The Press., 1896-04-09
HOW ICE IS LOADED.
METHOD OF CONVEYING IT FROM
 HOUSE TO SHJPBoARD.


 HOUSE TO SEuP5oARD.
 Ingenious Elevators and Runs Employed
 by the Large Penobscot River Concerns.
 A Great Deal of Labor Accomplished by
 Few Hands,
 An interesting operation is the load ing of ice from the mammoth houses on the banks of the Penobscot into the large freight carriers that are almost constantly going up and down the river bearing heavy cargoes of frozen Penob- scot to faroff ports.
 From the top of the house the ice comes down in a most ingenious man. ner. An elevator is rigged outside the building, and on it the ice comes down by gravity. There is a counteracting force in big we ght that goes up when the load comes down, and vice versa. To the casual observer it looks as though the thing worked automatically. Two large blocks of ice are pushed out upon the elevator and they descend. As soon as they slide off, back goes the elevator for another load, and this thing is kept up hour after hour. Careful observation, however, shows strong wire that leads off some distance, and at the end of 1t sits a man, and the secret is out. True enough, the thing works itself, but 1t needs a guiding hand so that it won t work too fast. The movements of the elevator are controlled by a friction Hbn ion hnt tom and one cake slides off, the eleva- tor would take run up before the other came off were it not that the man on the end of the wire pulls lever aud the friction pulley acts at the top, and the elevator waits until the cargo is all eff. Then the man releases the pulley and back goes the carriage, the heavy weight at the other end carrying it rapidly to the top.
 From the elevator the ice slides into a run. In the center of that is an end less chain that it fitted with pronglike attachments at certain intervals, and as they come along they come up behind the cake of ice and carry it to it's des- | tination.
 A short distance up the run is plan or, simple contrivance that removes the snow ice and evtns the blocks so that they will pack nicely in the hold of the vessel. The cakes of ice pass serenely along, and when theE come to the planer pass easily under 1t, but at the same time they lose two or three | inches of their height, There is provi- sion in the contracts that provides for l. 4h0t V11V inch and half or whatever the amount is, of snow ice shall be left on the cake, and therefore the blaming.
 Just beyond the planer IS man who gives the cake quick pull that brings l it ahead of the prong for moment A second look shows why this is done. By this quick movement the cake of ice is brought upon pair of scales, and in | the seconds rest that it has before the prong on the chain gets along it is weighed and the figures placed upon the record that is being kept of the cargo. It is no small job to weigh the ice, for the cakes come along ill rapid success sion, and the weight has to be ascertain ed in the ordinary manner and the re- suit put down before the next cake gets along.
 | From the scale the journey to the ves- sel is uninterrupted. The run is arrang ed so that it extends over the vessel tC the hatchway, and the rise and fall o1 the tide are provided for by an arrange. ment that permits of the rising and fall ing of the run to correspond.
 Perhaps the most ingenious thing o1 the whole system is that by which the ice is put in the hold. At the end of the run and directly over the hatchway is g strong frame, and in that there works 2 platform that goes up and down some thing like an elevator at the house. Two blocks of ice are slid upon it directly from the run, and the man who controls it releases friction lever, and down il goes into the hold by it's own weight the speed being controlled by the mar with the friction lever. The platform iE suspended by four ropes that unwinG from cylinder as it descends, and al the same time another and larger rope shat appears from distance winds upo1 the cylinder.
 When the load is off the platform 1T the hold, the friction lever is agai1 loosened, and the rope that comes ovel the side of the vessel gets in it's work bJ turning the drum the other way anG quickly bringing the platform into it' place. Out on the wharf at the other end of the big rope is another large weight, that does the work of pulling back the platform.
 Away down in the hold the work ot slowing the ice was progressing rapidly The ice is simply packed together in al small space as possible, and nothing is put around it, as many doubtless sup pose At the matches, after the cargo ii all in, little hay is thrown, but witt the exception of that there is nothing put about the ice to keep it from melt ing. Under the improved order of pack ing only from 10 to 15 per cent of thu ice is melted, and at times not so mucl as hat.-Bangor Commercial