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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 64 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ELEVATION END ELEVATION centrifugal force must be sufficient to overcome the gravity of the material, because the material thrown off the delivery See also:pulley in a See also:horizontal direction will be more rapidly deflected into a parabolic See also:curve the higher its specific gravity. It follows that for a specifically heavy material a greater centrifugal force will be required; that is to say, the elevator will have to be higher speeded than in dealing with a lighter material. Elevator buckets must be varied according to the nature of the material; for instance, shallow buckets will be found best for a soft and clinging material such as See also:flour, moist See also:sugar, See also:sand, small See also:coal, &c., while for a hard or semi-hard See also:body such as See also:wheat, coal, &c., deeper buckets are prefer-able. On See also:account of their See also:lower See also:speed, See also:elevators for specifically heavy material require much larger buckets and chains than See also:grain elevators of the same bulk capacity. The most economical See also:form of elevator is fitted with a continuous See also:chain of buckets. Such elevators may be constructed to carry either grain or minerals. The advantages are greatercapacity than an See also:ordinary elevator of the same dimensions and a more See also:uniform delivery; moreover, smoother See also:running is secured, since the buckets being See also:close together need not plunge intermittently through the See also:con-tents of the elevator-well. Intermittent See also:Conveyors.—The elevators we have been considering, whether used for carrying and distributing coal or grain, have this in See also:common, that they raise material from a lower to a higher level, so to speak, in a continuous stream, the continuity being broken only by the See also:short spaces between the buckets. In the continuous bucket type indeed the stream of material is practically, if not absolutely, continuous. In all these cases the elevator is fed with the material in a continuous stream, and by some See also:mechanical means; whether .by See also:band, See also:worm or shoot, is immaterial. Elevators of a somewhat different and more substantial construction may be and are often used for handling filled sacks, barrels, carcases of animals and other bulky See also:objects, which cannot be delivered in a uniform stream, but may have to be conveyed by the elevator intermittently. The ordinary buckets used for grain or coal are replaced by other appliances for gripping and holding the See also:object to be raised from a lower to a higher level, but in principle these appliances are essentially elevators.

Another See also:

kind of elevator, known as a lift or hoist, is used in mines and quarries and in serving blast furnaces. This is an elevator with one or two buckets. Essentially a heavy load lifter, it is intended for material of too large a bulk to be handled economically by ordinary elevators, and is employed for lifting in either a See also:vertical or, more often, an inclined direction. For elevating materials, such as large coal, See also:iron ore, See also:limestone, &c., which are too large to be fed into ordinary elevators, and must therefore be handled intermittently, the single bucket elevator or hoist may be used with See also:advantage. But as the essential use of mechanical appliances for handling material is to See also:save human labour as far as possible, that hoist will prove the most economical the operation of which is as automatic as possible. The Americans seem to have been pioneers in the construction of See also:furnace hoists, which form the See also:principal elevators of this class, but some excellent examples of the See also:modern furnace hoist are now to be found in See also:Great See also:Britain and elsewhere in See also:Europe. Generally speaking, a furnace hoist consists of an inclined iron See also:bridge girder set at an See also:angle to the upright See also:shaft of the furnace. On this incline are laid rails for the ascent and descent of the bucket, which in this See also:case is known as a skip and is provided with suitable wheels,whilethe hoisting See also:gear manipulating the skips by a See also:steel rope is erected on or near the ground level. The rails when they approach the upper See also:terminus are usually See also:bent in a more or less horizontal position so as automatically to tilt and thereby unload the skip. To attain the same end, the rails supporting the back wheels of the skips may be bent at the terminus, or the back wheels may have additional wheels of a larger See also:diameter on the other side of their flanges, so that during the ascent and descent the skip runs on its four normal wheels, while at the upper terminus the See also:outer and larger back wheels engage with short lengths of extra rails and thus tilt and effect the automatic clearance of the skip. The dead See also:weight of the skip may be balanced by a See also:counter weight, or See also:double tracks may be laid, so that the empty skip descends on one track whilst the loaded skip is being raised on the other. In this case the distributing hopper at the See also:top of the furnace has an elongated shape so as to take the charges alternately from buckets on either track.

