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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 12 (April 1, 1929)

Labour-Saving Machinery — Modern Labour-Saving Devices

page 48

Labour-Saving Machinery
Modern Labour-Saving Devices
.

In the handling of small packages of all descriptions, many ingenious appliances are nowadays pressed into service at railway passenger and goods stations. At Home it is the rule to employ the most modern machinery at all points, and especially is this the case at the railway-owned docks which abound around the coast.

One of the most extensive installations of labour-saving machinery is found at the Southampton Docks of the Southern Railway. At this point, an enormous overseas traffic is handled, and eight years ago there was begun the modernisation of the equipment of the port. Included in this modernisation was the introduction of a fleet of electric trucks for use in connection with the loading and discharging of all types of cargoes. At the present time, the Elwell-Parker electric elevating platform truck is favoured, some fifty-two trucks of this make being in daily service. The truck has a capacity of two tons, and is equipped with Edison batteries of 21 cells, 225 ampere hours, of sufficient capacity to supply power for eight working hours with an hour's boosting charge during the day. The steel truck platform is some 6ft. 8in. long and 3ft. 3in. wide, wooden stillages 7ft. in length and 4ft. 3in. wide being employed. The platform is 11in. from the ground when lowered ready to pick up the tray, which is then electrically elevated some 4 ½ inches higher above ground, thus becoming ready for the movement of the load to any point. As indicating the utility of trucks such as these, one has the statement of officials on the spot that the average saving in labour is equivalent to five men for each electric truck. In addition, through the use of this equipment, loading and unloading operations at the port have been considerably speeded up.

At the First National Conference on Street and Highway Safety in America, the Hon. H. Hoover told delegates that, in 1924, street and crossing accidents were responsible for 22,600 deaths and 678,000 serious personal injuries, or a loss by death each year equalling one-third of the American losses by death in the World War, and 2 ½ times as many casualties as all those suffered by the American forces.