Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Discharging Cargo from Vessels.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Dec., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Discharging Cargo
from Vessels.
A communication from JOHN WILLIAM GLAHOLM, of Nanaimo, British Columbia,
in the Dominion of Canada, Wharfinger, and COLIN SALMOND, of San Francisco,
in the State of California, United States of America, Ship Captain.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 111 Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
This invention relates to apparatus for discharging cargo from vessels, its
object being to expedite and facilitate the discharge and to avoid the necessity
of handling the cargo in small quantities.
According to this invention two or more tunnels are arranged conveniently fone
and aft at the bottom of the ship and the bottoms of the holds are sloped so that
cargo will gravitate towards the tunnels and through doors in the same into trucks
or trolleys in the tunnels.
Conveniently the tunnels are arranged so as to divide and lie between the water
ballast tanks in the ship's bottom, that is to say, the tunnels are not placed on top
of the water ballast tanks, consequently if the tank tops are sloped the cargo will
slide down these slopes through openings in the upper part of the tunnels and
there would be no such waste of cargo space as would ensue if the tunnels and
sloping floors were built up above the ordinary water ballast tanks.
Cars, waggons or the like are provided to travel in the tunnels.
There may be vertical shafts descending into the tunnels from the deck so that
loaded and empty waggons may be raised from and lowered into the tunneis as
desired; or the ends of the tunnels may be inclined upward so as to open upon the
sbip's side in such a manner that cars may be run from the wharf through openings
in the skin plating directly into the tunnels. In certain cases, for instance, where
two tunnels are employed there may be a connection between the adjacent ends
of the pair of tunnels so that they constitute practically a continuous tunnel
running along one side of the ship, across the bottom and along the other side,
so that cars may run empty into the tunnel at one side and come out loaded by
the tunnel at the other side. Or in certain types of vessel the tunnel may com-
mence in the bow at a high level, descending to the bottom and rising again at
the stern, there being preferably doors at both bow and stern so that when the
vessel is moored at a suitable wharf there will be practically a continuous railway
right through her.
In vessels with engines amidships the cargo tunnels are so disposed as to pass
clear of the shaft tunnel and if desired may be arranged to pass through the engine
and boiler spaces or through the double bottom clear of the engines and boilers.
A further improvement according to this invention comprises the provision
in the cargo spaces of hoppers or shoots forming in part the floor of the holds

page_text: and provided with means capable of being operated from the deck by which they
may be canted towards the discharge openings in the tunnel.
The vertical shafts can be employed alone or in combination with the inclined
ends of the tunnels before referred to.. Preferably two shafts are placed in each
compartment so as to constitute up-cast and down-cast shafts for the free circula-
tion of air. The shafts may be put in the hatchways and supported by beams of
narrow width, so that they will not present any obstacle to loading through the
hatches or use of the holds for different sorts of cargoes.
In the construction of new vessels according to this invention the engines may
be placed right aft so that there will be no obstacle to any desired arrangement
of the cargo tunnels and shafts.
Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Discharging Cargo
. from Vessels.
0.)
A communication from JOHN WILLIAM GLAHOLM, of Nanaimo,-British Columbia,:
in the Dominion of Canada, Wharfinger, and COLIN SALMOND, of San Francisco,
in the State of California, United States of America, Ship Captain.
:
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 111 Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent," do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to apparatus for discharging cargo from vessels, its
object being to: expedite and. facilitate the discharge and to avoid..the necessity
ofchandling the cargo in small quantities...
The improvements forming, the subject-matter of the present invention are
applicable with particular advantage to vessels provided with tunnels in the
bottom in the manner indicated in the specification of prior Letters Patent No.
12691 of 1896, granted to me, and comprise. the provision in the cargo spaces of
hoppers. or shoots forming.in part the floor of the holds, and provided with means
capable of being operated from the deck by which they. may be canted towards dis-
charge openings in the roof of the tunnel in such a manner as to discharge the contents
of the hold through the discharge openings by the action of gravity there being
tracks in the tunnels to receive the material discharged, and to convey it to shafts
up which it is raised to the deck or on to a wharf.
In the accompanying drawing which represents in perspective a portion. of
a hull of a vessel in transverse section, A is the skin plating and B the deck.
In the hold are water ballast tanks C of the usual or other convenient construction,
and. on the inside of the ship's bottom are rails A' on which travel trolleys A3 in
tunnels D. The tops of the tunnels are.about on a level with the bottoms of the
holds and are provided with openings. D.controlled by sliding doors D2. In the
"wings" in the hold are hoppers E so shaped as to conform to the curve of the
skin plating, and to the floor of the holds; these hoppers are pivotted on trunnions E¹
supported in bearings on the tank tops; or are otherwise arranged so that they
may be turned. about an axis lying fore and aft in the ship in such a manner
that bulk or other goods resting on the bottoms E2 of the hoppers will gravitate,
when the hoppers are raised, to the openings D³ in the crowns of the tunnels.

page_text: Any desired means may be employed for raising and lowering the hoppers,
but preferably such raising and lowering devices should be so arranged as to be
suited for operation from the decks. In the example illustrated each hopper E
is connected by chains or wire ropes to pulleys G on a shaft G' arranged in
bearings within a weather-proof casing H along the deck close up to the bulwarks,
and adapted to be operated by one of the deck winches or otherwise, the chains or
wires F passing from the hoppers to the pulleys through pipes B¹.
A tilting floor of the kind described may be used in a ship's bunkers; further
it need not be used in combination with a tunnel, for it affords a convenient means
of getting the residue of a cargo into the middle of the hold where it can he
conveniently handled so as to completely clear the ship.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:-
1. In a ship a tilting floor or hopper substantially as and for the purpose des-
cribed
2. In a ship the combination with a tunnel such as D of a tilting floor or hopper
for the purpose
described.
3. In a ship the combination with a tilting floor or hopper for the purpose des-
cribed of means for tilting the same arranged to be operated from the deck.
4. a ship the combination with a tilting floor or hopper such as E of a shaft G
ana flexible connections F substantially as and for the purpose described.
5. In a ship the combination with a tilting floor or hopper of trolleys travelling
in tunnels such as D substantially as and for the purpose described.
6. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the improved cargo
discharging apparatus substantially as described and illustrated in the accompany-
ing drawings.
Dated this 23rd day of April 1897.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.