Again, the two tracks may be laid one above the other, so that one skip runs on the upper upper terminal. rails and the other on the lower. The two buckets will pass each other at about the centre of the framing, where there will be plenty of See also:

room for clearance. The capacity of the skip will of course de- pend to some extent on the capacity of the furnace, but an See also:average See also:charge may be put down at 2 tons of ore and See also:lime, or 1 ton of See also:coke. To raise such a charge to a furnace 8o ft. high would require, assuming no counter weight were used, a motor of about See also:loo h.p. On account of the great speed at which lower terminal. the hoist See also:works, the See also:time taken in raising the charged skip, discharging it, and returning it empty would be only 30 to 40 seconds. The hoist See also:cable runs over See also:guide pulleys placed at the top of the furnace, and the cable is often manipulated by an electrically driven winch in a See also:cabin below. The descent of the empty skip in more modern installations is utilized to effect an even See also:distribution of the feed from the hopper to the furnace by causing the hopper to revolve. To this end the latter is provided with an ingenious mechanism which only comes into operation as the See also:car descends. After every charge shot into the hopper the latter is revolved a few degrees, and this has the effect of giving the delivery of the next load in another direction, so that the charges of the skip are in turn distributed over the whole See also:area of the See also:surface. This is deemed a most -essential point in furnace-charging, and it is not one of the least recommendations of this mechanical See also:system of furnace-charging that it can give an even feed without any See also:hand labour whatever.

A double hoist has been designed which has the advantage that if one elevator breaks down the See also:

work of the furnace is not interrupted. In this system two furnaces are connected at the top by a gantry or bridge, against which, between the furnaces, two inclined elevators are set, so that each can serve either furnace. The skips are on wheels and detachable from the elevator, and are loaded from the ore pockets at the lower terminal and See also:drawn up on a See also:cradle; as this reaches the top where the rails on the gantry correspond with the See also:gauge of the skip or car, the latter is carried by its own weight down a slight incline to either furnace, discharging its contents as it passes over the conical mouth. Another advantage claimed for this system is that the rails of the cradle, when in its lowest position, correspond with the rails which See also:lie parallel to the furnaces and run right under the See also:store bins from which the skip is loaded. The See also:economy to be realized from a furnace hoist will be in See also:direct proportion to the use made of mechanical means of feed See also:conveyance. For instance, the store bins in connexion with such elevators might be economically fed by suitable conveyors, or the material might be brought in self-unloading hoppered trucks into conveniently placed bins, ready to be drawn into the skips. Ropeways.—A ropeway has been defined as that method of handling material which consists of See also:drawing buckets on See also:ropes, and by means of ropes, such buckets being filled with the material to be handled and being automatically or otherwise discharged. At what See also:period of See also:history ropeways were first used it is impossible to say, but the fact that pulley blocks, and even See also:wire ropes, were known to the ancients, renders a See also:pedigree of 2000 years at least possible. In more modern days, an old See also:engraving shows a single ropeway in working See also:order in 1644 in the See also:city of See also:Danzig. This, the work of See also:Adam Wybe, a Dutch engineer, was a single ropeway in its simplest form, consisting of an endless rope passing over pulleys suspended on posts; to the rope were attached a number of small buckets, which evidently carried See also:earth from a See also:hill out-side the city to the rampart inside the See also:moat. The rope was probably of See also:hemp, Modern ropeways worked with wire ropes date from about 186o, when a ropeway was erected in the Harz Mountains. Since then several systems have been evolved, but in the See also:main ropeways may be divided into the single and double rope class.

The ropeway is essentially an intermittent conveyor, the material being carried in buckets or skips, and practice has proved it an economical means of handling heavy material. The See also:

prime cost of a ropeway is usually moderate, though of course it varies with the ground and other See also:local conditions. Working expenses should be See also:low, because under the supervision of one competent engineer unskilled labour is quite sufficient. A ropeway may be carried over ground over which rails could only be laid at enormous cost. To a certain extent ropeways are See also:independent of See also:weather conditions, because their working need not be interrupted even by heavy snowfalls. Their construction is very See also:simple, and there is little gear to get out of order. See also:Sound workmanship and See also:good material will ensure a relatively See also:long See also:life. As an instance, a certain rope in a See also:Spanish ropeway tested new to a breakingstrain of 29 tons was shown after carrying x6o,000 tons (in two years' incessant work) still to possess a breaking See also:strain of 271 tons. The See also:power absorbed by a ropeway is relatively moderate, and under See also:special conditions may be nil. The only demand it makes on the superficial area of the ground traversed is the small emplacements of the See also:standards, which in modern ropeways are few and far between. Wayleaves, or the permission to erect standards and run the See also:line over private See also:land, may of course mean an See also:item in the See also:capital outlay. This circumstance may have checked ropeway construction in Great Britain, but it must also be See also:borne in mind that a large portion of that See also:country is comparatively level and well provided with See also:railways.

