CONVEYANCING

conveyancing, in english law, the art or science of conveying or effecting the transfer of property, or modifying interests in relation to property, by means of written documents. history. in early legal systems the main element in the transfer of property was the change, generally accompanied by some public ceremony, in the actual physical possession: the function of documents, where used, being merely the preservation of evidence. thus, in great britain in the feudal period, the common mode of conveying an immediate freehold was by _feoffment with livery of seisin_--a proceeding in which the transferee was publicly invested with the feudal possession or _seisin_, usually through the medium of some symbolic act performed in the presence of witnesses upon the land itself. a deed or charter of feoffment was commonly executed at the same time by way of record, but formed no essential part of the conveyance. in the language of the old rule of the common law, the immediate freehold in corporeal hereditaments lay in livery, whereas reversions and remainders and all incorporeal hereditaments lay in grant, i.e. passed by the delivery of the deed of conveyance or grant without any further ceremony. the process by which this distinction was broken down and the present uniform system of private conveyancing by simple deed was established, constitutes a long chapter in english legal history. the land of a feudal owner was subject to the risk of forfeiture for treason, and to military and other burdens. the common law did not allow him to dispose of it by will. by the law of mortmain religious houses were prohibited from acquiring it. the desire to escape from these burdens and limitations gave rise to the practice of making feoffments to the _use_ of, or upon trust for, persons other than those to whom the seisin or legal possession was delivered. the common law recognized only the legal tenant; but the _cestui que use_ or beneficial owner gradually secured for his wishes and directions concerning the profits of the land the strong protection of the chancellors as exercising the equitable jurisdiction of the king. the resulting loss to the crown and the great lords of the feudal dues and privileges, coupled with the public disadvantages arising from ownership of land which, in an increasing degree, was merely nominal, brought about the passing in the year 1535 of the famous statute of uses, the object of which was to destroy altogether the system of uses and equitable estates. it enacted, in substance, that whoever should have a use or trust in any hereditaments should be deemed to have the legal seisin, estate and possession for the same interest that he had in the use; in other words, that he should become in effect the feudal tenant without actual delivery of possession to him by the actual feoffee to uses or trustee: in its result the statute was a fiasco. it was solemnly decided that the act transferred the legal possession to the use once only, and that in the case of a conveyance to a to the use of b to the use of or upon trust for c, it gave the legal estate to b, and left c with an interest in the position of the use before the statute. thus was completed the foundation of the modern system of trusts fastened upon legal estates and protected by the equitable doctrines and practice of the judicature. but the statute not only failed to abolish uses: it also opened the way to the evasion of the public ceremony of livery of seisin, and the avoidance of all notoriety in conveyances. other ways, besides an actual feoffment to uses, of creating a use had been in vogue before the statute. if a bargained with b, in writing or not, for the sale of land, and b paid the price, but a remained in legal possession, the court of chancery enforced the use or equitable interest in favour of b. the effect of a _bargain and sale_ (as such a transaction was called) after the statute was to give b the legal interest without any livery of seisin. this fresh danger was met in the very year of the statute itself by an enactment that a bargain and sale of an estate of inheritance or freehold should be made by deed publicly enrolled. but the statute of enrolments was in terms limited to estates of freehold. it was allowed that a bargain and sale for a term, say, of one year, must transfer the seisin to the bargainee without enrolment. and since what remained in the bargainer was merely a reversion which "lay in grant," it was an easy matter to release this by deed the day after. by this ingenious device was the publicity of feoffment or enrolment avoided, and the _lease and release_, as the process was called, remained the usual mode of conveying a freehold, in possession down to the 19th century. it was not until 1845 that the modern system of transfer by a single deed was finally established. by the real property act of that year it was enacted that all corporeal hereditaments should, as regards the immediate freehold, be deemed to lie in grant as well as in livery. since this act the ancient modes of conveyance, though not abolished by it, have in practice become obsolete. traces of the old learning connected with them remain, however, embedded in the modern conveyance. many a purchase-deed recites that the vendor is _seised_ in fee-simple of the property. it is the practice, moreover, to convey not only "to" but also "to the use of" a purchaser. for before the statute of uses, a conveyance made without any consideration or declaration of uses was deemed to be made to the use of the party conveying. in view of the operation of the statute upon the legal estate in such circumstances, it is usual in all conveyances, whether for value or not, to declare a use in favour of the party to whom the grant is made. in its popular usage the word "conveyance" signifies the document employed to carry out a purchase of land. but the term "conveyancing" is of much wider import, and comprises the preparation and completion of all kinds of legal instruments. a well-known branch of the conveyancer's business is the investigation of title--an important function in the case of purchases or mortgages of real estate. with personal estate (other than leasehold) he has perhaps not so much concern. chattels are usually transferred by delivery, and stocks or shares by means of printed instruments which can be bought at a law-stationer's. the common settlements and wills, however, deal wholly or mainly with personal property; and an interest in settled personalty is frequently the subject of a mortgage. of late years, also, there has been an enormous increase in the volume of conveyancing business in connexion with limited joint-stock companies. in the preparation of legal documents the practitioner is much assisted by the use of _precedents_. these are outlines or models of instruments of all kinds, exhibiting in accepted legal phraseology their usual form and contents with additions and variations adapted to particular circumstances. collections of them have been in use from early times, certainly since printing became common. the modern precedent is, upon the whole, concise and businesslike. the prolixity which formerly characterized most legal documents has largely disappeared, mainly through the operation of statutes which enable many clauses previously inserted at great length to be, in some cases, e.g. covenants for title, incorporated by the use of a few prescribed words, and in others safely omitted altogether. the solicitors' remuneration act 1881, has also assisted the process of curtailment, for there is now little or no connexion between the length of a deed and the cost of its preparation. so long as the draftsman adheres to recognized legal phraseology and to the well-settled methods of carrying out legal operations, there is no reason why modern instruments should not be made as terse and businesslike as possible. contracts for sale. it is not usual for land to be sold without a formal agreement in writing being entered into. this precaution is due, partly to the statute of frauds (§ 4), which renders a contract for the sale of land unenforceable by action "unless the agreement upon which such action shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith or some other person thereunto by him lawfully authorized," and partly to the fact that there are few titles which can with prudence be exposed to all the requisitions that a purchaser under an "open contract" is entitled by law to make. such a purchaser may, for example, require a forty years' title (vendor and purchaser act 1874). under an open contract a vendor is presumed to be selling the fee-simple in possession, free from any incumbrance, or liability, or restriction as to user or otherwise; and if he cannot deduce a title of the statutory length, or procure an incumbrance or restriction to be removed, the purchaser may repudiate the contract. the preparation of an agreement for sale involves accordingly an examination of the vendor's title, and the exercise of skill and judgment in deciding how the vendor may be protected against trouble and expense without prejudice to the sale. upon a sale by auction the agreement is made up of (1) the particulars, which describe the property; (2) the conditions of sale, which state the terms upon which it is offered; and (3) the memorandum or formal contract at the foot of the conditions, which incorporates by reference the particulars and conditions, names or sufficiently refers to the vendor, and is signed by the purchaser after the sale. the object of the agreement, whether the sale is by private contract or by auction, is to define accurately what is sold, to provide for the length of title and the evidence in support of or in connexion with the title which is to be required except so far as it is intended that the general law shall regulate the rights of the parties, and to fix the times at which the principal steps in the transaction are to be taken. it is also usual to provide for the payment of interest at a prescribed rate upon the purchase money if the completion shall be delayed beyond the day fixed for any cause other than the vendor's wilful default, and also that the vendor shall be at liberty to rescind the contract without paying costs or compensation if the purchaser insists upon any requisition or objection which the vendor is unable or, upon the ground of expense or other reasonable ground, is unwilling to comply with or remove. upon a sale by auction it is the rule to require a deposit to be paid by way of security to the vendor against default on the part of the purchaser. abstract of title. requisitions. the signature of the agreement is followed by the delivery to the purchaser or his solicitor of the abstract of title, which is an epitome of the various instruments and events under and in consequence of which the vendor derives his title. a purchaser is entitled to an abstract at the vendor's expense unless otherwise stipulated. it begins with the instrument fixed by the contract for the commencement of the title, or, if there has been no agreement upon the subject, with an instrument of such character and date as is prescribed by the law in the absence of stipulation between the parties. from its commencement as so determined the abstract, if properly prepared, shows the history of the title down to the sale; every instrument, marriage, birth, death, or other fact or event constituting a link in the chain of title, being sufficiently set forth in its proper order. the next step is the verification of the abstract on the purchaser's behalf by a comparison of it with the originals of the deeds, the probates of the wills, and office copies of the instruments of record through which the title is traced. the vendor is bound to produce the original documents, except such as are of record or have been lost or destroyed, but, unless otherwise stipulated, the expense of producing those which are not in his possession falls upon the purchaser (conveyancing act 1881). after being thus verified, the abstract is perused by the purchaser's advisers with the object of seeing whether a title to the property sold is deduced according to the contract, and what evidence, information or objection, in respect of matters appearing or arising upon the abstract, ought to be called for or taken. for this purpose it is necessary to consider the legal effect of the abstracted instruments, whether they have been properly completed, whether incumbrances, adverse interests, defects, liabilities in respect of duties, or any other burdens or restrictions disclosed by the abstract, have been already got rid of or satisfied, or remain to be dealt with before the completion of the sale. the result of the consideration of these matters is embodied in "requisitions upon title," which are delivered to the vendor's solicitors within a time usually fixed for the purpose by the contract. in making or insisting upon requisitions regard is had, among other things, to any special conditions in the contract dealing with points as to which evidence or objection might otherwise have been required or taken, and to a variety of provisions contained in the vendor and purchaser act 1874, and the conveyancing act 1881, which apply, except so far as otherwise agreed, and of which the following are the most important: (1) recitals, statements and descriptions of facts, matters and parties contained in instruments twenty years old at the date of the contract are, unless proved inaccurate, to be taken as sufficient evidence of the truth of such facts, matters and descriptions; (2) a purchaser cannot require the production of, or make any requisition or objection in respect of, any document dated before the commencement of the title; (3) the cost of obtaining evidence and information not in the vendor's possession must be borne by the purchaser. the possibility of the rescission clause now commonly found in contracts for the sale of real estate being exercised in order to avoid compliance with an onerous requisition, is also an important factor in the situation. the requisitions are in due course replied to, and further requisitions may arise out of the answers. a summary method of obtaining a judicial determination of questions connected with the contract, but not affecting its validity, is provided by the vendor and purchaser act 1874. before completion it is usual for the purchaser to cause searches to be made in various official registers for matters required to be entered therein, such as judgments, land charges, and pending actions, which may affect the vendor's title to sell, or amount to an incumbrance upon the property. conveyances. when the title has been approved, or so soon as it appears reasonably certain that it will be accepted, the draft conveyance is prepared and submitted to the vendor. this is commonly done by and at the expense of the purchaser, who is entitled to determine the form of the conveyance, provided that the vendor is not thereby prejudiced, or put to additional expense. the common mode of conveying a freehold is now, as already mentioned, by ordinary deed, called in this case an _indenture_, from the old practice, where a deed was made between two or more parties, of writing copies upon the same parchment and then dividing it by an indented or toothed line. indenting is, however, not necessary, and in modern practice is disused. a deed derives its efficacy from its being sealed and delivered. it is still a matter of doubt whether signing is essential. it is not necessary that its execution should be attested except in special circumstances, as, e.g. where made under a power requiring the instrument exercising it to be attested. but in practice conveyances are not only sealed, but also signed, and attested by one or two witnesses. the details of a conveyance in any particular case depend upon the subject-matter and terms of the sale, and the state of the title as appearing by the abstract. the framework, however, of an ordinary purchase-deed consists of (1) the date and parties, (2) the recitals, (3) the testatum or witnessing-part, containing the statement of the consideration for the sale, the words incorporating covenants for title and the operative words, (4) the parcels or description of the property, (5) the habendum, showing the estate