l be in the hold filling the bags and
delivering them to the deck, where 15 or so will transfer the bags to
the lift. One or two men suffice for the overhead work; their station is
in the trestle trees. On board the receiving ship a few men will be
stationed at the shear head to empty the bags into a canvas shoot, and
then return them, while there will be the usual force of bunker
trimmers. A ton of coal per minute has been transferred from the collier
to the vessel, but for this capacity the ships must not be too far
apart, else the rope would not remain taut under such loads. During the
Russo-Japanese War, many of the Russian battleships were coaled by means
of aerial cableways. The coaling of vessels in this manner seems a
success, but it would be desirable to increase the carrying capacity of
the cableway or to duplicate the installations.

_Telpherage._--A telpher ropeway or cableway may be defined as a ropeway
or cableway worked and controlled electrically, only a rail rope being
required besides the live rail or wire from which the electric current
is taken. Telpherage was devised by Professor Fleeming Jenkin in 1881,
and developed by him in conjunction with Professors W. E. Ayrton and J.
Perry. The telpher itself consists of a light two-wheeled truck,
carrying the driving motors, which, to avoid gearing or other
complicated mechanism, are usually coupled directly to the axles of the
telpher. Thus the telpher is a self-propelled electric carrier running
on a mono-rail, which, according to the conditions, may be a steel rail
or a steel cable. From the telpher are suspended carriers which can be
adapted to any kind of material. In many cases the whole load may be
suspended from the telpher, or the load, especially if of some length,
may be supported at one end by a telpher, and at the other end by what
is known as a trailer, or again, two telphers may be installed, one at
each end of the load. The telpher carries a small trolley sheave or bow
which serves to collect the current from a trolley wire stretched a
little above the rail. Frequently the telpher is accompanied by an
attendant who manipulates it, but by dividing the trolley wire into
sections any system of telpherage may be constructed to work
automatically, and by switching off the current from the section in
which the telpher is required to stop it can be brought to a standstill
at any required point. The speed of the telpher may be readily regulated
by t