In See also:

building a ropeway it is essential to take as straight a line as possible, because curves generally necessitate angle stations, which mean extra capital and working, cost. On the other hand, ground that would be difficult for the railway engineer, such as steep hills, deep valleys and turbulent streams, has no terror for the ropeway erector. There is a case of a ropeway of a See also:total length of 5400 ft. with a total difference in See also:altitude of 2000 ft.; it is claimed this ground could not be covered by a railway with less than 15 m. of line graded at z in 4o. Perhaps the simplest type of a single rope system is an endless running rope from which the See also:carriers are suspended, and with which they move by frictional contact. Or the carriers may be fixed to this rope and move with it. The ropeway itself would consist of an endless rope running between two drums, one, known as the See also:driving See also:drum, being provided with power receiving and transmitting gear, while the drum at the opposite terminal would be fitted with tightening gear. The endless rope is carried on suitable pulleys which themselves are supported on standards or trestles spaced at intervals varying with the nature of the ground. The rope runs at an average speed of 4 m. per See also:hour, a speed at which the bucket or skip can automatically unload itself. In the double ropeway the See also:carrier runs on a fixed rope, which takes the See also:place of the rails of a railway. The carrier is fitted with running heads furnished with grooved steel wheels. The load is borne by a hanger pivoted from the carrier, and is conveyed along the See also:rail rope by an endless hauling rope at an average speed of 4 to 6 m. per hour. The hauling is operated by driving gear at one end, and controlled by tightening gear at the other end just as in the single rope system.

Double ropeways have been carried in one See also:

section over 18 to 20 m., and will transport single loads of 6 cwt. to a ton or more. Broadly speaking, the single ropeway is not so suitable for heavy loads and long distances as the double, but in this connexion the work of Ropeways Limited should be noted, which favours a single rope system. Their engineer, J. See also:Pearce See also:Roe, introduced multiple sheaves for supporting the rope at each See also:standard. Thus the rope may pass over one, two or four sheaves, which are provided with See also:balance beams that have the advantage of adjusting themselves to the angle caused by the rope passing over the sheaves, thus equalizing the pressure over a number of sheaves. A ropeway erected on this system in See also:Japan spans 4000 yds. of very broken ground; yet only 17 trestles are used, and as each support is placed as high as possible, no one is of great height. An altitude of 113o ft. is reached in a distance of 1200 yds. The ropeway has a daily carrying capacity of 6o tons in one direction and of 3o tons in the other. Another See also:installation on this system, which serves an iron mine in See also:Spain, spans 65oo yds. of very rough country, so steep that in many places the sure-footed See also:mule cannot keep on the track. This ropeway can See also:deal with 85 tons per hour. The greatest distance covered by this system, on one section, is 7100 yds., or about 4 m., and the carrying capacity is 45 tons per hour. The See also:motive power required for a ropeway will vary with the conditions.

In cases of descending loads the power generated is sometimes so considerable as to render it available for driving other machinery, or it may have to be absorbed by some special See also:

brake See also:device. In a ropeway in Japan of 1800 yds., which runs mostly at an incline of 1 in 11, the force generated is absorbed by a See also:hydraulic brake the revolving See also:fan of which drives the See also:water against fixed vanes which repel and See also:heat it. In this way, 5o h.p. is absorbed and the speed brought under the See also:control of a hand brake. Aerial Cableways.—The aerial cableway is a development of the ropeway, and is a conveyor capable of hoisting and dumping at any desired point. The load is carried along a trackway consisting of a single span of suspended cable, which covers a comparatively short distance. The trackway may either run in a more or less horizontal direction, i.e. the terminals may be on the same level, or it may be inclined at such an angle that the load will descend by gravity. The trackway or rail rope rests upon saddles of iron or hard See also:wood on the tops of terminal supports, usually known as towers. These towers may be constructed either of wood or iron, and if the exigencies of the work render it desirable, they may be mounted on trolleys and rails, in which case the cableway is rendered portable, and can be moved about, sometimes a great advantage in excavating work. The motive power may be either See also:steam, See also:gas, or See also:electricity. The motor is situated in what is termed the See also:head See also:tower, which is sometimes a little. higher than the other or tail tower. Sometimes, but not frequently, the latter is also fitted with a motor. The span between the two towers sometimes extends to 2000 ft., but this is exceptional.