or interest to be taken by the purchaser, and (6) any provisos or covenants that may be required. a few words will illustrate the object and effect of these component parts. (1) the parties are the persons from whom the property, or some estate or interest in or in relation to it, is to pass to the purchaser, or whose concurrence is rendered necessary by the state of the title in order to give the purchaser the full benefit of his contract and to complete it according to law. it is often necessary that other persons besides the actual vendor should join in the conveyance, e.g. a mortgagee who is to be paid off and convey his estate, a trustee of an outstanding legal estate, a person entitled to some charge or restriction who is to release it, or trustees who are to receive the purchase-money where a limited owner is selling under a power (e.g. a tenant for life under the power given by the settled land act 1882). parties are described by their names, addresses and occupations or titles, each person with a separate interest, or filling a distinct character, being of a separate part. (2) the recitals explain the circumstances of the title, the interests of the parties in relation to the property, and the agreement or object intended to be carried into effect by the conveyance. where the sale is by an absolute owner there is no need for recitals, and they are frequently dispensed with; but where there are several parties occupying different positions, recitals in chronological order of the instruments and facts giving rise to their connexion with the property are generally necessary in order to make the deed intelligible. (3) it is usual to mention the consideration. where it consists of money the statement of its payment is followed by an acknowledgment, in a parenthesis, of its receipt, which, in deeds executed since the conveyancing act 1881, dispenses with any endorsed or further receipt. a vendor, who is the absolute beneficial owner, now conveys expressly "as beneficial owner," which words, by virtue of the conveyancing act 1881, imply covenants by him with the purchaser that he has a right to convey, for quiet enjoyment, freedom from incumbrances, and for further assurance--limited, however, to the acts and defaults of the covenantor and those through whom he derives his title otherwise than by purchase for value. a trustee or an incumbrancer joining in the deed conveys "as trustee" or "as mortgagee," by which words covenants are implied that the covenantor individually has not done or suffered anything to incumber the property, or prevent him from conveying as expressed. as to the operative words, any expression showing an intention to pass the estate is effectual. since the conveyancing act 1881, "convey" has become as common as "grant," which was formerly used. (4) the property may be described either in the body of the deed or in a schedule, or compendiously in the one and in detail in the other. in any case it is usual to annex a plan. different kinds of property have their appropriate technical words of description. _hereditaments_ is the most comprehensive term, and is generally used either alone or in conjunction with other words more specifically descriptive of the property conveyed. (5) the habendum begins with the words "to hold," and the estate, on a sale in fee-simple, is limited, as already mentioned, not only _to_, but also _to the use of_, the purchaser. before the conveyancing act 1881, it was necessary to add, after the name of the purchaser, the words "and his heirs," or "his heir and assigns," though the word "assigns" never had any conveyancing force. but since that act it is sufficient to add "in fee-simple" without using the word "heirs." unless, however, one or other of these additions is made, the purchaser will even now get only an estate for his life. if the property is to be held subject to a lease or incumbrance, or is released by the deed from an incumbrance previously existing, this is expressed after the words of limitation. (6) where any special covenants or provisions have been stipulated for, or are required in the circumstances of the title, they are, as a rule, inserted at the end of the conveyance. in simple cases none are needed. where, however, a vendor retains documents of title, which he is entitled to do where he sells a part only of the estate to which they relate, it is the practice for him by the conveyance to acknowledge the right of the purchaser to production and delivery of copies of such of them as are not instruments of record like wills or orders of court, and to undertake for their safe custody. this acknowledgment and undertaking supply the place of the lengthy covenants to the like effect which were usual before the conveyancing act 1881. a trustee or mortgagee joining gives an acknowledgment as to documents retained by him, but not an undertaking. the foregoing outline of a conveyance will be illustrated by the following specimen of a simple purchase-deed of part of an estate belonging to an absolute owner in fee:-- this indenture made the day of between a. b. of, &c., of the one part and c. d. of, &c., of the other part whereas the said a. b. is seised (among other hereditaments) of the messuage hereinafter described and hereby conveyed for an estate in fee simple in possession free from incumbrances and has agreed to sell the same to the said c. d. for £100 now this indenture witnesseth that in pursuance of the said agreement and in consideration of the sum of £100 paid to the said a. b. by the said c. d. (the receipt whereof the said a. b. doth hereby acknowledge) the said a. b. as beneficial owner doth hereby convey unto the said c. d. all that messuage or tenement situate &c., and known as, &c. to hold the premises unto and to the use of the said c. d. his heirs and assigns [_or_ in fee simple] and the said a. b. doth hereby acknowledge the right of the said c. d. to production and delivery of copies of the following documents of title [_mentioning them_] and doth undertake for the safe custody thereof in witness, &c. it will be observed that throughout the deed there are no stops, the commencement of the several parts being indicated by capital letters. the draft conveyance having been approved on behalf of the vendor, it is engrossed upon stout paper or parchment, and there remains only the completion of the sale, which usually takes place at the office of the vendor's solicitor. a purchaser is not entitled to require the vendor to attend personally and execute the conveyance in his presence or that of his solicitor. the practice is for the deed to be previously executed by the vendor and delivered to his solicitor, and for the solicitor to receive the purchase-money on his client's behalf, since a purchaser is, under the conveyancing act 1881, safe in paying the purchase-money to a solicitor producing a deed so executed, when it contains the usual acknowledgment by the vendor of the receipt of the money. upon the completion, the documents of title are handed over except in the case above referred to, and any claims between the parties in respect of interest upon the purchase-money, apportioned outgoings, or otherwise, are settled. the conveyance is, of course, delivered to the purchaser, upon whom rests the obligation of affixing the proper stamp--which he may do without penalty within thirty days after execution (stamp act 1891). it may be added that, subject to any special bargain, which is rarely made, the costs of the execution by the vendor and other parties whose concurrence is necessary, and of any act required to be done by the vendor to carry out his contract, are borne by the vendor. leases. ordinary leases at rack-rents are not generally preceded by a formal agreement, such as is common on a sale of land, or by an investigation into the lessor's title. as a rule, the principal terms are arranged between the parties, and embodied with various ancillary provisions in a draft lease, which is prepared by the lessor's advisers and submitted to the lessee, the ultimate form and contents of the instrument being adjusted by negotiation. if an intending lessee desires to examine the title he must make an express bargain to that effect, for under a contract to grant a lease the intended lessee is not entitled, in the absence of such express stipulation, to call for the title to the freehold (vendor and purchaser act 1874). by the statute of frauds all leases, except leases for a term not exceeding three years, and at not less than two-thirds of the rack-rent, were required to be in writing. and now by the real property act 1845, leases required by law to be in writing are void _at law_ unless made by deed. an instrument, void as a lease under the act, may, however, be valid as an agreement to take a lease; and since the judicature act 1873, under which equitable doctrines prevail in the high court, a person holding under an agreement for a lease, of which specific performance would be granted, is treated in all branches of that court as if such a lease were already executed. unless otherwise agreed, a lease is always prepared by a lessor's solicitor at the expense of the lessee; but the cost of the counterpart (i.e. the duplicate executed by the lessee) is usually borne by the lessor. assignment of leaseholds. upon the sale and conveyance of a leasehold property substantially the same procedure is observed as above indicated in the case of a freehold. a few additional points, however, may be specially mentioned. under an open contract the vendor cannot be called upon to show the title to the freehold reversion (vendor and purchaser act 1874; conveyancing act 1881). accordingly, the abstract of title begins with the lease, however old; but the subsequent title need not be carried back for more than forty years before the sale. the purchaser, apart from stipulation, must assume, unless the contrary appears, that the lease was duly granted, and upon production of the receipt for the last payment due for rent before completion, that all the covenants and provisions of the lease have been duly performed and observed up to the date of actual completion. the appropriate word of conveyance is "assign," and a conveyance of leaseholds is generally called an assignment. the vendor's covenants for title implied by his assigning "as beneficial owner" include, in addition to the covenants implied by those words in a conveyance of freehold, a covenant limited in manner above mentioned, that the lease is valid, and that the rent and the provisions of the lease have been paid and observed up to the time of conveyance (conveyancing act 1881). where the vendor, as is the common case, remains liable after the assignment for the rent and the performance of the covenants, the purchaser must covenant to pay the rent, and perform and observe the covenants and provisions of the lease, and keep the vendor indemnified in those respects. mortgages. a mortgage is prepared by the solicitor of the mortgagee, and the mortgagor bears the whole expenses of the transaction. it is seldom that there is any preliminary agreement, because (1) a contract to lend money is not specifically enforceable; and (2) inasmuch as the primary object of a mortgagee is to have his money well secured, he is not, generally, willing to submit to restrictions as to title or evidence of title which might give rise to difficulty or expense in the event of a sale of the mortgaged property. an intending mortgagor is accordingly required to show a title easily marketable, and to verify it at his own cost. a mortgage follows the same general form as a conveyance on sale, the principal points of difference being that the conveyance of the property is preceded by a covenant for the payment of the mortgage money and interest, and followed by a proviso for reconveyance upon such payment, and by any special provisions necessary or proper in the circumstances, such as a covenant for insurance and repairs where the security comprises buildings. the covenants for title implied by a mortgagor conveying "as beneficial owner" are the same as in the case of a vendor, but they are absolute and not qualified in the manner above pointed out. the beneficial operation of the conveyancing act 1881 in shortening conveyances is well illustrated by a modern mortgage. for, by virtue of the act, a mortgagee by deed executed after its commencement has, subject to any contrary provisions contained in the deed, the following powers to the like extent as if they had been conferred in terms: (1) a power of sale exercisable after the mortgage money has become due (a) if notice requiring payment has been served and not complied with for three months, (b) if any interest is in arrear for two months, or (c) there has been a breach of some obligation under the deed or the act other than the covenant for payment of the mortgage money or interest; (2) a power to insure subject to certain restrictions; (3) a power, when entitled to sell, to appoint a receiver; and (4) a power while in possession to cut and sell timber. the act contains ancillary provisions enabling a mortgagee upon a sale to convey the property for such estate or interest as is the subject of the mortgage, and to give a valid receipt for the purchase-money, and the purchaser is amply protected against any irregularities of which he had no notice. there are also large powers of leasing conferred by the act upon mortgagor and mortgagee while respectively in possession, and a power for the mortgagor, whilst entitled to redeem, to inspect and take copies of title-deeds in the mortgagee's possession. the elaborate provisions for all these purposes which were formerly inserted in mortgage deeds are now omitted; but sometimes the operation of the act is modified in certain respects. the procedure upon a sale by a mortgagee is the same as in the case of any other vendor. he conveys, however, "as mortgagee," these words implying only a covenant by him against incumbrances arising from his own acts. settlements. the frame of a strict settlement of real estate, which is usually made either on marriage or by way of resettlement on a tenant in tail under an existing settlement attaining twenty-one, has been much simplified; but such settlements still remain the most technical and most complicated of legal instruments. by virtue of the settled land acts 1882 to 1890, tenants for life and many other limited owners have extensive powers of sale, of leasing, and of doing numerous other acts required in a due course of management. these powers cannot be excluded or fettered by settlors. they are, as a rule, considered in practice to be sufficient, and the corresponding elaborate provisions formerly inserted in settlements are now omitted, the operation of the acts being merely supplemented, where desirable, by some extension of the statutory powers, in relation, e.g., to the investment and application of capital money. to complete the statutory machinery it is desirable that persons should be nominated by the settlement trustees for the purposes of the acts. since the conveyancing act 1881, provisions for the protection of jointresses or persons entitled under settlements to rent charges or annual sums issuing out of the land are no longer required, as all such persons have now powers of distress and entry, and of limiting terms to secure their respective interests. terms for raising portions must still, however, be expressly created. the conveyancing act 1881 also confers large powers of management during the minorities of infants beneficially entitled upon persons either appointed for the purpose by the instrument or being such trustees such as are mentioned in § 42. an estate in tail may now be limited by the use of the words "in tail" without the words "heirs of the body" formerly necessary. and a settlor generally conveys "as settlor," by which only a covenant for further assurance is implied under the conveyancing act 1881. personal settlements are most often made upon marriage. the settled property is vested in trustees, either by the settlement itself, or in the case of cash, mortgage debts, stocks or shares, by previous delivery or transfer, upon trusts declared by the instrument. the normal trusts after the marriage are (1) for investment; (2) for payment of the income of the husband's