Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - Patent Applications by George Taylor, of Penarth, 1883 . . .

Under the system of loading such steamers with coal from a staith or tip as heretofore practiced they can seldom be loaded at more than one hatchway at once owing to the varying distances between the hatchways of different steamers and to the fact that the staiths or tips are permanent fixtures and therefore incapable of being moved to suit the hatchways.

It is necessary that the construction of a movable staith be such as to bear the strains arising from moving the structure which both on that account, and on account of the greater difficulty of moving a high staith must be kept as low as possible regard being had to the height at which the loading of large ocean going steamers is necessarily carried on.

It is moreover necessary in a movable staith or tip that the hydraulic and other machinery and the guides of and for the hoisting and tipping platform be so arranged and kept above the ground as to present no obstacle to the moving of the staith and further that the structure and machinery be so arranged that the whole apparatus shall be stable and not liable to be overturned in moving or by the weight of the shoot and coal at the front part of the staith in tipping.

The accompanying drawings represent by way of example only, a portable or movable staith or tip which meets the requirements above alluded to, but I would have it understood that I do not limit myself to the construction and arrangement of the staith herein described as the same may be varied according to particular circumstances the invention consisting essentially in a portable staith or tip capable of loading large ocean going steamers.

Figure 1 is a side elevation (the platform being up and tilted in dotted lines) Figure 2 is a rear elevation (the platform being down) and figure 3 a top plan of a portable staith or tip.