Very heavy loads are dealt with, sometimes as much as 8 tons in a single load. The load, which may be carried in a skip or a See also:

tray, is borne by an apparatus called the carrier, which is a modification of a running head, consisting of pulleys and blocks and running along the main cable or trackway. The carrier is also fitted with pulleys or guides for the See also:dump line. The carrier is drawn along the main cable by an endless or hauling rope which passes from the carrier over the head tower and is See also:wound several times See also:round the drum of the winding See also:engine to secure frictional hold, then back over the head tower, to the tail tower, returning to the See also:rear end of the carrier. The hoisting rope passes from the engine to the fall See also:block for raising the load. The dump line comes from the other side of the winding engine drum and passes to a smaller block attached to the rear end of the skip or tray. The whole weight of the skip is borne by the hoisting rope, while the dump line comes in slack, but at the same See also:rate of speed. Whenever it is desired to dump the load, the dump line is shifted to a section of the drum having a slightly larger diameter, and being thus drawn in at a higher rate of speed the load is discharged. The engine is then reversed, and the See also:carriage brought back for the next load. This is in outline the mode of operating all cableways. This appliance has rendered great service as a labour saver in navvying, See also:quarrying and See also:mining work; in placer-mining, for instance, cableways have been found very useful when fitted with a self-filling See also:drag bucket, which will take the place of a great number of hands. Cableways can be worked at a great speed, but a good mean speed would be 500 to 750 ft. for conveying and 200 to 300 ft. for hoisting.

A cableway used in excavating work in See also:

Chicago was credited with a capacity of 400 to 600 cub. yds. per See also:day at a total cost of 2d. per yard, including labour, coal, oil, See also:waste, &c. Coaling See also:Ships at See also:Sea.—In the coaling of ships at sea the cable-way has rendered great service. The conditions under which this operation has to be carried out See also:present many difficulties, especially in rough water. One of the See also:chief obstacles is the See also:maintenance of the necessary tension on the cable used in conveying the coal from the See also:collier to the See also:ship. The first test in coaling ships at sea, made by the See also:British See also:admiralty, took place in 1890 in the See also:Atlantic at a point 500 M. See also:south of the See also:Azores in water 2000 fathoms deep. Ten ships of See also:war were coaled, each See also:vessel taking enough coal to enable it to steam back to Torbay, i800 m. away. In this case the collier was lashed alongside the battleship it was feeding, thick fenders being interposed to prevent damage, but nevertheless as the colliers got See also:light they pitched considerably, and one or two sustained dents in their sides. The ships did not See also:roll, being kept bows-on to the swell, which became heavy before the coaling was completed. The coal was taken in by derricks at the main See also:deck ports. It is clear that had the sea been really rough coaling in this See also:fashion would have been impossible. The most practicable method of coaling at sea yet devised is the marine cableway of See also:Spencer See also:Miller, which has been tried with some success in the See also:American See also:navy. It is intended for use between vessels 350 to 500 ft. apart.

The ship being coaled takes the collier in See also:

tow, steaming at the rate of 4 to 8 knots; it has been found that a speed of five knots in moderately rough water will keep the cableway taut and maintain a sufficient distance between the crafts. The collier is fitted with an engine having double cylinders and double See also:friction drums, which is placed just abaft the foremast. A steel rope 4 in. in diameter is led from one drum over a pulley at the See also:mast head and thence to a pulley at the head of shear-poles on the vessel being coaled, and brought back to the other drum. The engine moves in thesame direction all the time and keeps on winding in both the strands of the conveying rope. Should the two vessels increase the distance between them during the operation of conveying the coal bags, of which two, weighing 420 lb each, may be fastened to the carrier, the extra rope called for is obtained by slipping the upper strand from the drum; this increases the speed of the upper cable. On the other hand should the distance between the vessels be reduced, this operation is reversed, the speed of the upper strand being reduced. To keep the carriage steady on its return empty, a rope, known as the sea-See also:anchor line, is stretched above the two strands of the conveyor line, and under a pulley on the carriage. This cable is attached to the vessel, resting on a See also:saddle on the shear head, whence it leads through the carriage over pulleys at the head of the foremast and mainmast of the collier, running on astern several See also:hundred feet into the sea. A drag or sea-anchor, usually made of See also:canvas and See also:cone-shaped, is attached to the end of this rope. This anchor is used to support the empty carriage on its return to the collier. The diameter of the cone's See also:base is graduated to the speed of the vessels. Thus in a smooth-water test, with a ship steaming at 6 knots, one 7 ft. in diameter was used, while the same anchor answered its purpose very well with a ship doing 5 knots in rough water.