property to him for life, and of the wife's property to her for life for her separate use without power of anticipation whilst under coverture; (3) for payment to the survivor for his or her life of the income of both properties; (4) after the death of the survivor, both as to capital and income, for the issue of the marriage as the husband and wife shall jointly by deed appoint, and in default of joint appointment as the survivor shall by deed or will appoint, and in default of such appointment for the children of the marriage who attain twenty-one, or being daughters marry, in equal shares, with the addition of a clause (called the hotchpot clause) precluding a child who or whose issue takes a part of the fund by appointment from sharing in the unappointed part without bringing the appointed share into account. then follows a power for the trustees with the consent of the parents whilst respectively living to raise a part (usually a half) of the share of a child and apply it for his or her advancement or benefit. power to apply income, after the death of the life tenants, for the maintenance and education of infants entitled in expectancy, is conferred upon trustees by the conveyancing act 1881. the ultimate trusts in the event of there being no children who attain vested interests are (1) of the husband's property for him absolutely; and (2) of the wife's property for such persons as she shall when discovert by deed, or whether covert or discovert by will, appoint, and in default of appointment, for her absolutely if she survive the husband, but if not, then for her next of kin under the statute of distributions, excluding the husband. for all ordinary purposes the trustees have now under various statutes sufficient powers and indemnities. they may, however, in some cases need special protection against liability. a power of appointing new trustees is supplied by the trustee act 1893. it is usually made exercisable by the husband and wife during their joint lives, and by the survivor during his or her life. wills. the form and contents of wills are extremely diverse. a will of, perhaps, the commonest type (a) appoints executors and trustees; (b) makes a specific disposition of a freehold or leasehold residence; (c) gives a few legacies or annuities; and (d) devises and bequeaths to the executors and trustees the residue of the real and personal estate upon trust to sell and convert, to invest the proceeds (after payment of debts and funeral and testamentary expenses) in a specified manner, to pay the income of the investments to the testator's widow for life or until another marriage, and subject to her interest, to hold the capital and income in trust for his children who attain twenty-one, or being daughters marry, in equal shares, with a power of advancement. daughters' shares are frequently settled by testators upon them and their issue on the same lines and with the same statutory incidents as above mentioned in the observations upon settlements; and sometimes a will contains in like manner a strict settlement of real estate. it is a point often overlooked by testators desirous of benefiting remote descendants that future interests in property must, under what is known as the rule against perpetuities, be restricted within a life or lives in being and twenty-one years afterwards. in disposing of real estate "devise" is the appropriate word of conveyance, and of personal estate "bequeath." but neither word is at all necessary. "i leave all i have to a. b. and appoint him my executor" would make an effectual will for a testator who wished to give all his property, whether real or personal, after payment of his debts, to a single person. by virtue of the land transfer act 1897, part i., real estate of an owner dying after 1897 now vests for administrative purposes in his executors or administrators, notwithstanding any testamentary disposition. it remains to mention that by the land transfer act 1897 a system of compulsory registration of title, limited to the county of london, was established. (see land registration.) _conveyancing counsel to the court_ (i.e. to the chancery division of the high court) are certain counsel, in actual practice as conveyancers, of not less than ten years' standing, who are appointed by the lord chancellor, to the number of six, under s. 40 of the master in chancery abolition act 1852. they are appointed for the purpose of assisting the court in the investigation of the title to any estate, and upon their opinion the court or any judge thereof may act. any party who objects to the opinion given by any conveyancing counsel may have the point in dispute disposed of by the judge at chambers or in court. business to be referred to conveyancing counsel is distributed among them in rotation, and their fees are regulated by the taxing officers. _united states._--american legislation favours the general policy of registering all documents in the contents of which the public have an interest, and its tendency has been steadily towards more and more full registration both of documents and statistics. from the early days of the colonial era it has been customary to record wills and conveyances of real estate in full in public books, suitably indexed, to which free access was given. during the last decade of the 19th century, three states--illinois, massachusetts, and ohio--adopted the main features of the torrens or prussian system for registering title to land rather than conveyances under which title may be claimed. these are the ascertainment by public officers of the state of the title to some or all of the parcels of real estate which are the subject of individual property within the state; the description of each parcel (giving its proper boundaries and characteristics) on a separate page of a public register, and of the manner in which the title is vested; the issue of a certificate to the owner that he is the owner; the official notation on this register of each change of title thereafter; and a warranty by the government of the title to which it may have certified. to make the system complete it is further requisite that every landowner should be compelled to make use of it, and that it should be impossible to transfer a title effectually without the issue of such a government certificate in favour of the purchaser. constitutional provisions have been found to prevent or embarrass legislation in these directions in some of the states, but it is believed that they are nowhere such as cannot be obeyed without any serious encroachment on the principles of the new system (_people_ v. _chase_, 165 illinois reports, 527; _state_ v. _guilbert_, 56 ohio state reports, 575; _people_ v. _simon_, 176 illinois reports, 165; _tyler_ v. _judges_, 173 massachusetts reports; 55 north-eastern reporter, 812; _hamilton_ v. _brown_, 161 united states reports, 256). conveyances which have been duly recorded become of comparatively little importance in the united states. the party claiming immediately under them, if forced to sue to vindicate his title, must produce them or account for their loss; but any one deriving title from him can procure a certified copy of the original conveyance from the recording officer and rely on that. equitable mortgages by a deposit of title-deeds are unknown. the general prevalence of public registry systems has had an influence in the development of american jurisprudence in the direction of supporting provisions in wills and conveyances, which, unless generally known, might tend to mislead and deceive, such as spendthrift trusts (_nichols_ v. _eaton_, 91 united states reports, 716). conveyances of real estate are simple in form, and are often prepared by those who have had no professional training for the purpose. printed blanks, sold at the law-stationers, are commonly employed. the lawyers in each state have devised forms for such blanks, sometimes peculiar in some points to the particular state, and sometimes copied verbatim from those in use elsewhere. deeds intended to convey an absolute estate are generally either of the form known as _warranty deed_ or of that known as _release deed_. the release deed is often used as a primary conveyance without warranty to one who has no prior interest in the land. uniformity in deeds is rendered particularly desirable from the general prevalence of the system of recording all conveyances at length in a public office. record books are printed for this purpose, containing printed pages corresponding to the printed blanks in use in the particular state, and the recording officer simply has to fill up each page as the deed of similar form was filled up. one set of books may thus be kept for recording warranty deeds, another for recording release deeds, another for recording mortgage deeds, another for leases, &c. authorities.--davidson, _precedents and forms in conveyancing_ (london, 1877 and 1885); key and elphinstone, _compendium of precedents in conveyancing_ (london, 1904); elphinstone, _introduction to conveyancing_ (london, 1900); prideaux, _precedents in conveyancing_ (1904); pollock, _the land laws_ (london, 1896). (s. wa.; s. e. b.) conveyors. "conveyor" (for derivation see conveyance) is a term generally applied to mechanical devices designed for the purpose of moving material in a horizontal or slightly inclined direction; in this article, however, are included a variety of appliances for moving materials in horizontal, vertical and combined horizontal and vertical directions. the material so handled may be conveyed in a practically uninterrupted stream, as in the case of worms, bands and pushplate conveyors, or elevators carrying grain or coal, &c.; or it may be conveyed from one point to another, intermittently, that is to say in a succession of separate loads, as happens with single bucket elevators, furnace hoists, rope and chain haulage, and also in the case of ropeways and aerial cableways. some of these devices are of great antiquity, others are of quite modern origin. the principles of their construction are simple and easy of understanding, but by variations in the details of their construction the engineer has adapted these few appliances to the most varied work. at one end of the scale they may be used for such light duties as conveying the goods purchased by a customer to the packers and bringing them back made up into a parcel or for taking his money to the cashier and returning the change. at the other they are adopted for handling large quantities of heavy material at a minimum expenditure of human labour. coal, for instance, a more or less friable substance, the value of which is seriously diminished by fracture, may be mechanically handled with a minimum risk of breakage. the difficult problem of handling the contents of gas retorts and coke ovens, and of simultaneously quenching and conveying the glowing material, has been solved. perhaps an even more astonishing piece of work is the manipulation of the iron from the blast furnace; for instance, liquid metal is drawn from a furnace into pouring pots which in their turn discharge it to and distribute it over a pig-iron casting machine, which is practically a conveyor for liquid metal, consisting of a strand of moving moulds from which the solidified pigs, after cooling in water, are automatically removed after reaching the loading terminal over the railway trucks. certain types of conveyors may be made to combine efficiently, with their primary work of transport, complex sorting, sifting, drying and weighing operations. _worm conveyors._--the worm conveyor, also known as the archimedean screw, is doubtless the most ancient form of conveyor. it consists of a continuous or broken blade screw set on a spindle. this spindle is made to revolve in a suitable trough, and as it revolves any material put in is propelled by the screw from one end of the trough to the other. such conveyors have been used in flour-mills for centuries. the writer has seen in an east anglian mill which was over 250 years old disused screw conveyors, probably as old as the mill, consisting of spindles of octagonal shape, made of not too hard wood, around which a broken blade screw was formed by the insertion at regular intervals of small blades of hard wood (fig. 1). modern worm conveyors usually consist of a spindle formed of a length of wrought iron piping, to which is fitted either a broken or continuous worm. in the former case (fig. 2) the worm is composed of a series of blades or paddles arranged like a spiral round the spindle; each blade is fixed, by means of its shank, in a transverse hole in the spindle, and the shank is held in position by being tapped and fitted with a nut. in this way is formed, out of separate blades, a practically complete screw, technically known as a "paddle worm." the lengths or sections of the worm run to about 8 ft., the various lengths being coupled by turned gudgeons, which also serve as journals for the bearings. in the so-called continuous worm conveyors the screw is formed of a continuous sheet-iron spiral (fig. 3). sometimes a narrow groove is cut in spiral form on the spindle, and in this groove the sheet-iron spiral is secured. [illustration: fig. 1.--early flour mill conveyor.[1]] [illustration: fig. 2.--paddle worm conveyor.] [illustration: fig. 3.--continuous worm conveyor.] the _spiral_ or _anti-friction_ conveyor (fig. 4) was introduced about 1887. in this case a narrow spiral, which passes concentrically round the spindle, with a space between both, is fixed to it at set intervals by small blades, each of which is itself fixed by its shank and a nut to the spindle. the spiral may be made of almost any section, from a round bar about 1⁄2 in. in diameter to l or t section, but is preferably a flat bar. worms are fitted into wooden or iron troughs leaving a clearance of 1/8 to 1/4 in. the spindle must be supported at suitable intervals by bearings, preferably of the bush type. a continuous worm, being more rigid than a paddle worm, needs fewer supports. the lid of the worm trough should be loose, not screwed on, because in case of an accumulation of feed through a choke in a delivery spout the paddles of a paddle worm would be broken, or a continuous worm stripped, unless the material could throw off the lid and relieve the worm. the ratios of the pitch of the worm to the diameter must be regulated by the nature of the material to be conveyed, and will vary from one-third to a pitch equal to, or even exceeding, the diameter. the greater the pitch the larger the capacity, but also the greater the driving power required, at the same speed. for handling materials of greater specific gravity, such as cement, &c., it is advisable to use a smaller pitch than for substances of lower specific gravity, such as grain. the capacity of a continuous worm exceeds that of either a paddle or spiral conveyor of the same diameter, pitch and speed. as regards the relative efficiency of paddle and spiral conveyors a series of careful tests made by the writer indicated that, run at a slow speed the paddle worm, but at a high speed the spiral worm, has the greater efficiency. there is of course a speed at which the efficiency of both types is about equal, and that is at 150 revolutions per minute for conveyors 4 to 6 in. in diameter. [illustration: fig. 4.