Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-11-18
Wonders of Mmimg Machinery and the Great Ore Docks

d. look I can see the statue inside the,
block Of marble. as the old sculptor Of
Greece is said to have done. In that.
mass I can see thousands of steel rails
over which viii be carried our food.
supplies on their way to our allies inss
Europe. can see shrapnel which will
hide in their trenches. / can see air.
plano engines which will scout for OUR,
soldiers. and perhaps drop bombs upon.
the enemy. I can see the mighty tanka
which will roll over the Huns, and evens,
the submarines, which will soon bes.
fighting the submarine fleets on the
other side Of the ocean. The story Of
. that pile Of ore is the story of the
which has to do with almost every act,
OF peace or war in some way or other.
It was at -Conneaut. Ohio. where I,
watched these Hulett unloaders at,
work, that I saw another example OF
the efficiency OF handling freight upon.s
the Great Lakes. A huge steamer was =
loading coal for Duluth. The steel cars.
which had come direct from the mines,
were showed UP an inclined track by am
iron hand moved by electricity. They
were then lifted to the height of a fiveS =
story house and dumped into funnel
which carried the coal into the hold"
Each car. with its load of coal, WAS SO
heavy that it would take a hundred
horses to haul 1t upon a country road
but these machines picked it up as
though 1T were a box of dominoes and
turned 1t into the wide hopper, froHI
which IT rolled down through a steel .
pipe about twice as large around as q
flour barrel. I stood on the deck and
watched the mighty river of coal pour
ing into the hold. 1t was a Niagara OF
the coaling of ships L have seen In"
other parts of the world. My mind went.
to Singapore. where Chinese coolies
carry bags and baskets of coal on their
backs up planked roadways. which are"
built from the docks to the steamers,e
and to Nagasaki. Japan, where hun,
dreds of half-nude Japanese girls
sprinkled with coal dust, load the ships
In baskets of a half bushei each. f.
could see them passing the baskets
from one to another up the ladders and
ss e. them spoonful by spoonful; as
work they did in hours is here done in
seconds. and that at the exertion of no
more human muscle than that Of press-~-
ing lever or pushing button.
-. -
Here at Duluth 1 have watched them
unloading the coal thus taken on at
the ports of Lake Erie. Some of the
ore vessels bring back a cargo of coal.
and one. the Col. James NJ Schoon-'
maker. has brought 14.47e tons in ONE
trip. The coal is carried about as
far as from New York to Chicago and''
the freight rate is less than SO cents.
a ton. Not long ago 1t was only S0v.
cents ton.3 Then the war demands.
raised 1t to AZ cents. I do not know
what it is now. But think of carrying.
ton of coal a distance of 500 miles-.
Tor 42 cents. At Washington / pay Is,
a distance of 100 feet from the streets
into my cellar. and that is merely for.
the unloading.
Here the unloading is done by gi-
gantfc machines, made altogether or
iron and steel The machines ara :.
connected with travelling bridges,
which run across the coal docks for a
length of 500 feet or more. Connected
with them are enormous buckle. Of,
steel made in the shape of a clam
smell They are not unlike those Of
the Huiett unloaders except that their
Jaws are wider and their cubic con-ss
tents much greater. They are operated
In about the same, way. The jaws go,,,
down dow. into 18th the hold and swallow twelve,
up with them and travel over the.
IS The operator directs. 'D All nj this Hi il
done with less effort on the part Of
the man than that exerted by you when.
you put shovelful of coal into your
furnace before going to bed. A cargo
on i tS;s tons 81 coal has been unloaded
The coal: docks of Duluth cover
acres: and the piles of coal upon thenlss
each contains thousands of tons. The
port takes over twelve million tons Of
Goa! every year. and sometimes the.
DOCKS are so full that the steamers :,
are oeiayed Tor lack of space in which
TO unload. The coal is both anthracite.
ana bituminous. It supplies the iron
mines. and II is shipped from here over
the railroads to all parts Of the great
northwest. The amount taken IN the =
!akes often exceeds twenty-five orn
thirty million tonsHa year. the greater
part Of which comes to the ports of~s
Lake Superior. ~
Duluth Is the chief port on the lalee.,t
II Is the head of lake navigation sn6k
the INDUSTRIAL center Of this mining rev
gion. 1t fs rapidly growing and 1t promo
ises to steadily increase In the future
One of the possible sources of growtlf,s
steel making from the lower ports to
this point. and especially 30 far a. the>.s
demands of the northwest are con-
cerned. AS It IN now the steel used
here is made q thousand miles away@
from the mines and the market. Thee
furnaces are nearer the coal rog1oE8p
and the iron II taken to the coal.