Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Petroleum-Storage Installations at Avonmouth and at Cardiff [1890] . . . .

These foundations have answered the purpose satisfactorily, and are similar to those used for the large grain warehouses at Avonmouth Dock. A gutter was formed all round the base of the tanks for collecting any leakage which might come from them. Sidings were laid from the main line of railway into the works as shown in Fig. 1, Plate 7. [Plates not available!]

The installation comprises three departments:- The storage tanks, the cooperage department, and the filling or barreling-off department. It was desired to separate these as much as possible, keeping the tanks as well as the filling-house away from the cooperage and boiler-house to lessen the danger of fire.

To maintain economical connection between these three departments, the installation is designed to work by the gravitation of both full and empty barrels from one department to another ; for instance, the cooperage is connected with the filling-house by means of "barrel -runs," upon which the empty barrels, as they are turned out from the cooperage, run down to the filling-house and storing platform ; empties also pass down similar runs from the jetty into the works for either storage or repairs ; barrels already filled run from the filling-house down to the end of the jetty ready for shipment.

The gradient used is 15 to 16 inches in 100 feet, which is found to be just sufficient to cause the barrels to move without any tendency to run away. The runs are carried on light trestles (see Figs. 9), and consist of timbers 5 inches by 3 inches, fixed at about 2 feet 2 inches gauge by bolts.

They are made in portable lengths of from 12 to 14 feet , and are put up where required. On reference to the general plan it will be seen that the cooperage floor is fixed at about 2 feet above the filling-house floor, and the filling-house floor a similar height above the jetty ; the other runs have a similar gradient.

The barrels are put on to them one after another, and close together, and as each one is taken off at the low end, the whole line moves forward one barrel. This method of dealing with them is important as regards the economical working of the installation.