--spiral or anti-friction conveyor.] the power necessary to drive worm conveyors under normal conditions is very considerable; a continuous worm of 18 to 20 in. diameter running at 60 revolutions per minute will convey 50 tons of grain per hour over a distance of a hundred feet at an expenditure of 181⁄2 to 19 h.p. a material like cement would require rather more power because of the greater friction of the cement against the blades and the trough. delivery from a worm conveyor can be effected at any desired point, all that is necessary being to cut an outlet, which should preferably be as wide as the diameter of the worm, because the worm delivers only on its leading side, and is practically empty on the other side, so that a smaller outlet might only give exit to a portion of the feed, unless it was on the leading side. a special form of worm conveyor is the _tubular_ (fig. 5), which consists of an iron tube with a continuous spiral fitted to its inner periphery, or of iron or wooden tubes of square sections fitted with fixed baffle plates inside. in working it revolves bodily on suitable rollers. this type is more costly than the ordinary worm conveyors, and also requires more power. its efficiency is, moreover, easily impaired if run at too high a speed, because the centrifugal force asserts itself and counteracts the propulsion, which in this case is effected by gravity. some experiments made in 1868 by george fosbery lyster, engineer of the liverpool docks, gave convincing results (see _proc. inst. mech. eng._, august 1869). the tubular worm conveyor is suitable where a granular material has to be moved over a comparatively short distance, say from one building to another on the same level, and where no bridge is available for the installation of any other kind of conveyor. conveyors of this type have, however, come into use for conveying hard and cutting substances over considerable lengths. ordinary worm conveyors are practically debarred from use for such substances on account of the short life of the intermediate bearings, which are not necessary with externally supported tubular worms. [illustration: fig. 5.--tubular worm conveyor.] to sum up, worm conveyors are of the simplest construction and of small prime cost. the terminals again are much less expensive than those of most other kinds of conveyors. when the distance to be traversed by the material is short, the worm conveyor has this advantage, that it is cheaper than other kinds of conveyors. if it be desired not only to convey but also to mix two or more materials, such as cement and sand in a dry state, or poultry food, this appliance is thoroughly well adapted for the work. on the other hand, there is a grinding action exercised on any material conveyed, and when hard or cutting substances are handled the wear and tear on the conveyor blades, trough and bearings is very great, and the power absorbed by a worm conveyor is a sensible item. _band conveyors._--the inventor of band conveyors for the handling of grain and minerals was g. f. lyster, who, as already mentioned, in 1868 carried out exhaustive experiments at the liverpool docks, where he established the band conveyor as a grain-handler. for granaries the band conveyor is an ideal appliance. its capacity is great, and it can be run at relatively high speeds with a moderate expenditure of power. the band conveyor of to-day is an endless belt of canvas or more often india-rubber with insertion, and when fitted with the usual receiving and delivery appliances can be used to handle grain from or into granaries and also to feed bins or sections of a warehouse. the endless bands run over terminal pulleys, and are also supported on their way by a series of guide rollers, which are in greater number on the loaded than on the empty strand. the band is usually run quite flat, except that at the point or points where the grain is fed on it is slightly hollowed for a few feet, by means of two curving rolls which are set obliquely so as to make it trough-shaped. the supporting or guide rollers are 4 in. to 6 in. in diameter, and are sometimes made of wood, but more often consist of steel tubes to which spindles with conical end gudgeons are secured. the gudgeons generally run in suitable bush-bearings, which should be well lubricated. band conveyors should be driven on the delivery and not the receiving terminal, as the tight side of the band is the flattest. the guide rollers, for ordinary grain conveyors, are fitted to the upper or working side of the band at intervals of about 6 ft., and at distances of 12 ft. on the lower or return strand. in cases where both strands of the band are used for carrying grain, the lower strand must be supported by as many rollers as the upper. under such conditions, terminal pulleys must be of larger diameter than usual, the object being to throw the two strands farther apart, so as to give sufficient space between the two strands to spout the feed in and out again at the other end. the two strands can be run any distance apart by the use of two additional pulleys for the terminals. this arrangement would be in place where it was desired, as it might be, to run one strand of the band along the top floor of the granary to distribute, while the other strand travelled along the ground-floor or basement to withdraw, the grain. [illustration: fig. 6.--throw-off carriage for band conveyor.] band conveyors are kept tight, when the band is not very long, by a tightening gear, similar to that used on elevators, and consisting of two screws which push or better pull the two pedestals of one terminal pulley farther away from the other terminal. if the band is of such length that an adjustment of 4 to 5 ft. on the tightening gear is not sufficient, it is advisable to use in place of screws a tightening pulley, over which the belt passes, but which is itself held in tension by weights. the choice of the exact tightening gear will depend on various considerations, the length of the belt, the type of throw-off carriage used, and the quality of the belt all being factors to be considered. the throw-off carriage (fig. 6), which serves to withdraw material from the band at any desired point, is a simple but ingenious appliance consisting essentially of guide pulleys which by raising one part of the band and lowering the other have the effect of causing the grain to quit the surface of the band at the point where it is deflected upwards. the grain is thus cast clear of the band, and into the air, being caught as it falls in a hopper and spouted in any desired direction. throw-off carriages differ in certain details, but the principle is the same. for feeding a band conveyor it is important to give the material a horizontal velocity, approaching that of the band. the grain should therefore be fed through a spout rather less in breadth than half of the width of the band, and set at an incline of 421⁄2° to the horizontal. band conveyors run at a speed of 400 to 600 ft. per minute, according to the nature of the material; oats, for instance, would be liable to be blown off the band at a speed in excess of 500, which would be suitable for wheat. nuts, maize and the heavier seeds could be carried at 600. the power consumption by a grain-laden band compares favourably with any other form of conveyor. an 18-in. band 100 ft. in length running 500 ft. per minute would carry 50 tons per hour at an expenditure of only 4.5 h.p. while the band conveyor is an ideal conveyor in warehouses and mills, it is also capable of rendering good service in handling such heavy materials as coal and minerals. of course for such purposes the band and its fittings must be of much more substantial construction. the central portions of the band carrying the load, being subjected to great wear and tear, are often made of solid india-rubber extending to nearly half the thickness of the band in the middle, and tapering off towards the edges, while the surface facing the guide rollers is of insertion coated with india-rubber. bands properly prepared and stretched will bear a strain of 3 tons to the square inch. balata bands may be used in place of india-rubber, but though less expensive are not so lasting. bands that have to carry coal or minerals are usually curved along the entire length of the upper or loaded strand into a trough shape by guide rollers (fig. 7). bands of woven wire are sometimes used with coal-washing plants, but have the disadvantage of lack of durability. they are more liable to stretch and are high in price. they may be run as high as about 600 ft. per minute, but to ensure proper grip-driving terminals must either be faced with leather or made of wood. [illustration: fig. 7.] the speed of band conveyors loaded with coal or minerals greatly depends on the size of the fragments; the proper speed for large pieces would be 150-200 ft. per minute, while smaller material could be carried at a maximum velocity of 700-750 ft. band conveyors will carry in an upward direction, up to 24 degrees, without any loss of capacity. they can be used not only to carry light and heavy bodies, such as grain and coal, in a continuous stream, but also to convey relatively large bodies such as sacks of flour, or cement, &c., intermittently. thus a band 26 in. wide and 350 ft. long is used at a flour-mill in york to load sacks of flour into railway trucks; by this means 12 wagons can be loaded by two men in 1 hour. band conveyors are not necessarily fixed in one place. a portable model has rendered good service in tunnel-cutting, mining and quarrying. this band is mounted in a light steel frame, itself fitted with small wheels, so as to be readily put in any required position, and is entirely self-contained, being provided with tightening gear, a small motor, &c. if required, several lengths can be joined together, or one band can deliver upon another at a lower level. the same advantages that attend the use of the band-conveyor for handling grain may be claimed for this appliance when carrying coal and heavy bodies, namely the demand for relatively small power, smooth and noiseless work, and gentle handling of material. on the other hand the feed cannot be withdrawn at intermediate points except by means of a throw-off carriage. the numerous bearings of the guide rollers require careful lubrication, and the rubber bands should be protected as much as possible from changes of temperature. the _metal band_ or belt conveyor, a modification of the rubber or canvas band conveyors, is an endless belt composed of iron plates connected to endless chains, usually of malleable cast iron, running under the plates. such appliances, being obviously more cumbrous than band conveyors, are only used in handling material of a hard and cutting nature. they usually deliver only at the end, but if intermediate delivery be desired a scraper may be so fixed across the band at a given point, at an angle of 45°, as to scrape the whole or part of the feed into a shoot, or a scraper may be mounted obliquely on a suitable carriage which can be moved to any points at which delivery may be required. in some bands of this type supporting rollers are attached to the links and travel with them, or are fixed to the framing so that the band runs over them, an arrangement which has the advantage of economizing driving power and of promoting smooth running. metal band conveyors are tightened in the same way as textile or rubber bands, and may run at a speed of 60 to 120 ft. per minute. the driving gear must always be placed at the delivery terminal, so that the loaded strand is in tension. such appliances are often used as sorting tables or picking bands, for instance, for coal, cement, minerals, &c. in another modification of the metal band conveyor, the _travelling trough_ conveyor, the sides of each plate are turned up so as to form the conveying surface of the band into a continuous trough. with this arrangement intermediate delivery is impossible, as the sides of the trough will not allow the use of a scraper. as compared with push-plate conveyors (which consist of scrapers mounted on endless travelling chains that run usually in troughs), travelling trough conveyors are gentle handlers of material. a conveyor which is capable of dealing with many different kinds of material is known as the _vibrating trough_ conveyor. it is so far like the band and travelling trough conveyor that the material it conveys from one point to another is conveyed without the use of any stirring or pushing agent, such as belong to worm, push-plate and cable trough conveyors. for materials requiring gentle treatment, this type of conveyor is eminently suitable. there are different kinds of vibrating trough conveyors. in one type the trough is caused to make a reciprocating motion by means of a crank and connecting rod, the trough itself being supported on rollers. in another type the trough is actuated by a cam, or by cranks with some kind of quick return motion. in the appliance known as the zimmer or swinging conveyor the trough is supported in its reciprocating motion by means of laminated spring legs set obliquely to the trough. these legs are securely bolted at one end to the floor or any other solid support, and at the other end to the trough itself; hence no lubrication is required, as would be the case with supporting rollers. moreover the combined action of the reciprocating motion of the crank and the rocking of the spring legs has the effect of causing the material to travel faster in the trough with a given stroke of the crank than would be the case with any other support. the material to be conveyed is not carried along with its support as in the case of a band or travelling trough conveyor, but is caused to move in a series of hops, to use popular language. [illustration: fig. 8.--swinging or zimmer conveyor.] the action will be sufficiently explained by the appended diagram (fig. 8), which, however, is exaggerated to give a clearer idea of the actual movements, which are on quite a small scale. the line ab represents the bottom of the trough, while cc are two of the spring legs; the full lines indicate the spring legs at the extreme backward position of the crank, while the dotted lines show the spring legs and bottom of the trough at the extreme forward position of the crank d. the material to be conveyed, represented by e, is thrown forward by the forward movement of the crank, and describes a short parabolic curve; it is thrown at about a right angle to the inclined legs cc, but before it has time to complete its parabolic course, the trough has been moved by the crank into its original position. as soon as the material has dropped down, the trough makes another forward movement, whereupon the material is thrown forward another stage, and this process, which is continually repeated, as indicated by the letters e1, e2, e3, has the effect of carrying or conveying the material in the direction desired. it is important to note that the actual movement both of trough and material is within narrow bounds; the horizontal movement of the trough is only about 1 in., while the vertical or upward movement is about 1/8 in. the material is conveyed by this vibrating trough with a minimum of friction, as it is evident that the material is carried forward without any contact with the trough, while the very nature of the motion precludes injurious friction between the particles themselves. when the trough is full the material will move as it were in a solid mass. an important improvement in this type of vibrating trough conveyor is the balanced conveyor, in which the trough is made in two sections, one being placed at a slightly lower level than the other, so that one-half may deliver into the other half. the two sections are driven by triple or quadruple cranks set at an angle of about 180° to one another. in this case one-half of the conveyor will move forward while the other moves backward, thus balancing each other (fig. 9). at the same time the material keeps moving in the same direction because all the spring legs are of the same inclination. it is usual to drive balanced conveyors at or near the centre of their length, but they may also be driven from one end, in which case the balancing of the conveyor would be effected by a powerful volute spring which is compressed and released by a crank and connecting rod, in place of being connected to one-half of the conveyor. two sections of a zimmer conveyor can be made to run in opposite directions by merely reversing the inclination of the spring legs; in such a case the sections of a trough would be connected by a flexible coupling. conveyors of this type have been used in lengths up to 500 ft., and in widths of over 6 ft. the feed can be received or discharged at any desired point in the length; for drawing off material at intermediate points it is only necessary to open a slide in the bottom of the trough. if a great increase be desired in the capacity of this conveyor the connecting rod may be attached, not to the trough at all, but to the spring legs at a point of about a third or half-way from the base, so that the free ends of the legs can swing the trough backward and forward; by this means the stroke is amplified and consequently the capacity is increased, while the driving power required is practically the