moved in any
part of the United States one or more
OF their iron and steel trucks are
shipped to that point.
Although when the giant truck was
built it was designed to carry but
eighty tons, it is believed that more
| than twice that weight might with
perfect safety be loaded on it, BY ex-
tending the pole and placing the other
trucks III line it has been estimated
that the longest monolith ever quar-
ried, the one broken from its bed at
the Houghten quarry, Ashland, Wis,
November 18th, 1892, and which is
forty-six feet longer than Cleopatra s
Needle, erected by Vanderbilt in Cen
tral Park, New York, could be easily
and safely transported any distance on
good roads. Thus the question of
hauling huge weights is no longer
problematical.
Some description of this lurg~-t of
all trucks cannot but be of Interest to
those who have been accustomed to
seeing only wooden wheeled wagons
and timber carts. The wheels are
three feet nine inches in diameter,
made CT iron and have a steel tire two
inches thick and twelve inches wide.
They revolve on steel axles six inches
in diameter and stand nine feet two
inches apart from track to track.
From the top of the truck to the
ground the distance is but four feet
The fifth wheel, or turning arrange
ment, placed on the front or forward
axle, is complete double circle six
feet in diameter and revolves on small
spherical steel balls in such manner
that no matter how short turn is
made the load can have no chance TO
tip or cant to one side.
The first hauling ever done by this
wagon was soon after the outbreak of
the Civil War, when forty eight ton
boiler for the double-turreted monitor
Dictator was to be hauled from Fifth
and Washington avenue, where it was
made, to the monitor, lying at the foot
of Federal street. The boiler was
loaded on the giant truck and pulled
by sixty horses in the presence of 1000
persons, started safely on its journey,
and would have reached its destination
without mishap had the pavement been
equal to the strain imposed upon it,
When on Federal street, between
Third and Fourth streets, bit of in
ferior pavement gave away under the
enormous weight, and the massive iron
wheels settled to the hub, pushing the
cobbles away as easily as though they
had been laid in mud.
The horses were found to be made
quate to pull the wagon over such a
pavement, and the journey was con-
tinued by placing ships anchors in the
street. The anchors, after being
buried, were connected with the wagon
with blocks and ropes, to which the
horses were attached, and the wagon
was made to slowly plow its way through
a crushed pavement to the wharf. The
performance demonstrated the fact
that no amount of twisting, wrenching
or rough usage could damage the truck.
The street alone suffered.
A large truck with immense wooden
wheels made of the best seasoned wood
adapted to the purpose was made in
Chicago five years ago, aud was crushed
to pieces the first time it was loaded,
since which no further experiments
with wooden wheels have been tried.
The horses which pull this iron truck
have been trained to the work and
seem to thoroughly understand what
is required of them. They are never
strained by overlooking, the rule be-
ing that one horse for each ton is re-
quired. They are hooked up tandem
fashion in strings, and when last week
the cable for the east side of Market
street, $4,000 feet long and weighing
forty tons, wound on agigantic spool,
was hauled from Broad street and
Washington avenue to the power house
Mt Twentieth and Market streets forty
horses in four strings of ten each were
used.
The guiding of forty horses through
the crowded streets of big city looks
like difficult task, but it is not. The
whole operation is conducted almost
entirely by the voice of one man,
although there are ten in attendance.
The lead horses at the forward end ol
cdch string, together with the two
shaft horses, have been carefully
trained as leaders. 1t is to them the
word of command is given and they
are the first to respond to this com
mand, the others merely following the
direction taken by the leaders. The
two otherstrings of horses are fastened
to the iron rounds of the truck, while
for extra heavy weights the washers
on the front axles are provided with
eyelets, to which enormous chains
holding other strings of horses can be
attached. The horses are hooked up
in bunches, instead of being placed in
one or two strings because the turn.