Abstract: A system for loading liquids, particularly useful with water-borne oil tankers, which is basically constructed of liquid conduits articulated in the form of lazy tongs and vertically suspended from a cantilevered boom to enable oil to be loaded from a drilling platform onto a vessel. The lazy tongs system is formed with at least two vertically displaced articulated joints to enable the lower end of the system to move vertically for attachment to or during loading of a vessel. A block and tackle is provided for vertical actuation of the lazy tongs system.

Abstract: The four hoisting cables of a container loading crane which depend from the free end of the crane boom pass axially through a central opening of a turntable mechanism. The upper turntable portion is mounted on the boom and may tilt about a horizontal axis. The lower turntable portion may be moved relative to the upper portion about a vertical axis. The free ends of the hoisting cables extend between two pairs of engaging elements on the lower turntable portion and corresponding two pairs of engaging elements on a container hoisting frame. The pairs of engagement elements at least on the frame are spaced farther apart in the direction of frame elongation than the frame is wide. One engagement element associated with each tension member is a pulley over which the tension member is trained.

Abstract: A system or structure for supporting a construction rig, such as a crane or the like, is formed with four bearing members each of which is maintained in contact with a ground formation over which the rig is to be moved by deflective action of the support structure. In the operation of the device, when a first bearing member is deflected relative to a reference plane, a second bearing member located diagonally opposite the first bearing member is deflected relative to the reference plane in the same direction by approximately the same distance. At the same time, a third and fourth support bearing member of the support system are each deflected relative to the reference plane in a direction opposite to the direction in which the first and second support bearing members are moved by approximately the same distance as the first two support bearing members.

Abstract: The winches of a luffing crane having two individually operated hoisting cables depending from different longitudinal sections of the boom are deenergized by an overload protection mechanism when the torque exerted during luffing by a single load suspended from both cables exceeds a value consistent with the stability of the crane. The mechanism which employs only mechanical elements derives signals from the stresses transmitted by the loaded cables to the two winches, weights the signals in accordance with the different spacing of the dependent cable ends, adds the weighted signals, and compares the sum so obtained with a signal derived from the angular boom position and a curve of maximum permissible loads arrived at from design parameters of the crane and the spacing of the cable ends.

Abstract: A hydraulic dredge for recovering manganese nodules from the sea bottom includes a transfer station suspended from a mother ship at a fixed depth from the surface and a dredging tool assembly suspended from winches on the transfer station by means of cables whose effective lengths are varied in response to depth signals from sensors respectively associated with the cables on respective parts of the tool assembly to keep the same contiguously adjacent the sea floor surface in parallel relationship.

Abstract: A tower crane is erected from a boom assembly, first and second tower sections of different cross section, and a base in a sequence of steps in which the boom assembly is mounted on a hollow climbing section dimensioned to be received in each of the larger second tower sections and defining a cavity dimensioned to receive each of the first tower sections. One of the latter is secured on a base in upright position, and the upright section is received in the cavity of the climbing section which is then raised relative to the first section and enveloped by one of the second sections. The enveloping section is secured to the base and the raised climbing section for supporting the climbing section whereupon the first tower section may be rleased from the base, raised, and secured to the second tower section.

Abstract: A transporter for red hot steel ingots has two pairs of jaws horizontally movable relative to each other along a carrier bar. A hanger pivotally mounted on one jaw and carrying a gripper pad may be swung toward the other jaw by a separate clamping drive. The momentum exerted on the jaws by the engaged ingot causes sufficient angular displacement of the jaws to tilt them into jamming engagement with the carrier bar, thereby blocking longitudinal jaw movement on the bar.

Abstract: The weight of a pivotally mounted boom in a crane is compensated for in part by a counterweight which is suspended from one end of a compensating cable trained over a deflecting pulley at the top of the supporting crane structure. The other end of the cable is connected to a first fastener near the pivot axis of the boom by a rod and to another fastener on the boom remote from the pivot axis by a flexible chain. The rod is shorter than the distance between the first fastener and the deflecting pulley so that the compensating cable and the rod are longitudinally aligned before the boom reaches its steepest position, the boom thereby being relieved from the then unnecessary action of the counterweight.

Abstract: In a crane having two crabs or trolleys on an approximately horizontal beam of the crane, the trolleys are moved along the beam by two cables whose ends are wound on a common, motor-driven drum, and which are trained over pulleys on the beam and on the trolleys in such a manner that both trolleys are moved jointly at one half of the circumferential drum speed or one trolley is moved at the full drum speed when the other trolley is arrested.