same. [illustration: fig. 9.] the power absorbed by the zimmer conveyor is comparatively small; a length of 100 ft. conveying a load of 50 tons per hour takes 8.75 h.p. with a speed of 300-370 revolutions per minute of the conveyor, the material will traverse 40-70 ft. per minute. the gentle action of this appliance has caused it to be largely used in dealing with friable materials, such as coal. the simplicity of the mechanism leaves little to get out of order, and the entire absence of travelling gear, such as supporting rollers, is a valuable feature. the capacity of the conveyor may be sensibly increased by running it on a downward gradient, while the capacity will be correspondingly diminished by working in an upward direction. among many purposes for which this type of conveyor has been found suitable is that of a drainer in connexion with coal-washing plants. a perforated plate at the head will allow the water to escape, while the coal is carried to the other end. a slight upward slant permits the water left with the coal to run back and escape. in colliery work this conveyor makes a suitable picking table. the motion of the trough, while not so fast as to baffle the pickers, has the advantage of uniformly spreading the lumps of coal. this apparatus also lends itself to the grading of coal. all that is necessary is to fit the trough with a sieve which divides it into an upper and lower deck. the coarser material passes along the top of the sieve, while the finer coal, sifted out by the perforations, travels along the bottom of the trough till discharged. in spite of the gentle propelling action of this conveyor, it has a thorough sifting action; a perforated plate from 10 to 12 ft. long is usually sufficient to separate any desired grade, and at a certain belgian colliery a conveyor of this type fitted with grading sieves feeds seven trucks standing in a row, but each on a different siding, and each taking coal of a different size. this conveyor has been found useful both as a drying and cooling appliance. several substances of a sticky nature, such as moist sugar, which are difficult to deal with mechanically, can be efficiently handled by the swinging conveyor. the _gravity_ or _tilting bucket_ conveyor can be used as a combined elevator and conveyor. it consists essentially of two endless chains or ropes held at fixed distances apart by suitable bars which are fitted with small rollers at each end. every link, or second link, carries a bucket, and the whole forms an endless chain of buckets. but these buckets, unlike elevator buckets, which are bolted on to a band or chain, are free to move on the axis on which they are suspended above their centre of gravity. when the conveyor is at work the buckets will always be in an upright position, whether the motion be vertical or horizontal. each bucket carries its load to the point at which delivery is required, where an adjustable tippling device is ready to catch and tilt the bucket, thus emptying it. this type of conveyor is chiefly used in connexion with coal stores and boiler houses, where it has undeniable advantages. for instance, in feeding overhead bunkers a well-designed gravity bucket conveyor may do the work of (1) a horizontal conveyor in bringing coal from the railway siding, (2) a vertical elevator in raising it to the bunkers, and (3) a horizontal conveyor in distributing it to the respective bunkers. in some cases the returning empty strand of buckets is used to clear the ashes from under the boilers. conveyors of this type run at a mean rate of 40 ft. per minute, and if it be desired to attain a given capacity the size of the buckets must be adapted to the increased load as an increase of speed for a higher capacity is impracticable. the power absorbed is not great, the heaviest demand on the motive force being made by the elevating operation. such conveyors have the merit of handling the material gently, while feeding and discharging can take place at any point. there are many journals to be looked after, but in the most approved systems their lubrication is effected automatically. whilst such a plant has the advantage of requiring only one driving gear, a breakdown at one point of the installation means the stoppage of the whole. among typical conveyors on this system is the hunt conveyor (fig. 10), which consists of a double link carrying a series of pivoted buckets which are free to revolve on their axes at all points, except at that point at which they discharge. this operation is effected by a cam action, the buckets on their release righting themselves and becoming ready for refilling. the driving gear propels the chain by means of pawls which engage with the cross studs of the chain and have a central thrusting action. another well-known appliance of this type is the pan bucket conveyor. this consists of a continuous trough built in sections and supported on axles and guide wheels running on suitable rails. there is one axle to each section, and in each section of the trough a bucket is pivoted to the sides. there are several other conveyors of this type, amongst which the "tipit" should be mentioned. for the bousse gravity conveyor it is claimed that it will go round any curve backwards or forwards in both planes, and is therefore adaptable for installations when the typical gravity bucket would be useless. the buckets of this conveyor are coupled together by a link in the middle, which obviously allows more latitude in negotiating curves than the double chain of most of the other types. _pneumatic grain elevators_ have been employed with good effect in loading and unloading grain from ships. this method of conveying grain falls under three systems: (1) the blast system; (2) the suction system; and (3) the combined blast and suction system. in the first system a barge, known as a machinery barge, is fitted with a steam boiler, a set of air compressing engines, and a length of flexible piping long enough to reach from any part of the barge to the farthest corner of the ship to be loaded. a small pipe, known as the nozzle, is inserted at the inlet end of the piping, where the grain is taken in, and communicates with the air compressor at the other end. compressed air can be admitted to the nozzle or shut off by a valve. the inlet end of the flexible pipe is pushed into the grain in the barge, while the other end is led over the hatches of the vessel to be loaded. as the compressor is set to work and the valve of the compressed air supply pipe opened, the air naturally rushes up the pipe and escapes at the other end which is lying over the ship's hatchway. if the inlet nozzle be immersed in the grain to the depth of 12 to 18 in. the induced atmospheric air will follow the lead of the compressed air, and drawing the grain around into the inlet nozzle will carry it up the pipe and deliver it into the hold of the vessel loading. [illustration: fig. 10.--travelling bucket elevator.] in the suction system, which is identified with the name of f. e. duckham, the process is somewhat different. an air-tight tank or receiver, 8 to 10 ft. in diameter and 10 to 20 ft. high, is fitted with a hopper bottom, and is erected, if floating, on a barge, at a sufficient height to allow grain falling from the hopper bottom, and passing through an air lock, to be delivered by gravity through a shoot into the vessel being loaded. a pipe connects the vacuum tank with the exhaust pumps. several flexible pipes of sufficient length to reach any corner of the ship to be unloaded, may be connected with the vacuum tank. as the air pumps are set working a partial vacuum is formed within the tank, and as the nozzle end of the pipe is immersed into the grain to the depth of a few inches, the air and grain are drawn in at the mouth of the nozzle and carried along the pipe to the vacuum tank. the natural expansion of the air then lets the grain drop to the hopper bottom, whence it issues from an air-lock valve, while the air is drawn away by a pipe communicating with the pumps and is thence discharged into the open. in the third system, or blast and suction combined, the grain is sucked into a vacuum tank, as just described, and drops from this through valves into a second receptacle, whence it is conveyed to any desired point by flexible pipes. this second tank is divided into two sections and provided with valves so that the two sections will alternately be under the influence of blast or suction. alternatively the grain is discharged by an automatic valve from the vacuum tank into the second air-tight chamber which communicates with the compressed air chamber. from this section the grain is discharged by an outlet pipe by the agency of compressed air. a similar system was introduced by messrs haviland & farmer, who have, however, since abandoned it on account of difficulties connected with the application of the blast, which was found to abrade the grain rather severely, especially at the bends in the pipes. an even greater objection was the delivery of dust with the grain, which made it impossible for trimmers to remain in the hold while the elevator was at work. messrs haviland and farmer now work on the suction system, in which they claim to have introduced several improvements, notably in regard to the purification of the air between the vacuum chamber and the exhaustors, and in devising a new automatic air trap. the first pneumatic suction elevator in great britain was erected at the millwall docks (london) under the duckham patents. at sulina, on the lower danube, a pneumatic elevator erected on the haviland-farmer system, which has undergone one or two reconstructions, has been proved capable of elevating 160 tons of grain per hour with 375 i.h.p. the only objection to pneumatic elevators appears to be that of expense. the cost of installation is relatively heavy, and the power required for working is large. but in dealing with vessels carrying heavy cargoes of grain the saving of labour and demurrage is sufficient to justify the large outlay of capital required in ports where there is sufficient grain traffic. _hot coke conveyors._--hot coke is admittedly one of the most difficult materials to handle by mechanical means, and though it might be too much to say that all difficulties have been surmounted by the engineer, it has, since the end of the 19th century, been more or less satisfactorily handled by machinery. even in a dry state coke is a troublesome material to handle by machinery. it is of a gritty and rasping nature, and is at the same time very friable. unless it is gently handled, breakage is bound to occur and to result in the making of a certain proportion of fine dust known as "breeze." apart from the depreciation in the value of the coke, this breeze is a sharp, cutting material, calculated to do considerable injury to the working parts of the conveyor, such as chains, and to the bearings, if it can get inside. of course the conveying of the coke in an incandescent condition is another serious difficulty, as this glowing material must be quenched by water, a sufficiently delicate operation in itself. the chief use for hot coke conveyors has been found in connexion with gas works, but attempts have also been made to provide efficient machinery for the service of coke ovens of great capacity. the justification of any kind of machinery must rest on its relative efficiency and economy. as compared with some other materials the mechanical handling of hot coke does not realize such a striking economy; a hot coke conveyor is expensive to build--on account of the great wear and tear it must be very solidly constructed--and it is costly in upkeep. still in large gas works the use of machinery for treating glowing coke is economically advisable. exact calculations are not very easy to make, because while the cost of hand labour in this department of a gas works is accurately known, the efficiency of different hot coke conveyors varies. g. e. stephenson, of the gathorn gas works, estimated that a saving of 43⁄4d. per ton had been realized on each ton of coke conveyed to the yard from the retort house, as against the same material wheeled in barrows. this saving represented the difference between the cost of twelve men, who formerly handled the hot coke with shovels and barrows, and the cost of one conveyor with the wages of one man to look after it. in an ordinary way one man would rake out the coke from the retort mouthpiece into a barrow placed underneath, while a second man quenched the glowing coke with buckets of water, or better still with a hose. then the barrow would be wheeled out into the yard. obviously this is a slow and relatively expensive method, apart from the deleterious fumes arising from the quenching of the coke. some improvement was effected by the substitution for the old hand-barrows of cage-like tipping trucks; these are run on narrow gauge rails out of the retort house and the red-hot coke they contain is quenched by a copious spray, the truck being placed the while over a grating through which the surplus water is drained away, under an inverted funnel with an uptake to carry away the fumes and vapours. these trucks have been hauled, in lieu of human arms, by endless ropes or even small locomotives. the earlier hot coke conveyors were of the _pushplate_ type. the trough, some 27 in. wide, consisted of cast iron sections, while the pushplates, formed of malleable castings, were attached at a pitch of 24 in. to a central chain and were pulled along on a wrought iron bar, which could be renewed when necessary. these conveyors with a speed of 48 ft. per minute, had a capacity of some 20 tons per hour. a conveyor constructed on these lines was installed at the gathorn works in 1903. the wear and tear was very great; moreover the chain, being central, suffered severely from the hot coke, to the action of which it was directly exposed. the new conveyor company's conveyor consists of a water-tight trough through which pass closely-fitting tray plates, attached to a single chain. these plates are joggled down at one end to receive the flat front part of the succeeding plate, with the aim of excluding the breeze from the under part of the carrying plate. the chain is made entirely of steel with side rollers attached to every third plate, the plates, 1⁄4 in. thick, are dished in the shape of a tray, which is less liable to distortion (from heat) than a flat plate. the speed of travel is about 45 ft. per minute, while the capacity when handling coke from 20 ft. retorts is some 30 tons per hour. a conveyor made by messrs graham, morton & co., consists of a travelling tray, the sections of which are joined together by steel spindles provided with a roller at each end, the latter running on suitable rails. these sections consist of steel castings with a number of lateral slots; thus the tray has the appearance of a travelling grating. to receive the quenching water that escapes through the grating a trough is placed beneath, and a scraper is used to free the trough of the dust escaping through the grating. [illustration: fig. 11.--bronder hot coke conveyor.] an interesting conveyor is that of g. a. bronder, of new york (fig. 11), which has some affinity with the gravity bucket conveyor. it runs in a water-tight trough which is filled up to a certain height, the water being slowly circulated by mechanism which resembles a water wheel. the chain of buckets runs in the trough, the sides forming the rails for the supporting rollers. the conveyor is covered in along its whole length, and forms a sort of flue which is connected at each bench with a number of shoots through which the coke drops into the conveyor buckets. a pipe of large diameter is connected with an exhaust fan, which draws away the fumes created by the quenching process, and sends them into a chimney discharging into the open. the chain and buckets, being carried on rollers which run on the outer edge of the trough, cannot come in contact either with the hot coke or with gritty particles. the chain of buckets is connected by horseshoe-shaped brackets extending upwards beyond the sides of the buckets and connected with the links of the driving chains. when the conveyor is at work the covers of the mouth-pieces are opened and the coke is fed into the buckets; simultaneously the water valves are opened and the glowing coke is quenched. any breeze which may have fallen between the buckets is collected by a scraper and delivered into a tank at one end, while the propeller wheel draws the water from this tank and drives it back to the other end of the trough. the top strand is the working strand and delivers its load at the terminal. one important difference between an ordinary gravity bucket conveyor and this apparatus is that the buckets are here rigidly connected to the supporting wheels. the west hot coke conveyor consists of a strongly-built trough in which a single wide chain partly carries and partly drags the coke. in the trough is a false bottom, the plates of which are loosely fixed and kept in position by angle irons on which the chain drags. by two arm-like extensions the links of the chain are widened right across the trough. the pitch of the chain is 12 in., so that all the large pieces of coke are more carried than dragged. the speed of travel is about 40 ft. per minute. [illustration: fig. 12.