Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - 1898 - A Clever Piece of Engineering . . .

The coal-loading apparatus described by Mr. Wrightson in his paper read at the Cardiff meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute last year, will also be remembered in connection with this matter. It may be added that the docks not being supplied with a reservoir for storage of water, large centrifugal pumping engines have been furnished, and these will raise the level 1 ft. per hour over the whole area of 23 acres.

The illustrations we give show a clever piece of engineering carried out by Mr. Riches in connection with the entrance to the Penarth Dock

The opening to the dock is 60 ft. and the coping 41 ft. above sill, whilst the rise and fall is excessive, being over 38 ft. at times. Under these circumstances it will easily be understood that the gates must be stout, and iron gates were put up when the dock was made. There is to the docks an entrance basin with a single pair of gates, but these are fitted on the outside with sea gates to protect the main gates on occasion from heavy waves and excessive tides. These outer gates, however, are very rarely used.

The area of the basin is 3 acres, and at the inner side is the lock, which is 1 acre in extent, and which leads to the dock proper. Some time back it was found that the gates were deteriorating so much that they must soon require repairing, and this set Mr. T. Hurry Riches a somewhat difficult task to carry out, as it was desirable to effect the repairs without stopping the traffic, and thus forcing the dock’s customers to seek other fields.

Two things had to be done. One was to replace the timber sills of the two pairs of outer gates, and repair the iron roller paths of these gates, after which the inner gates had to be replaced. As a matter of fact, all the gates have now been replaced.

Figures 1 to 8 inclusive.