Need refs: early 1900s ore off-loading to ships - North America
- Thread starter cheechako
- Start date
Do a search on Shorpy - there are quite a few turn-of-the century railroad photos there. Here are some I came across:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/4508
http://www.shorpy.com/node/9682
http://www.shorpy.com/node/12492
http://www.shorpy.com/node/7617
http://www.shorpy.com/node/9811
http://www.shorpy.com/node/4508
http://www.shorpy.com/node/9682
http://www.shorpy.com/node/12492
http://www.shorpy.com/node/7617
http://www.shorpy.com/node/9811
Thank you so much. I'll look around there. Unfortunately, I failed to specify that I'm looking for examples that are as old fashioned and manual as they come. It seems easier to find the early automated methods.
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Loading and unloading boats and barges was a high capacity operation.
Loading was almost always done via some sort of chute (or multiple chute) structure (loading docks for example).
Unloading boats and barges took a different slant. Around 1850 or so a device called a Thornberger Hoist was introduced. It was basically a long arm with a bucket (possibly a clamshell) on the end that simply rotated over the coal in the boat or barge, lowered the bucket, filled, rotated back to over a (wooden at the time) gondola and emptied its contents. None on the DLS (I'm working on one but don't expect it anytime soon - the animation is incredibly complex.)
By the early 1920's Thornbergers were gone having been replaced by Hulett unloaders. Far more efficient. There is one (possibly more) on the DLS.
I've made a few items to load boats or barges. Try looking for Kickback Dumper. I made several and one even uses an animated rotary bin to unload the hoppers.
Ben
Loading was almost always done via some sort of chute (or multiple chute) structure (loading docks for example).
Unloading boats and barges took a different slant. Around 1850 or so a device called a Thornberger Hoist was introduced. It was basically a long arm with a bucket (possibly a clamshell) on the end that simply rotated over the coal in the boat or barge, lowered the bucket, filled, rotated back to over a (wooden at the time) gondola and emptied its contents. None on the DLS (I'm working on one but don't expect it anytime soon - the animation is incredibly complex.)
By the early 1920's Thornbergers were gone having been replaced by Hulett unloaders. Far more efficient. There is one (possibly more) on the DLS.
I've made a few items to load boats or barges. Try looking for Kickback Dumper. I made several and one even uses an animated rotary bin to unload the hoppers.
Ben
That's why it is relatively easy for me to stumble across all those chutes and trestles and even the rotary automated dumpers. I know Alaska has generally been behind the times, so maybe I need to look for a slightly earlier era in the lower-48 for ideas. Again, the footage I've found shows men throwing sacks of ore into cargo netting, which is then hauled up onto the boats by boom arms and winches.
To think of all the ore hauled out that way - it is almost like imagining how they built ancient wonders by hand, brick by brick.
To think of all the ore hauled out that way - it is almost like imagining how they built ancient wonders by hand, brick by brick.