Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-20
TRIED COALING AT SEA
EXPERIMENT WORKED NOT AS
WELL AS EXPECTED.
Agent for New Device Says Machine
is Dangerous-Test
on Iowa.

HAMPTON ROADS, Va, December 90
After a wait at anchor in Lynn Haven bay
of twenty-four hours for suitable weather,
a preliminary trial of the British marine
trolley system for coaling ships at sea, Off
cially known as the Mackrow Cameron Eek
press transporter was made yesterday at a
point about five miles northeast of Cape
Henry. There was fresh breeze from the
northeast and a moderate sea.
The apparatus, which was aboard the
collier Abarenda, was in actual operation
for about fifteen minutes, and in that time
1t delivered about seven tons of coal in 200
pound bags the forecastle deck of the
United States ship Iowa. Several bags
were lost overheard in transit by the pitch
ing of the ship and the sudden tautening
of the conveyor line Many delays were
cause by the arrangement of the machin-
cry and the breaking of ''shunt bar. 1t
was evident, however, that in smooth water
the delivery would be more satisfactory.
Whether the device Will deliver sixty tons
an hour, as required for a period of eight
hours. and with the collier rolling not less
than Il degrees, remains to be seen.
The Abarenda and the Iowa left Lynn
Haven bay soon after daylight, and at $3.50
O'Clock, Capt. SCrivener brought the collier
alongside the battleship long enough to
transfer Commander W S. Nelson and Ma
val Constructor Franz Zahm OF the navy
trial board to the collier. with eighty en-
listed men and marines in charge of Lieut..
C. 7. Hutchinson and Midshipmen Fl. Jones
and j. NJ. Schellng. The men were to fill
coal bags and iced them to the apparatus.
Eight Bags at Once.
At 1915 am. two 1O-inch hawsers having
been run to the Iowa, the Abarenda began
towing her at a distance of $50 feet and at
a speed of about three knots. Just an hour
later the first bag of coal came across the
water on the conveyor line and was deliv-
cred on the Iowa's deck. Forty eight more
bags followed in about ten minutes There
were at times eight bags on the line at
once. After dinner a further trial was
made, the whole being under the supervis-
ion of Capt Adolph Mark, United States
navy, senior member Of the trial board,
who remained on the Iowa with that ships
commander, Capt. Henry Crea, and the
other members of the board named. Lieut..
Commander C. S. Williams and Boatswain
T. w. Healey directed the work on the
Iowa.
Description Of Machine.
Briefly described, the British coaling de-
vice consists of hollow steel revolving
tower feet 10 inches in diameter and 81
feet 10 inches high. Its height is pivoted
in a stop straddling the shaft tunnel. One
man, standing in hood-shaped steel house
at the top of the tower, operates a COM
pound steam engine. This regulates the
speed of an endless wire rope, which con-
veys the coal in bags between the ships and
also the revolving machinery of the tower.
In the blight of the conveyor rope an eight
ton counterweight travels up and down in
side the tower, keeping the rope taut be-
tween the ships while the bags are in tran
sit. The other end, or blight, of the con-
veyor rope passes around wheel revolving
on a vertical fiat plate, which is hinged to
the upright post of a five-ton tripod, bolted
to the warship's deck close to the bow.
BY means of a combination hook and
roller attached to them the loaded coal bags
are hooked to an overhead trolley rail on
the GOLFERS deck that leads from the fore
matches straight aft to series of slots
cut in the upper edge of revolving steel
collar encircling the tower. The hosting
gear consists of an endless vertical chain
of trolley hooks, which pick the bags off
the collar, rack, and ''shunt' them when
at the top of the tower to the conveyor
rope. They are again shunted to a short
trolley rail when they reach the warship,
from which the tackles drag them to the
bunker holes. The empties are sent back
to the collier on the upper part of the con-
veyor wire.
The members of the trial board are I'M
able to discuss for publication the result Of
the trial, but late last night ". P. Clason,
agent for the Thames Iron Works, who
built the transporter, said there would be
no more trials, as the machine did not come
up to their expectations. 1t was, in fact,
considered too dangerous to use in head