Glebe Island coal loader – circa 1850 A. Lozzi 09

Excellent space frame. The coal was picked up and transported by a pair of clams. The clams were operated from the carriage seem within the frame, at top left. The clams reached into the bottom of a ship hull and dropped the cola into one of the flat bottom timber sided bins

The frame was open underneath down the whole length, over which the carriage lowered and raised the clams. These front legs were fully three dimensional space frame made up from tetrahedrons Bevel gears driving a sets of wheels, one on this side of the loader another on the far side. The power came from a motor high in the middle of the conveyor.

Flat bottom timber sided coal bins. The flat bottoms gave the problem of the coal remaining in the corners and had to manually empty. Note that a timber frame cannot be made to have more than one member meet at a point