Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1902 — SEVENTY-FIVE TONS A MINUTE [ARTICLE]

SEVENTY-FIVE TONS A MINUTE

Over 5,000 Tons of Iron Ore Loaded In an Hour—All Ore Loading Records on the Great Lakes Are v Broken. Iron ore was loaded yesterday at the Chicago A North-Western Docks at Ashland, Wis., at the tremendous rate of speed of 6,000 tons an hour. The exact figures were 6,202 tons in one hour and eight minutes, the ore being loaded into the steamer James H. Hoyt, which is built with a special view to rapid loading and unloading. The North-Western Line has two big ore docks at Ashland, each one of them about 1-3 of a mile long, and it was at one of these large storage docks that the Hoyt received its load in rec-ord-breaking time. Supt. Sampson of the North-Western personally supervised the loading, and several newspaper men witnessed it and corroborated the correctness of the record. The last ore was let Into the hold, and the lines were cast off in record-break-ing time, in fact, the engineer of the boat hardly found time to get the water ballast out of the vessel. This rapid work Is made possible by the exceptional facilities of the NorthWestern line. Large capacity cars and big docks with large storage capacity have made the handling of tremendous quantities of ore possible. The docks of the North-Western line at Ashland and Escanaba have a capacity exceeding that of any other line In the Lake Superior region, to which Is to be added one new building, which, when completed, will increase their capacity almost 60 per cent and be the largest ore dock on the Lakes.