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

page_text: Date of Application, 9th June, 1896
Complete Specification Left, 19th Feb., 1897-Accepted, 15th May, 1897
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
shovelling or otherwise handling the cargo in small quantities. According to this
invention tunnels or other passages are provided in the lower parts of the cargo
spaces of the vessel, and cars, waggons or the like are provided to travel in
these tunnels; in the walls of the tunnels are doors or valves adjustable
mechanically or otherwise, and preferably shoots, by which latter when the
doors or valves are opened, the contents of the cargo spaces are delivered into
the cars or waggons. The cargo spaces are preferably so shaped that their
contents will tend to gravitate to the delivery openings.
Suitable vertical shafts and hoists, or inclined passages wire rope-ways or the
like are provided to enable the loaded cars or waggons to be rapidly run out of
the ship and brought back to the loading spouts with equal facility.
Dated this 9th day of June 1896.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE 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 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

page_text: of shovelling or otherwise handling the cargo in small quantities. According
to this invention tunnels or other passages are provided in the lower part of
the cargo spaces of the vessel, and cars, waggons or the like are provided to
travel in these tunnels; in the walls of the tunnels are.doors or valves adjustable
mechanically or otherwise, and if desired shoots, by which latter when the doors
or valves are opened, the contents of the cargo spaces are delivered into the cars
or waggons. The cargo spaces are preferably so shaped that their contents will
tend to gravitate to the delivery openings.
Suitable vertical shafts and hoists, or inclined passages, wire rope-ways or the
like are provided to enable the loaded cars or waggons to be rapidly run out of the
ship and brought back to the loading'spouts with equal facility.
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section in a plane at one side of the midship line,
showing a steamer with engines amidships provided with tunnels and apparatus for
discharging cargo according to this invention;
Figure 2 is a plan of the same vessel;
Figures 3 and 4 are transverse sections on the lines 3-3 and 4-4 of Figure 1.
Figure 5 is a perspective view of a portion of one of the tunnels;
Figure 6 is a sectional elevation,
Figure 7 a sectional plan, and
Figure 8 a longitudinal central section, showing three alternative constructions
of vessel according to this invention, hereinafter particularly described.
Like letters indicate like parts throughout the drawings.
With reference first to Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4, A is the hull of a steamer;
B and C are tunnels running fore and aft for nearly the whole length of the ship.
D are water-ballast tanks which the tunnels divide, the tank tops D' being
sloped towards the crowns of the tunnels as shown in the cross section Figure 3,
in order that the cargo in the holds A' A may readily gravitate down to doors D
in the tunnels and through the latter into trolleys E as shown. The doors may
if desired be provided with, suitable shoots or spouts. B and C are vertical
tubular shafts rising from the tunnels B and C respectively to the level of the
main deck, or to any other desired height. It will be observed that the foremost
and aftermost shafts both rise through cabins or living spaces in the vessel on
to the forecastle deck and poop deck respectively, and that some of them pass
through the hatchways and others through the decks clear of the batchways.
Where vertical shafts are employed there should preferably be at least two in
any, one compartment of the ship so that they constitute up cast and down-cast
shafts for ventilation. If a shaft is placed in a hatchway and requires support at
the level of the deck, the supports should preferably take the form of beams widely
spaced so as not to interfere with the use of the hatch for cargo.
It will be seen that the tunnels thus arranged in pairs do not interfere with the
arrangement in the usual manner of engines and boiler, or with the screw-shaft
tunnel; this is one of the principal reasons for adopting pairs of tunnels. If
desired the tunnels may be stopped short at the stoke-hold and engine-room
bulkheads so as not to extend through the engine and boiler spaces.
Where there are two vertical shafts to each hold, as in the example illustrated,
s convenient mode of working is to lower empty trolleys down one vertical shaft
and raise them loaded by another shaft, the shafts being preferably worked in
pairs.
In certain types of vessel the tunnels may be inclined upwards at one end so as
to open upon the ship's side say at the bows as in the case of the vessel illustrated
in Fig. 6 wherein tunnels such as B & C run fore and aft in the ship at opposite sides
of the centre-line as in Figs. 1 to 4 and have each bow doors such as B2 through
which trolleys loaded in the tunnels can issue on to a suitable gangway or wharf
instead of passing up vertical shafts to the deck, although my correspondents wish
it understood that if desired the vertical shafts may be used in combination with
the tunnels, in this instance or in any other of the examples herein described.

page_text: Figure 7 illustrates a type of vessel in which the two tunnels are joined at the after
end by a curved portion B3 and provided at their forward ends with bow doors as
in the preceding example; in this case there may be a continuous circulation of
trolleys through the ship, the empty ones entering by one bow door B2 and coming
out loaded by the other.
Figure 8 shows a modification in which there is a single central tunnel B
inclined upward at each end from the ship's bottom so that the trucks to be loaded
may pass in say at the bow and come out aft when loaded.
If the bow doors are not considered desirable the inclined portions of the tunnels
aforesaid may lead up to the deck level as in Figure 8.
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 I am aware of the Specification
of prior Letters Patent No. 2681/86 granted to Henry Nickless and that I make
no claim to the improvements therein described but what I claim is :-
1. In a ship or the like two or more cargo tunnels with vertical tubular shafts
substantially as and for the purpose described.
2. In a ship or the like a cargo tunnel inclined substantially as and for the
purpose specified.
3. In a ship or the like a cargo tunnel with vertical tubular shafts and inclined.
end substantially as and for the purpose specified.
4. In a ship or the like the combination with a tunnel having an inclined portion
as described of a bow door substantially as and for the purpose specified.
5. In a ship or the like a cargo tunnel or tunnels substantially as and for the
purpose described and illustrated in Figure 7 or Figure 8 of the accompanying
drawings.
6. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting apparatus for
facilitating the discharge of vessels substantially as and for the purpose described
and illustrated in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 19th day of February 1897.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.