--wild coke conveyor.] the wild conveyor (fig. 12) consists of a cast iron or steel trough 24 to 30 in. wide by 9 in. deep, supported by cast iron brackets to which the rails that support the strands of the chain are secured. both chains run outside the trough, and are secured on either side to the pushplates, so that only the scraper comes in contact with the hot coke. every second link of the 12 in. pitch chain carries a push or scraper-plate, as shown in illustration. the de brouwer hot coke conveyor, which is much used in gas works both in great britain and on the continent of europe, was invented by a belgian engineer. its construction has undergone many modifications which experience has shown to be desirable. it consists of a trough of cast or wrought iron, or mild steel, 20 to 36 in. wide and 3 to 6 in. deep. double endless chains run in the corners of the trough, the two chains being connected together by round cross bars set 30 in. apart, so as to form a sort of ladder. the hot coke is carried or dragged along by these bars. one end of the trough is closed and the other is bent upwards with a view to retaining the quenching water. as the hot coke is dragged along it is subjected to the action of jets of water. the conveyor bars, which act as scrapers, sweep the water and the coke along the trough till the point is reached where the latter curves upwards. then the water flows back like a small cascade on the half-quenched coke, which is thus thoroughly extinguished. considerable inclines can be negotiated with this conveyor; in some installations on the continent of europe angles of 30° to the horizontal have been surmounted. in a modification of the de brouwer conveyor, installed at the cassel gas works, the bars which form the rungs of the conveyor were replaced by cast iron rakes. in another modified form, the work of f. a. marshall, to be found in the copenhagen gas works, sluices are provided for withdrawing an excess of water at any point in the trough. in great britain a hot coke conveyor has been designed on similar lines by messrs r. dempster & sons, ltd. (fig. 13). the chains are parallel from end to end, and are composed of identical and interchangeable malleable cast links. instead of the chains carrying the rollers, as is often the case, the chains are themselves carried and guided by flanged rollers supported from the framework. this arrangement has the advantage of decreasing the weight of the chain, as neither the rollers nor the lubricators have to be conveyed, being stationary. the scrapers are of cast steel and have a rake-like shape with a view to minimize the breakage of coke. [illustration: fig. 13.--dempster coke conveyor.] the essential features in a hot coke conveyor are strength and simplicity, a minimum of wearing parts, interchangeability of wearing surfaces and of worn and broken parts, protection of wearing and working parts from contact with the hot coke, and facilities for keeping the temperature of the conveyor as even as possible, so as to avoid distortion of parts through sudden changes. to attain these latter conditions, it appears essential to construct conveyors of the pushplate type. in these the hot coke is kept continually moving, and thus the good effect is secured of heating the conveyor from end to end uniformly and gradually. this applies particularly to gas works conveyors. for the service of coke ovens the plate or tray conveyor might be suitable because more gentle. it must be remembered that coke oven conveyors must be of large capacity, and moreover in this case there is more scope for cooling the coke in front of the oven before it is removed to the conveyor, the work being all effected in the open. _elevators._--this term is here confined to its proper meaning (in english engineering treatises) of a device for raising material in a vertical or slanting direction by means of buckets attached to endless belts or chains. lifts for passengers are also sometimes termed elevators (q.v.), and in america the term is also currently applied to the granary or warehouse in which grain is stored (see granaries). in the bucket elevator, an endless belt or chain runs over terminal pulleys which are fixed at different levels, the distance from centre to centre of these pulleys beings known as the length of the elevator. the design and construction of the elevator will be varied to suit its purpose. grain elevators are invariably cased in wooden or iron trunks, and the head and foot are also of wood or iron, iron trunks being particularly used in so-called fire-proof buildings. the trunk of the grain elevator (fig. 14) is almost always vertical whilst the band to which the buckets are attached may consist of leather, cotton, hemp, webbing or other suitable substances. when an elevator is intended for lifting heavy materials, such as coal, coke or cement, it is usually set at a slant (figs. 15 and 16), and the endless belt is replaced by one or two strands of endless chain which support the buckets and run over the terminal sprocket wheels. the buckets are attached to the links of the chains, and to prevent these heavy buckets and chains from sagging in their inclined position, rollers or more often short skidder bars are fixed to each bucket, sliding on well-oiled angle bars on each side of the elevator frame. [illustration: fig. 14.--grain elevator.] both grain and mineral elevators are usually fitted with tightening gears to keep the belt or chain taut; these are generally placed at the lower or well end so as not to interfere with the position of the upper terminal, which is almost invariably the driven one. the tightening of the band at the bottom terminal in the elevator well necessarily alters the space between the terminal pulley and the bottom of the well. this is of little consequence in grain elevators, but for elevators intended to handle coal or any material of varying size the ordinary tightening gear is unsuitable. in such a case the best plan is to attach the elevator-well to the terminal in such a way as to go up or down with the sprocket wheel when the chain is loosened or tightened, while the foot bracket which supports the well and terminal spindle remains a fixture. in order to tighten elevator chains without interfering with either of the terminals, adjustable jockey pulleys at some suitable point may be used, and the desired effect can thus be attained by pressing against the chains and thereby taking up the slack without any interference with either the feed or delivery end. elevator buckets must be proportioned to the size and nature of the material they are intended to carry, and care must be taken to maintain a uniform feed. this may readily be effected by adjustable outlets and spouts for grain and the like, and by certain feeding devices for handling minerals of uneven size. for instance, an oscillating feed shoot making from 30 to 60 oscillations per minute can be installed in such a case, and adjusted to deposit at each backward and forward stroke the exact amount of material adapted to the capacity of the elevator. the speed of the shoot will naturally vary with the size of material to be fed. for small coal 60 oscillations would be about the correct speed; for large coal the speed might be reduced to 30 or less. speaking generally, care should always be taken to prevent an undue rush of feed, that is, more than the elevator can take up, and if tenacious materials are handled, feeding devices should be employed provided with stirrers or agitators that will effectually keep the material moving and prevent any larger lumps from arching over the feed spout, and thus producing chokes. elevators should always be fed from that side on which the buckets ascend, that the stream of material may meet the elevator buckets on their upward journey. this will prevent the material from filling up the elevator well and spare the buckets from dredging through an accumulation of feed. elevators erected at an incline are best fed at a point several feet above the well into the chain of ascending buckets, as under such conditions little will miss the buckets and drop into the well. the reason why grain elevators are set vertically, whereas elevators intended to carry heavy bodies such as coal and ore are generally inclined at an angle, is that the former can be run at a much greater velocity than the latter. grain, for instance, would be uninjured by a velocity at the delivery end which would fracture coal and seriously reduce its value, to say nothing of the dust production and the damage which would be done to the receiving spouts and shoots. elevators carrying a light material can be run at a circumferential velocity of 250 to 350 ft. per minute, and if vertically set, will throw the grain, &c., clear of the elevator into the shoot for its reception. on the other hand, elevators handling heavy material must be set at an angle in order to give a clear delivery at a much lower speed of 50 to 60 ft. per minute; in other words, the elevator is so inclined that the shoot for the reception of the material can be put underneath the delivering buckets which slowly disgorge their load. to obtain good results, without taking up too much space, an elevator carrying heavy material should be set at 40° to 60° to the horizontal. the same results can be obtained if the main portion of the elevator is vertical and only the upper portion inclined, or so curved as to bring the delivery over the shoot. the speed at which vertical elevators should be run will depend on the diameter of the terminal pulley, that is, the pulley over which the buckets and bands pass. the centrifugal force of pulleys revolving at the same speed is in direct proportion to their diameters, and this is twice as much in a 2 ft. as in a 1 ft. pulley. it may be taken that the centrifugal force of a pulley will increase in proportion to the square of its velocity; hence the centrifugal force of a pulley 2 ft. in diameter running at 50 revolutions per minute will be four times the centrifugal force of a pulley of the same diameter making only 25 revolutions per minute. it must not be forgotten that to effect a clean discharge of the buckets of a vertical elevator, the centrifugal force must be sufficient to overcome the gravity of the material, because the material thrown off the delivery pulley in a horizontal direction will be more rapidly deflected into a parabolic curve the higher its specific gravity. it follows that for a specifically heavy material a greater centrifugal force will be required; that is to say, the elevator will have to be higher speeded than in dealing with a lighter material. [illustration: fig. 15.--mineral elevator, upper terminal.] elevator buckets must be varied according to the nature of the material; for instance, shallow buckets will be found best for a soft and clinging material such as flour, moist sugar, sand, small coal, &c., while for a hard or semi-hard body such as wheat, coal, &c., deeper buckets are preferable. on account of their lower speed, elevators for specifically heavy material require much larger buckets and chains than grain elevators of the same bulk capacity. the most economical form of elevator is fitted with a continuous chain of buckets. such elevators may be constructed to carry either grain or minerals. the advantages are greater capacity than an ordinary elevator of the same dimensions and a more uniform delivery; moreover, smoother running is secured, since the buckets being close together need not plunge intermittently through the contents of the elevator-well. _intermittent conveyors._--the elevators we have been considering, whether used for carrying and distributing coal or grain, have this in common, that they raise material from a lower to a higher level, so to speak, in a continuous stream, the continuity being broken only by the short spaces between the buckets. in the continuous bucket type indeed the stream of material is practically, if not absolutely, continuous. in all these cases the elevator is fed with the material in a continuous stream, and by some mechanical means; whether by band, worm or shoot, is immaterial. elevators of a somewhat different and more substantial construction may be and are often used for handling filled sacks, barrels, carcases of animals and other bulky objects, which cannot be delivered in a uniform stream, but may have to be conveyed by the elevator intermittently. the ordinary buckets used for grain or coal are replaced by other appliances for gripping and holding the object to be raised from a lower to a higher level, but in principle these appliances are essentially elevators. [illustration: fig. 16.--mineral elevator, lower terminal.] another kind of elevator, known as a _lift_ or _hoist_, is used in mines and quarries and in serving blast furnaces. this is an elevator with one or two buckets. essentially a heavy load lifter, it is intended for material of too large a bulk to be handled economically by ordinary elevators, and is employed for lifting in either a vertical or, more often, an inclined direction. for elevating materials, such as large coal, iron ore, limestone, &c., which are too large to be fed into ordinary elevators, and must therefore be handled intermittently, the single bucket elevator or hoist may be used with advantage. but as the essential use of mechanical appliances for handling material is to save human labour as far as possible, that hoist will prove the most economical the operation of which is as automatic as possible. the americans seem to have been pioneers in the construction of _furnace hoists_, which form the principal elevators of this class, but some excellent examples of the modern furnace hoist are now to be found in great britain and elsewhere in europe. generally speaking, a furnace hoist consists of an inclined iron bridge girder set at an angle to the upright shaft of the furnace. on this incline are laid rails for the ascent and descent of the bucket, which in this case is known as a skip and is provided with suitable wheels, while the hoisting gear manipulating the skips by a steel rope is erected on or near the ground level. the rails when they approach the upper terminus are usually bent in a more or less horizontal position so as automatically to tilt and thereby unload the skip. to attain the same end, the rails supporting the back wheels of the skips may be bent at the terminus, or the back wheels may have additional wheels of a larger diameter on the other side of their flanges, so that during the ascent and descent the skip runs on its four normal wheels, while at the upper terminus the outer and larger back wheels engage with short lengths of extra rails and thus tilt and effect the automatic clearance of the skip. the dead weight of the skip may be balanced by a counter weight, or double tracks may be laid, so that the empty skip descends on one track whilst the loaded skip is being raised on the other. in this case the distributing hopper at the top of the furnace has an elongated shape so as to take the charges alternately from buckets on either track. again, the two tracks may be laid one above the other, so that one skip runs on the upper rails and the other on the lower. the two buckets will pass each other at about the centre of the