THE QUERTIER EXCAVATOR AND BALLAST FILLER.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 5, 1 March 1906, Page 116

THE QUERTIER EXCAVATOR AND BALLAST FILLER.

Our illustrations show a most ingenious machine invented and designed by Mr. Hilary Quertier, for the purpose of excavating gravel ballast and delivering it into trucks. It will be seen that the machine is carried upon a railroad truck, and comprises a chain of buckets by which the gravel is taken out of the pit, or from a working face alongside the line, and delivered to a screen by which it is separated according to size of the stones, and then delivered into ballast trucks which, for convenience, are run upon a separate track parallel with the rails upon which runs the excavator. By this method the excavator can be taken along a train of trucks, filling one after the other from the working face, the machine being " locomoted " by ingeniously contrived driving gear from an oil engine, which is used as the motor power for the machine. If desired the ballast, instead of being put through the screen, may be delivered directly into shutes conducting it to the ballast trucks. In evidence of the great saving effected by the employment of this apparatus, it may be cited that on the 23rd January last at Edievale, m eight hours, the Quertier excavator, working in a pit of an average depth of 2ft. 6in., excavated and filled 72 ballast trucks, containing a total of 360 cubic yards, the only labour employed being one driver and one truckman to load. The same quantity of ballast filled by manual labour m the same time would require at least 28 men. The relative cost being ten times as great by manual labour as by the machine. The illustrations show the machine made up m a train for travelling and at work in a gravel pit.

The Escalator, or Moving Stairway. — In the large buildings of New Zealand, the general means of transit to and from the different floors is per the ordinary elevator. In America, however, the elevator promises to have a powerful competitor in the escalator, or moving stairway. This contrivance, which in outside appearance exactly resembles an ordinary stairway, may be described as a continuous series of rigid steps placed above an endless sprocket chain. Its capacity for passenger carrying is, of course, dependent upon the speed. Travelling at the normal rate of slightly over one mile per hour. The power required to drive the escalator, including hand rails, is normal — les c than 10 h.p.; to this must be added the duty, depending upon the number of passengers. The escalator may be constructed as one continuous machine, with landings at each floor, and so arranged

assume any attitude to the same degree as upon a stationary staircase. The apparatus is noiseless in operation, and is in constant motion, with a speed at which the passenger may with facility step upon or from it, and in absolute safety. After a very few trips upon the escalator all novel sensation disappears, and its use evokes no other than attends the use of a stationary staircase.

The " Hampel " Manure Distributor is one of the latest machines introduced into England by Messrs. J. and H. Keyworth and Co., of Tarleton street, Liverpool. This can be used for sowing superphosphates, kainite, ground lime, bones and all kinds of artificial manures, its leading advantages

being lightness of draught, simplicity of construction, equality of distribution, and capability of adjustment. The machine has a hexagon steel sowing shaft with small iron spades, a second shaft being provided for the purpose of stirring damp manures. It sows Bft. wide, weighs 4 cwt., and is priced at

A new process in the manufacture of copper tubes, sheets, and wire has just been perfected by Mr. Sherard Cowper-Coles, metallurgist, of London, which is likely to effect some remarkable reductions of cost and extension of the use of copper. By a new method of electro-deposition, for which the

that steps which carry passengers up may perform a like service later in carrying others down ; or separate machines may be installed in various locations affording the best opportunity for displaying merchandise. The motion of the escalator is so smooth and constant that it does not interpose the least obstacle to the free movement ot the passenger, who may walk in either directions or

inventor holds patents in all parts of the world, the finished tubes, sheet, and wire can be produced m one operation, including the refining from crude copper. It is claimed that the process is at least ten times faster than any existing electrolytic process, whilst the plant required is simple and free from mechanical complications, and in consequence the cost of the production is enormously reduced.