The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-10-27
DIFFERENCE IN LOADING.
Ore Handing Conditions Have In.
proved Marvelously IN Decade!

Ore Handbag Conditions Have In
proved MarveIousiy IN Decade
There is vast difference in the
loading capacities of today and ia
few years ago at ore docks along
the Great Lakes and what today is
an ordinary record of loading
would have sounded like fairy
tale only decade or two ago.
"In the year 1872 the railway sys-
TEN for the Lake Superior iron
trade was completed az was then
announced by the building of the
Chicago & North western to Escan
aba, and the consolidation of the
Marquette & Ontonagon, and their
extension "a far as L'Anse, thus es
tablishing railway communication
from Chicago to the head Of kewee-
nav bay on Lake Superior, says
ed road had an ore shipping pier at
Marquette, and in that year built a
second one at L'Anse. The former
was the beginning Of the system
that has since become the terminus
of the Duluth, South Shore 4 Allan
tic railway, and the latter was long
ago abandoned, and only a short
time ago leased as merchandise
shipping dock to the village of
LAnse. 1t was partially, but not
wholly destroyed by fire many
years ago.
Thirty years ago the LAnse
dock was the most modern pier in
existence. 1t was SIG feet long,
thirty.six feet wide, and built on
fortty.three bents of piling thirty
six feet high. Each pocket held
about seventy-five tons of ore, the
total capacity of the dock 5000 tons,
and the base Of the pockets only 20
feet above the water AS the ore
slides by gravity from the pocket
to the ships hold, the tlinge-hoid,
to which the chute is attached, must
be so high above the vessels side
that ore will readily slide down the
chute. So low We're the docks OF
ships thirty years ago that height
Of twenty feet was ample to give
sufficient incline to the chute. The
new dock uf the South Shore will
have the hinge.hold forty feet
above the water level.
In the older days referred to
operations were at such a rate OF
speed that it is recorded that 5000
tons were shipped from the l-Anse
dock in single day, and that one
vessel of 476 tons, marvellous to re-
late, was loaded in seventy-five
minutes. At that time the average
capacity of ships was about go
tons. ranging from LOO to 100.
ain 1901 the ship Augustine B.
Woiviu, then the largest ship on the
lakes, loaded l0,245 gross tons of ore
in 80 minutes at the Allouez ore
docks, and waA al the dock total
period of lS) minutes. Nine thou
SduSI lOnT vi A4llS 1't1A "CIS PSlS III
in 81 minutes. The same year the
ship ]. H. Peavy loaded 6,'85 gross
tons in 81 minutes, and the proceed
ing season the J. II. Hoyt loaded
$3.50 tons in N:5 minutes.
"The modern ore shipping pier is
not the least complex and interest
ing factor in the transportation sit
nation. Its foundation is frequent
ly 40 feet below water level, and
consists of a series Of piiing that
cannot have much cross bruCing
until the surface of the water is
reached. About the water there is
/: height Of ~ to 10 feet more, and
away on top of this is the enormous
moving load of trains apd loconlo-
tives, for an average Of which 1900
600 lbs. il low estimate. Air
brakes on the cars stop them in a
yard or two, and there is a pressure
of up to 2,5DyUN footpounds to be
taken up every time train stops,
or hundreds of times daily by the
longitudinal bracing of the pier.
Added to this is the fact that the
center of permanent load may be
10 to 95 feet above foundations.
Docks require an enormous amount
of timber, probably from 100000 to
100000 feet for an average pier,
nowadays, and problems met by the
construction engineer are serious.
The demand, is on one hand, for
more bracing, and on the other fo1
less severe switching and lighter
locomotives at docks'-Herald.
Brings IN First Threshing Rig.
Gust Lee returned to the city this