framing, where there will be plenty of room for clearance. the capacity of the skip will of course depend to some extent on the capacity of the furnace, but an average charge may be put down at 2 tons of ore and lime, or 1 ton of coke. to raise such a charge to a furnace 80 ft. high would require, assuming no counter weight were used, a motor of about 100 h.p. on account of the great speed at which the hoist works, the time taken in raising the charged skip, discharging it, and returning it empty would be only 30 to 40 seconds. the hoist cable runs over guide pulleys placed at the top of the furnace, and the cable is often manipulated by an electrically driven winch in a cabin below. the descent of the empty skip in more modern installations is utilized to effect an even distribution of the feed from the hopper to the furnace by causing the hopper to revolve. to this end the latter is provided with an ingenious mechanism which only comes into operation as the car descends. after every charge shot into the hopper the latter is revolved a few degrees, and this has the effect of giving the delivery of the next load in another direction, so that the charges of the skip are in turn distributed over the whole area of the surface. this is deemed a most essential point in furnace-charging, and it is not one of the least recommendations of this mechanical system of furnace-charging that it can give an even feed without any hand labour whatever. a double hoist has been designed which has the advantage that if one elevator breaks down the work of the furnace is not interrupted. in this system two furnaces are connected at the top by a gantry or bridge, against which, between the furnaces, two inclined elevators are set, so that each can serve either furnace. the skips are on wheels and detachable from the elevator, and are loaded from the ore pockets at the lower terminal and drawn up on a cradle; as this reaches the top where the rails on the gantry correspond with the gauge of the skip or car, the latter is carried by its own weight down a slight incline to either furnace, discharging its contents as it passes over the conical mouth. another advantage claimed for this system is that the rails of the cradle, when in its lowest position, correspond with the rails which lie parallel to the furnaces and run right under the store bins from which the skip is loaded. the economy to be realized from a furnace hoist will be in direct proportion to the use made of mechanical means of feed conveyance. for instance, the store bins in connexion with such elevators might be economically fed by suitable conveyors, or the material might be brought in self-unloading hoppered trucks into conveniently placed bins, ready to be drawn into the skips. _ropeways._--a ropeway has been defined as that method of handling material which consists of drawing buckets on ropes, and by means of ropes, such buckets being filled with the material to be handled and being automatically or otherwise discharged. at what period of history ropeways were first used it is impossible to say, but the fact that pulley blocks, and even wire ropes, were known to the ancients, renders a pedigree of 2000 years at least possible. in more modern days, an old engraving shows a single ropeway in working order in 1644 in the city of danzig. this, the work of adam wybe, a dutch engineer, was a single ropeway in its simplest form, consisting of an endless rope passing over pulleys suspended on posts; to the rope were attached a number of small buckets, which evidently carried earth from a hill outside the city to the rampart inside the moat. the rope was probably of hemp. modern ropeways worked with wire ropes date from about 1860, when a ropeway was erected in the harz mountains. since then several systems have been evolved, but in the main ropeways may be divided into the single and double rope class. the ropeway is essentially an intermittent conveyor, the material being carried in buckets or skips, and practice has proved it an economical means of handling heavy material. the prime cost of a ropeway is usually moderate, though of course it varies with the ground and other local conditions. working expenses should be low, because under the supervision of one competent engineer unskilled labour is quite sufficient. a ropeway may be carried over ground over which rails could only be laid at enormous cost. to a certain extent ropeways are independent of weather conditions, because their working need not be interrupted even by heavy snowfalls. their construction is very simple, and there is little gear to get out of order. sound workmanship and good material will ensure a relatively long life. as an instance, a certain rope in a spanish ropeway tested new to a breaking strain of 291⁄2 tons was shown after carrying 160,000 tons (in two years' incessant work) still to possess a breaking strain of 271⁄2 tons. the power absorbed by a ropeway is relatively moderate, and under special conditions may be nil. the only demand it makes on the superficial area of the ground traversed is the small emplacements of the standards, which in modern ropeways are few and far between. wayleaves, or the permission to erect standards and run the line over private land, may of course mean an item in the capital outlay. this circumstance may have checked ropeway construction in great britain, but it must also be borne in mind that a large portion of that country is comparatively level and well provided with railways. in building a ropeway it is essential to take as straight a line as possible, because curves generally necessitate angle stations, which mean extra capital and working cost. on the other hand, ground that would be difficult for the railway engineer, such as steep hills, deep valleys and turbulent streams, has no terror for the ropeway erector. there is a case of a ropeway of a total length of 5400 ft. with a total difference in altitude of 2000 ft.; it is claimed this ground could not be covered by a railway with less than 15 m. of line graded at 1 in 40. perhaps the simplest type of a single rope system is an endless running rope from which the carriers are suspended, and with which they move by frictional contact. or the carriers may be fixed to this rope and move with it. the ropeway itself would consist of an endless rope running between two drums, one, known as the driving drum, being provided with power receiving and transmitting gear, while the drum at the opposite terminal would be fitted with tightening gear. the endless rope is carried on suitable pulleys which themselves are supported on standards or trestles spaced at intervals varying with the nature of the ground. the rope runs at an average speed of 4 m. per hour, a speed at which the bucket or skip can automatically unload itself. in the double ropeway the carrier runs on a fixed rope, which takes the place of the rails of a railway. the carrier is fitted with running heads furnished with grooved steel wheels. the load is borne by a hanger pivoted from the carrier, and is conveyed along the rail rope by an endless hauling rope at an average speed of 4 to 6 m. per hour. the hauling is operated by driving gear at one end, and controlled by tightening gear at the other end just as in the single rope system. double ropeways have been carried in one section over 18 to 20 m., and will transport single loads of 6 cwt. to a ton or more. broadly speaking, the single ropeway is not so suitable for heavy loads and long distances as the double, but in this connexion the work of ropeways limited should be noted, which favours a single rope system. their engineer, j. pearce roe, introduced multiple sheaves for supporting the rope at each standard. thus the rope may pass over one, two or four sheaves, which are provided with balance beams that have the advantage of adjusting themselves to the angle caused by the rope passing over the sheaves, thus equalizing the pressure over a number of sheaves. a ropeway erected on this system in japan spans 4000 yds. of very broken ground; yet only 17 trestles are used, and as each support is placed as high as possible, no one is of great height. an altitude of 1130 ft. is reached in a distance of 1200 yds. the ropeway has a daily carrying capacity of 60 tons in one direction and of 30 tons in the other. another installation on this system, which serves an iron mine in spain, spans 6500 yds. of very rough country, so steep that in many places the sure-footed mule cannot keep on the track. this ropeway can deal with 85 tons per hour. the greatest distance covered by this system, on one section, is 7100 yds., or about 4 m., and the carrying capacity is 45 tons per hour. the motive power required for a ropeway will vary with the conditions. in cases of descending loads the power generated is sometimes so considerable as to render it available for driving other machinery, or it may have to be absorbed by some special brake device. in a ropeway in japan of 1800 yds., which runs mostly at an incline of 1 in 11⁄2, the force generated is absorbed by a hydraulic brake the revolving fan of which drives the water against fixed vanes which repel and heat it. in this way, 50 h.p. is absorbed and the speed brought under the control of a hand brake. _aerial cableways._--the aerial cableway is a development of the ropeway, and is a conveyor capable of hoisting and dumping at any desired point. the load is carried along a trackway consisting of a single span of suspended cable, which covers a comparatively short distance. the trackway may either run in a more or less horizontal direction, i.e. the terminals may be on the same level, or it may be inclined at such an angle that the load will descend by gravity. the trackway or rail rope rests upon saddles of iron or hard wood on the tops of terminal supports, usually known as towers. these towers may be constructed either of wood or iron, and if the exigencies of the work render it desirable, they may be mounted on trolleys and rails, in which case the cableway is rendered portable, and can be moved about, sometimes a great advantage in excavating work. the motive power may be either steam, gas, or electricity. the motor is situated in what is termed the head tower, which is sometimes a little higher than the other or tail tower. sometimes, but not frequently, the latter is also fitted with a motor. the span between the two towers sometimes extends to 2000 ft., but this is exceptional. very heavy loads are dealt with, sometimes as much as 8 tons in a single load. the load, which may be carried in a skip or a tray, is borne by an apparatus called the carrier, which is a modification of a running head, consisting of pulleys and blocks and running along the main cable or trackway. the carrier is also fitted with pulleys or guides for the dump line. the carrier is drawn along the main cable by an endless or hauling rope which passes from the carrier over the head tower and is wound several times round the drum of the winding engine to secure frictional hold, then back over the head tower, to the tail tower, returning to the rear end of the carrier. the hoisting rope passes from the engine to the fall block for raising the load. the dump line comes from the other side of the winding engine drum and passes to a smaller block attached to the rear end of the skip or tray. the whole weight of the skip is borne by the hoisting rope, while the dump line comes in slack, but at the same rate of speed. whenever it is desired to dump the load, the dump line is shifted to a section of the drum having a slightly larger diameter, and being thus drawn in at a higher rate of speed the load is discharged. the engine is then reversed, and the carriage brought back for the next load. this is in outline the mode of operating all cableways. this appliance has rendered great service as a labour saver in navvying, quarrying and mining work; in placer-mining, for instance, cableways have been found very useful when fitted with a self-filling drag bucket, which will take the place of a great number of hands. cableways can be worked at a great speed, but a good mean speed would be 500 to 750 ft. for conveying and 200 to 300 ft. for hoisting. a cableway used in excavating work in chicago was credited with a capacity of 400 to 600 cub. yds. per day at a total cost of 2d. per yard, including labour, coal, oil, waste, &c. _coaling ships at sea._--in the coaling of ships at sea the cableway has rendered great service. the conditions under which this operation has to be carried out present many difficulties, especially in rough water. one of the chief obstacles is the maintenance of the necessary tension on the cable used in conveying the coal from the collier to the ship. the first test in coaling ships at sea, made by the british admiralty, took place in 1890 in the atlantic at a point 500 m. south of the azores in water 2000 fathoms deep. ten ships of war were coaled, each vessel taking enough coal to enable it to steam back to torbay, 1800 m. away. in this case the collier was lashed alongside the battleship it was feeding, thick fenders being interposed to prevent damage, but nevertheless as the colliers got light they pitched considerably, and one or two sustained dents in their sides. the ships did not roll, being kept bows-on to the swell, which became heavy before the coaling was completed. the coal was taken in by derricks at the main deck ports. it is clear that had the sea been really rough coaling in this fashion would have been impossible. the most practicable method of coaling at sea yet devised is the marine cableway of spencer miller, which has been tried with some success in the american navy. it is intended for use between vessels 350 to 500 ft. apart. the ship being coaled takes the collier in tow, steaming at the rate of 4 to 8 knots; it has been found that a speed of five knots in moderately rough water will keep the cableway taut and maintain a sufficient distance between the crafts. the collier is fitted with an engine having double cylinders and double friction drums, which is placed just abaft the foremast. a steel rope 3⁄4 in. in diameter is led from one drum over a pulley at the mast head and thence to a pulley at the head of shear-poles on the vessel being coaled, and brought back to the other drum. the engine moves in the same direction all the time and keeps on winding in both the strands of the conveying rope. should the two vessels increase the distance between them during the operation of conveying the coal bags, of which two, weighing 420 lb each, may be fastened to the carrier, the extra rope called for is obtained by slipping the upper strand from the drum; this increases the speed of the upper cable. on the other hand should the distance between the vessels be reduced, this operation is reversed, the speed of the upper strand being reduced. to keep the carriage steady on its return empty, a rope, known as the sea-anchor line, is stretched above the two strands of the conveyor line, and under a pulley on the carriage. this cable is attached to the vessel, resting on a saddle on the shear head, whence it leads through the carriage over pulleys at the head of the foremast and mainmast of the collier, running on astern several hundred feet into the sea. a drag or sea-anchor, usually made of canvas and cone-shaped, is attached to the end of this rope. this anchor is used to support the empty carriage on its return to the collier. the diameter of the cone's base is graduated to the speed of the vessels. thus in a smooth-water test, with a ship steaming at 6 knots, one 7 ft. in diameter was used, while the same anchor answered its purpose very well with a ship doing 5 knots in rough water. the results given by this system of coaling at sea are relatively satisfactory. tests made in the united states navy showed that 20 to 25 tons of coal per hour could be delivered by a collier to a war-vessel during a moderate gale. as the ship was under steam all the time and consumed 3 to 4 tons of coal per hour, the balance of the coal bunkered amounted to between 16 and 20 tons per hour, or say 384 tons in 24 hours. it has been suggested that under service conditions the speed of the towing vessel might be increased to 8 or 10 knots an hour; this would of course increase the coal consumption unless