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MANAWATU COUNTY COUNCIL STONE CRUSHER.

INSTALLATION OF GRAG LINE SCOOP. Quite inauspiciously Mr. W. E. Barber (Chairman of the Manawatu County Council) operated the levers of the newly installed drag line scoop at the Council’s stone crushing plant on the banks of the Rangitikei River last Thursday, setting in motion for the first time this new labour device which was recently installed by the engineer (Mr. 11. V. Bond). Mr. Bond conducted our representative over the plant last Tuesday when it was working at full capacity, and explained the principles on which the new mechanism worked. Thel drag line scoop consists of a steel bucket operating' on a wire rope which spans the river. Motive power is derived from an electiic motor located in a brake house built on top of the bank overlooking the river and the stone crushing plant. The wire rope is attached to the top of a 62 foot turpentine pole, specially imported from Australia for the purpose by the engineer, on the crusher side of the river and, passing over a standard on.the opposite, is securely fastened to a log buried in the bank. The bucket is hauled to the top of the pole by a wire rope operating on a drum in the brake house and descends into the river by gravitation. A scientifically worked out system of pullies in front of the bucket regulates the tension and pull on its various parts so that at the correct moment it digs into the metal botto)m of the river on its return .trip to the crusher and. at the right moment lifts its nose from the river bed and with its load of metal ascends to the correct elevation where the brakesman whips the machinery into top gear and the load wings its way to the hopper of the crusher. The bucket brings up half a yard of metal at a time and travels at the rate of 375 feet per min- f ute. The whole operation takes ,13 Iminutes, so it will be seen that the scoop delivers metal into the crusher at the rate of a yard every "3 j minutes. The output of the crusher is 100 yards a day. An interesting feature of the huge pole which gives elevation to the drag line is that it is not fixed firmly but is seated in a concrete base and operates on the ball socket principle. This was an, idea of Mr. Bond’s and to avoid unnecessary friction he has placed a bueket of grease in the socket. The pole moves quite freely and the strain is thereby greatly lessened and evenly distributed over its whole length instead of being just above the surface as would have obtained had the structure been firmly bedded in concrete. To look at the pole the casualjAserver would wonder how such a massive structure could have been erected but the engineer informed our representative that with the assistance of the,. Council’s locomotives and the necessary block and tackle, he erected the pole in three quarters of an hour.

The drag line scoop is not confined to the riverbed directly in front of the crusher but may be moved either up or down stream without any trouble within a considerable radius. In explaining the new machinery, Mr. Bond said that the plant had been specially imported from the British Piling Co., but when first installed it had been too fast for local purposes and he had had to reduce the speed accordingly The drag line scoop had been of his own conception and was operating perfectly. Prior to the installation of the new plant the metal was carted from the river bed into a yard at the crusher by drays and cost 3/6 per cubic yard to deliver* The present machinery was delivering the metal into the hopper at 1/per yard while it was doing the work of ten; men. “All these things reflect right throughout the •County,” said Mr. Bond, “as modern methods here enable us to produce metal at a much lower cost to the consequent benefit of the County as a whole.” An inspection ivas made of the County’s crusher which has now been electrified throughout and is operating at full capacity. The plant is ideally situated and the Rangitikei River gives an unlimited supply of some of the finest metal in the Dominion. The crusher has been" so constructed that the Council’s tram passes underneath the bins .containing the various grades of metal and the trucks are filled in a very fe\v seconds by merely pulling the levers of the bins containing the grades of metal desired, . * From the hopper at the top of the works, served by the drag linescoop, the metal passes through an inch screen after having been washed by a stream of water for the purpose of removing the sand. Here the larger stones are sent hurtling down a slrate to be crushed into chips while the sand is carried down a flume back to the river bed. From the inch screen the metal passes through a'revolving grading drum and is sorted up into various sizes and deposited into its respective bins. The larger stones which have been crushed into chips on the ground floor are brought up and placed into the bins by means of an elevator and so all the metal is sorted out and deposited into hoppers m readiness for transport to the various roads throughout the County. The whole plant which is now highly modernised, is working .particularly well and is a credit to the Council.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19290221.2.17

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3909, 21 February 1929, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
930

MANAWATU COUNTY COUNCIL STONE CRUSHER. Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3909, 21 February 1929, Page 2

MANAWATU COUNTY COUNCIL STONE CRUSHER. Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3909, 21 February 1929, Page 2

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