The results given by this system of coaling at sea are relatively satisfactory. Tests made in the See also:

United States navy showed that 20 to 25 tons of coal per hour could be delivered by a collier to a war-vessel during a moderate See also:gale. As the ship was under steam all the time and consumed 3 to 4 tons of coal per hour, the balance of the coal bunkered amounted to between 16 and 20 tons per hour, or say 384 tons in 24 See also:hours. It has been suggested that under service conditions the speed of the towing vessel might be increased to 8 or to knots an hour; this would of course increase the coal See also:consumption unless the collier proceeded under her own steam. But in such a case the space between the two crafts might be diminished, which would have the effect of causing the cable to sag and of stopping the work, since the conveyor cable to See also:act properly must be kept taut. In Great Britain the Temperley Transporter See also:Company have taken up this method of coaling at sea, working in collaboration with Spencer Miller, and have introduced several improvements in detail. Their system has been tried by the British admiralty. The coaling of a large vessel by this appliance has the advantage of economizing hand labour. One See also:man is required to work the hoist on the collier, while 20 men will be in the hold filling the bags and delivering them to the deck, where s5 or so will See also:transfer the bags to the lift. One or two men suffice for the overhead work; their station is in the trestle trees. On See also:board the receiving ship a few men will be stationed at the shear head to empty the bags into a canvas shoot, and then return them, while there will be the usual force of bunker trimmers. A ton of coal per See also:minute has been transferred from the collier to the vessel, but for this capacity the ships must not be too far apart, else the rope would not remain taut under such loads.

During the Russo-See also:

Japanese War, many of the See also:Russian battleships were coaled by means of aerial cableways. The coaling of vessels in this manner seems a success, but it would be desirable to increase the carrying capacity of the cableway or to duplicate the installations. Telpherage.—A telpher ropeway or cableway may be defined as a ropeway or cableway worked and controlled electrically, only a rail rope being required besides the live rail or wire from which the electric current is taken. Telpherage was devised by See also:Professor Fleeming Jenkin in 1881, and See also:developed by him in See also:conjunction with Professors W. E. See also:Ayrton and J. See also:Perry. The telpher itself consists of a light two-wheeled See also:truck, carrying the driving See also:motors, which, to avoid gearing or other complicated mechanism, are usually coupled directly to the axles of the telpher. Thus the telpher is a self-propelled electric carrier running on a mono-rail, which, according to the conditions, may be a steel rail or a steel cable. From the telpher are suspended carriers which can be adapted to any kind of material. In many cases the whole load may be suspended from the telpher, or the load, especially if of some length, may be supported at one end by a telpher, and at the other end by what is known as a trailer, or again, two telphers may be installed, one at each end of the load. The telpher carries a small trolley sheave or See also:bow which serves to collect the current from a trolley wire stretched a little above the rail.

Frequently the telpher is accompanied by an attendant who manipulates it, but by dividing the trolley wire into sections any system of telpherage may be constructed to work automatically, and by switching off the current from the section in which the telpher is required to stop it can be brought to a standstill at any required point. The speed of the telpher may be readily regulated by the introduction of a resistance between any section of the line and the See also:

supply of electricity. The speed may be high, as much as 1500 ft. per minute over the straight portions of the line, but slackened at curves and loading stations, or when approaching a terminus. The required power may be obtained from the mains of an ordinary electric supply with either direct or alternating current, but the former is preferable. The mean See also:expenditure of power in a working day is said to average (including See also:electrical hoisting) i H.P. per ton of average load. The uses of telpherage are many and various. In factories and warehouses, where the buildings are scattered, it has been installed with excellent results. Being essentially an overhead system, there is a saving of See also:floor space, the ground not being obstructed by trucks or trolleys. The same reasons which render ropeways an economical means of handling such material as coal, ore, See also:stone, See also:slate, &c., between the mine or See also:quarry and the rail or See also:barge, may be adduced in favour of telpherage. For the unloading of railway trucks in a crowded goods-yard it is undoubtedly applicable. Any kind of tipping or hoisting operations can be automatically effected by its aid, and any sort of grab may be used in dealing with such materials as sand, See also:clay or See also:gravel. Telpherage is clearly a labour-saving method of handling materials, but of course the exact conditions under which any system is to be used need careful study, while the economy to be effected by the installation of a telpher line must to a great extent depend upon the available supply of electrical See also:energy.

(G. F.

End of Article: SIDE

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