as the motive power at docks, being generated by a steam-engine and stored up by one or more accumulators, from which the water is transmitted under pressure through strong cast-iron pipes to the hydraulic engines which actuate the cranes, lifts, coal-tips, capstans, swing-bridges and gate machinery throughout the docks (see Power Transmission: Hydraulic). The intermittent working of the machinery in docks results in a considerable variation in the power needed at different times; but economical working is secured by arranging that when the accumulators are full, steam is automatically shut off from the pumping engines, but is supplied again as soon as water is drawn off. Electricity affords another means for the economical transmission of power to a distance suited for intermittent working; as far back as 1902 it was being adopted at Hamburg as the source of power for the machinery of the extensive additional basins then recently opened for traffic.
At ports where the principal trade is the export of coal from neighbouring collieries, special provision has to be made for its rapid shipment. Coal-tips, accordingly, are erected at the sides of the dock in these ports, with sidings on the quays at the back for receiving the trains of coal trucks, from Coal-tips.which two lines of way diverge to each coal-tip, one serving for the conveyance of the full wagons one by one to the tip, after passing over a weigh-bridge, and the other for the return of the empty wagons to the siding where the empty train is made up for returning to the colliery (fig. 8). Each full wagon is either run at a low level upon a cradle at the tip, then raised on the cradle within a wrought-iron lattice tower to a suitable height, and lastly, tipped up at the back for discharging the coal; or it is brought along a high-level road on to a cradle raised to this level on the tower, and tipped up at this or some slightly modified level. The coal is discharged down an adjustable iron shoot, gradually narrowed so as to check the fall; and on first discharging into the hold of a vessel, an anti-breakage box is suspended below the mouth of the shoot. When full, this is lowered to the bottom of the hold and emptied, thereby gradually forming a cone of coal upon which the coal can be discharged directly from the shoot without danger of breakage. Other contrivances are also adopted with the same object.
In designing dock works, it is expedient to make provision, as far as possible, for future extensions as the trade of the port increases. Generally this can be effected alongside tidal rivers and estuaries by utilizing sites lower down the river, as carried out on the Thames for the port of London, or reclaiming unoccupied Dock extensions.foreshores of an estuary, as adopted for extensions of the ports of Liverpool, Hull and Havre. At ports on the sea-coast of tideless seas, it is only necessary to extend the outlying breakwater parallel to the shore line, and form additional basins under its shelter, as at Marseilles (fig. 5) and Genoa (see Harbour). Quays also along rivers furnish very valuable opportunities of readily extending the accommodation of ports. Ports, however, established inland like Manchester, though extremely serviceable in converting an inland city into a seaport, are at the disadvantage of having to acquire very valuable land for any extensions that may be required; but, nevertheless, some compensation is afforded by the complete shelter in which the extensions can be carried out, when compared with Liverpool, where the additions to the docks can only be effected by troublesome reclamation works along the foreshore to the north, in increasingly exposed situations.
Dock Entrances and Locks.—The size of vessels which a port can admit depends upon the depth and width of the entrance to the docks; for, though the access of vessels is also governed by the depth of the approach channel, this channel is often capable of being further deepened to some extent by dredging; whereas the entrance, formed of solid masonry or concrete, cannot be adapted, except by troublesome and costly works sometimes amounting to reconstruction, to the increasing dimensions of vessels. Accordingly, in designing new dock works with entrances and locks, it is essential to look forward to the possible future requirements of vessels. The necessity for such forethought is illustrated by the rapid increase which has taken place in the size of the largest ocean liners. Thus the “City of Rome,” launched in 1881, is 560 ft. long, and 5214 ft. beam, and has a maximum recorded draught of 2712 ft.; the “Campania” and “Lucania,” in 1893, measure 600 ft. by 65 ft.; the “Oceanic,” in 1899, 68512 ft. by 6814 ft., with a maximum draught of 3113 ft.; the “Baltic,” in 1903, 709 ft. by 75 ft., with a maximum draught of 3134 ft.; and the “Lusitania” and “Mauretania,” launched in 1906, 78712 ft. by 88 ft.
The width and depth of access to docks are of more importance than the length of locks; for docks which are reached through entrances with a single pair of gates have to admit vessels towards high water when the water-level in the dock is the same as in the approach channel, or through Dimensions of entrances and locks.a half-tide basin drawn down to the level of the water outside, and are therefore accessible to vessels of any length, provided the width of the entrance and depth over the sill are adequate; whilst at docks which are entered through locks, vessels which are longer than the available length of the lock can get in at high water when both pairs of gates of the lock are open. Open basins are generally given an ample width of entrance, and river quays also are always accessible to the longest and broadest vessels; but in a tidal river the available depth has to be reckoned from the lowest low water of spring tides, instead of from the lowest high water of neap tides, if the vessels in the open basins and alongside the river quays have to be always afloat.
Many years ago the Canada lock at Liverpool, the outer North lock at Birkenhead, the Ramsden lock and entrance at Barrow-in-Furness, and the Eure entrance at Havre, were given a width of 100 ft. Probably this was done with the view of admitting paddle steamers, since subsequent entrances at Liverpool were given widths of 80 and 65 ft.; whereas none of the locks in the port of London has been made wider than 80 ft., which has been the standard maximum width since the completion of the Victoria dock in 1866. The widest locks at Cardiff are 80 ft., and the entrance to the Barry docks is the same; but the lock of the Alexandra dock, Hull, opened in 1885, was made 85 ft. wide. At Liverpool, where the access to the docks is mainly through entrances, on account of the small width between the river and the high ground rising at the back, and where ample provision has to be made for the largest Atlantic liners, though the entrances to the Langton dock, completed in 1881, leading to the latest docks at the northern end were made 65 ft. wide, with their sills 3 ft. below low water of spring tides and 2012 ft. below high water of the lowest neap tides, the two new entrances to the deepened Brunswick dock near the southern end, giving access to the adjacent reconstructed docks, completed in 1906, were made 80 and 100 ft. wide, with sills 28 ft. below high water of the lowest neap tides. Moreover, the three new entrances to the new Sandon half-tide dock, completed in 1906, communicating with the reconstructed line of docks to the south of the Canada basin, and with the latest northern extensions of the Liverpool docks, were made 40 ft. wide with a depth over the sill of 2412 ft., and 80 and 100 ft. wide on each end of the central entrance, with sills 29 ft. below high water of the lowest neap tides, each entrance being provided with two pairs of gates, in case of any accident occurring to one pair, according to the regular custom at Liverpool. Powers were also obtained in 1906 for the construction of a half-tide dock and two branch docks to the north of the Hornby dock, which are to be reached from the river by two entrances designed to be 130 ft. wide, with sills 3812 ft. below high water of the lowest neap tides, so as to meet fully the assumed future increase in the beam and draught of the largest vessels; whilst the authorized extension of the river wall northwards will enable additional docks to be constructed in communication with these entrances when required.
Though, with the exception of Southampton and Dover, other British ports do not aim, like Liverpool, at accommodating the largest Atlantic liners at all times, the depths of the sills at the principal ports have been increased in the most recent extensions. Thus at the port of London the sills of the first lock of the Albert dock were 2612 ft. below high water of neap tides, and of the second lock adjoining, 3212 ft. deep; whilst the sills of the lock of the Tilbury docks are 4012 ft. below high water of neap tides. Moreover, in spite of the great range of tide at the South Wales ports on the Severn estuary, the available depth at high water of neap tides of 25 ft. at the Roath lock, Cardiff, was increased
