Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1917-08-22
WAR SPEEDS up
COALING Ships
No Port in World as We'll Equip
ped as New York to Han
die Work.
Saving IN time is Shown
High Speed Coal bumpers and Light
ers Simplify Work-1o,ooo Tons
Can Be Loaded in Six
teen Hours.

New York.-War has speeded up
coaling of ships in the port of New
York until no other port in the world
at the present time is as we'll equip
ped to handle this important task.
So fast has become the coaling Of
big vessels that enormous liners like
the Imperator can have their bunkers
lied to their capacity of 10000 tons
in 16 hours.
The reason for the increased speed
is largely high-speed coal bumpers
and fuel lighters. Each one of the
latter is able to give ship 1000 tons
of coal in eight hours, an achieve
,ment due mainly to special coal ele-
waiting machinery.
But ships requiring 1000 tons or
less are in the big majority, whether
transatlantic or coastwise trade Is
considered. And it is not essential
that for such ships there should be a
loading device separate from the coal
,barges to enable continuous stream
of barges to ply to and from coal
dumping stations.
In Single Day.
For the average vessel total Of
800 tons is usually sufficient, and this
means that a ship of this sort may
discharge a cargo and take on a new
one all in the course Of single day.
With the adoption Of the modern
lighter it is an easy matter to load
coal while the cargo is being unload
ed and O new one taken on. One mod
ern high-speed lighter can coal three
such ships in an eight-hour day.
This development Of modern light
ers is equalled by better facilities for
transferring coal from cars to barges.
Huge steel dumping machines now
take up a 5O-ton car bodily, elevate 1t
and empty it's contents into the barge
by tilting the entire car on the side-a
great improvement over the process
of unlocking q trapdoor in the bottom
of the car and letting the coal slide
through. These machines have a
capacity of 5000 tons each day.
Saving of time to the shipowner
here Is shown by comparison with
Cardiff, the English port where the
largest tonnage Of English coal is
loaded for export. In loading a YES
sci, for example, the English shipper
uses q railroad car of ten or twelve
tons, while the American uses one Of
fifty to ninety tons capacity, so that
the Cardiff docks must discharge from
five to ten carloads to every one dis
charged in New York in order to main
tain the same speed.
Carried by Steel Golfers.
Steel GOLFERS ply between Boston
and Hampton Roads, distance of 6OO
miles. Each one of these ships is capa-
BILE of making round trip every week
and transporting 100000 tons Of coal
year. a vessel of the same tonnage,
however, carrying a cargo Of coal from
Cardiff to q port 600 miles away
would take week at Cardiff to load
its cargo and another week at its des-
tination to discharge it. Thus New
York laden ships can make three trips
. to one for Cardiff laden vessel.
! Such things as these are what places
New York as the greatest port in the
world and makes American coal op-
orators feel that there is a great op-
portunity for exporting American coal.
Five different companies within re-
cent months have established fleets OF
specially designed carriers on the
theory that with our tremendous coal
supply and superior port facilities 1t
will only be a question of time before
America is shipping her coal to all
parts Of the globe.