the collier proceeded under her own steam. but in such a case the space between the two crafts might be diminished, which would have the effect of causing the cable to sag and of stopping the work, since the conveyor cable to act properly must be kept taut. in great britain the temperley transporter company have taken up this method of coaling at sea, working in collaboration with spencer miller, and have introduced several improvements in detail. their system has been tried by the british admiralty. the coaling of a large vessel by this appliance has the advantage of economizing hand labour. one man is required to work the hoist on the collier, while 20 men will 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 the introduction of a resistance between any section of the line and the supply of electricity. the speed may be high, as much as 1500 ft. per minute over the straight portions of the line, but slackened at curves and loading stations, or when approaching a terminus. the required power may be obtained from the mains of an ordinary electric supply with either direct or alternating current, but the former is preferable. the mean expenditure of power in a working day is said to average (including electrical hoisting) 1 h.p. per ton of average load. the uses of telpherage are many and various. in factories and warehouses, where the buildings are scattered, it has been installed with excellent results. being essentially an overhead system, there is a saving of floor space, the ground not being obstructed by trucks or trolleys. the same reasons which render ropeways an economical means of handling such material as coal, ore, stone, slate, &c., between the mine or quarry and the rail or barge, may be adduced in favour of telpherage. for the unloading of railway trucks in a crowded goods-yard it is undoubtedly applicable. any kind of tipping or hoisting operations can be automatically effected by its aid, and any sort of grab may be used in dealing with such materials as sand, clay or gravel. telpherage is clearly a labour-saving method of handling materials, but of course the exact conditions under which any system is to be used need careful study, while the economy to be effected by the installation of a telpher line must to a great extent depend upon the available supply of electrical energy. (g. f. z.) footnote: [1] the illustrations in this article are taken, by kind permission, from the _proceedings of the institution of civil engineers_. convocation (lat. _convocatio_, a calling together), an assembly of persons met together in answer to a summons. the term is more usually applied in a restricted sense to assemblies of the clergy or of the graduates of certain universities. in the american protestant episcopal church a convocation is a voluntary deliberative conference of the clergy; it has no legislative function, and like the convocation of a university, assembles primarily to discuss matters of common interest. in england the name "convocation" is specifically given to an assembly of the spirituality of the realm of england, which is summoned by the metropolitan archbishops of canterbury and of york respectively, within their ecclesiastical provinces, pursuant to a royal writ, whenever the parliament of the realm is summoned, and which is also continued or discharged, as the case may be, whenever the parliament is prorogued or dissolved. these assemblies consist of two houses, an upper and lower. in the upper house sit the archbishops and bishops, and in the lower the deans and archdeacons of every cathedral, the provost of eton college, with one proctor elected by each cathedral chapter and two by the beneficed clergy in each diocese in the province of canterbury (in the province of york two proctors are elected by each archdeacon), with a prolocutor at their head. when and how this convocation originated is not historically clear. this much is known from authentic records, that the present constitution of the convocation of the prelates and clergy of the province of canterbury was recognized as early as in the eleventh year of the reign of edward i. (1283) as its normal constitution; and that in extorting that recognition from the crown, which the clergy accomplished by refusing to attend unless summoned in lawful manner (_debito modo_) through their metropolitan, the clergy of the province of canterbury taught the laity the possibility of maintaining the freedom of the nation against the encroachments of the royal power. it had been a provision of the anglo-saxon period, the origin of which is generally referred to the council of clovesho (747), that the possessions of the church should be exempt from taxation by the secular power, and that it should be left to the benevolence of the clergy to grant such subsidies to the crown from the endowments of their churches as they should agree to in their own assemblies. it may be inferred, however, from the language of the various writs issued by the crown for the collection of the "aids" voted by the _commune concilium_ of the realm in the reign of henry iii., that the clergy were unable to maintain the exemption of church property from being taxed to those "aids" during that king's reign; and it was not until some years had elapsed of the reign of edward i. that the spirituality succeeded in vindicating their constitutional privilege of voting in their own assemblies their free gifts or "benevolences," and in insisting on the crown observing the lawful form of convoking those assemblies through the metropolitan of each province. the form of the royal writ, which it is customary to issue in the present day to the metropolitan of each province, is identical in its purport with the writ issued by the crown in 1283 to the metropolitan of the province of canterbury, after the clergy of that province had refused to meet at northampton in the previous year, because they had not been summoned in lawful manner; whilst the mandates issued by the metropolitans in pursuance of the royal writs, and the citations issued by the bishops in pursuance of the mandates of their respective metropolitans, are identical in their purport and form with those used in summoning the convocation of 1283, which met at the new temple in the city of london, and voted a "benevolence" to the crown, as having been convoked in lawful manner. the existing constitution of the convocation of the province of canterbury--and the same observation will apply to that of the province of york--in respect of its comprising representatives of the chapters and of the beneficed clergy, in addition to the bishops and other dignitaries of the church, would thus appear to be of even more ancient date than the existing constitution of the parliament of the realm. contest between spirituality and crown. from this period down to the eleventh year of the reign of edward iii. there were continual contests between the spirituality of the realm and the crown,--the spirituality contending for their constitutional right to vote their subsidies in their provincial convocations; the crown, on the other hand, insisting on the immediate attendance of the clergy in parliament. the resistance of the clergy to the innovation of the "praemunientes" clause had so far prevailed in the reign of edward ii. that the crown consented to summon the clergy to parliament through their metropolitans, and a special form of provincial writ was for that purpose framed; but the clergy protested against this writ, and the struggle was maintained between the spirituality and the crown until 1337 (11 edward iii.), when the crown reverted to the ancient practice of commanding the metropolitans to call together their clergy in their provincial assemblies, where their subsidies were voted in the manner as accustomed before the "praemunientes" clause was introduced. the "praemunientes" clause, however, was continued in the parliamentary writs issued to the several bishops of both provinces, whilst the bishops were permitted to neglect at their pleasure the execution of the writs. five characteristic periods. the history of the convocation of the province of canterbury, as at present constituted, is full of stirring incidents, and it resolves itself readily into five periods. the first period, by which is meant the first period which dates from an epoch of authentic history, is the period of its greatest freedom, but not of its greatest activity. it extends from the reign of edward i. (1283) to that of henry viii. the second period is the period of its greatest activity and of its greatest usefulness, and it extends from the twenty-fifth year of the reign of henry viii. to the reign of charles ii. the third period extends from the fifteenth year of the reign of charles ii. (1664) to the reign of george i. this was a period of turbulent activity and little usefulness, and the anarchy of the lower house of convocation during this period created a strong prejudice against the revival of convocation in the mind of the laity. the fourth period extends from the third year of the reign of george i. (1716) to the fifteenth year of the reign of queen victoria. this was a period of torpid inactivity, during which it was customary for convocation to be summoned and to meet _pro forma_, and to be continued and prorogued indefinitely. the fifth period may be considered to have commenced in the fifteenth year of the reign of queen victoria (1852). first period. during the first of the five periods above mentioned, it would appear from the records preserved at lambeth and at york that the metropolitans frequently convened congregations (so called) of their clergy without the authority of a royal writ, which were constituted precisely as the convocations were constituted, when the metropolitans were commanded to call their clergy together pursuant to a writ from the crown. as soon, however, as king henry viii. had obtained from the clergy their acknowledgment of the supremacy of the crown in all ecclesiastical causes, he constrained the spirituality to declare, by what has been termed the act of submission on behalf of the clergy, that the convocation "is, always has been, and ought to be summoned by authority of a royal writ"; and this declaration was embodied in a statute of the realm (25 henry viii. c. 19), which further enacted that the convocation "should thenceforth make no provincial canons, constitutions or ordinances without the royal assent and licence." the spirituality was thus more closely incorporated than heretofore in the body politic of the realm, seeing that no deliberations on its part can take place unless the crown has previously granted its licence for such deliberations. it had been already provided during this period by 8 henry vi. c. 1, that the prelates and other clergy, with their servants and attendants, when called to the convocation pursuant to the king's writ, should enjoy the same liberty and defence in coming, tarrying and returning as the magnates and the commons of the realm enjoy when summoned to the king's parliament. second period. sheldonian compact. the second period, which dates from 1533 to 1664, has been distinguished by four important assemblies of the spirituality of the realm in pursuance of a royal writ--the two first of which occurred in the reign of edward vi., the third in the reign of queen elizabeth, and the fourth in the reign of charles ii. the two earliest of these convocations were summoned to complete the work of the reformation of the church of england, which had been begun by henry viii.; the third was called together to reconstruct that work, which had been marred on the accession of mary (the consort of philip ii. of spain), whilst the fourth was summoned to re-establish the church of england, the framework of which had been demolished during the great rebellion. on all of these occasions the convocations worked hand in hand with the parliament of the realm under a licence and with the assent of the crown. meanwhile the convocation of 1603 had framed a body of canons for the governance of the clergy. another convocation requires a passing notice, in which certain canons were drawn up in 1640, but by reason of an irregularity in the proceedings of this convocation (chiefly, on the ground that its sessions were continued for some time after the parliament of the realm had been dissolved), its canons are not held to have any binding obligation on the clergy. the convocations had up to this time maintained their liberty of voting the subsidies of the clergy in the form of "benevolences" separate and apart from the "aids" granted by the laity in parliament, and one of the objections taken to the proceedings of the convocation of 1640 was that it had continued to sit and to vote its subsidies to the crown after the parliament itself had been dissolved. it is not, therefore, surprising on the restoration of the monarchy in 1661 that the spirituality was not anxious to retain the liberty of taxing itself apart from the laity, seeing that its ancient liberty was likely to prove of questionable advantage to it. it voted, however, a benevolence to the crown on the occasion of its first assembling in 1661 after the restoration of king charles ii., and it continued so to do until 1664, when an arrangement was made between archbishop sheldon and lord chancellor hyde, under which the spirituality silently waived its long-asserted right of voting its own subsidies to the crown, and submitted itself thenceforth to be assessed to the "aids" directly granted to the crown by parliament. an act was accordingly passed by the parliament in the following year 1665, entitled an act to grant a royal aid unto the king's majesty, to which aid the clergy were assessed by the commissioners named in the statute without any objection being raised on their part or behalf,[1] there being a proviso that in so contributing the clergy should be relieved of the liability to pay two subsidies out of four, which had been voted by them in the convocation of a previous year. in consequence of this practical renunciation of their separate _status_, as regards their liability to taxation, the clergy have assumed and enjoyed in common with the laity the right of voting at the election of members of the house of commons, in virtue of their ecclesiastical freeholds. the most important and the last work of the convocation during this second period of its activity was the revision of the book of common prayer which was completed in the latter part of 1661. third period. claim of lower house to sit independently. bangorian controversy. fourth period. fifth period. the revolution in 1688 is the most important epoch in the third period of the history of the synodical proceedings of the spirituality, when the convocation of canterbury, having met in 1689 in pursuance of a royal writ, obtained a licence under the great seal, to prepare certain alterations in the liturgy and in the canons, and to deliberate on the reformation of the ecclesiastical courts. a feeling, however, of panic seems to have come over the lower house, which took up a position of violent antagonism to the upper house. this circumstance led to the prorogation of the convocation and to its subsequent discharge without any practical fruit resulting from the king's licence. ten years elapsed during which the convocation was prorogued from time to time without any meeting of its members for business being allowed. the next convocation which was permitted to meet for business, in 1700, was marked by great turbulence and insubordination on the part of the members of the lower house, who refused to recognize the authority of the archbishop to prorogue their sessions. this controversy was kept up until the discharge of the convocation took place concurrently with the dissolution of the parliament in the autumn of that year. the proceedings of the lower house in this convocation were disfigured by excesses which were clearly violations of the constitutional order of the convocation. the lower house refused to take notice of the archbishop's schedule of prorogation, and adjourned itself by its own authority, and upon the demise of the crown it disputed the fact of its sessions having expired, and as parliament was to continue for a short time, prayed that its sessions might be continued as a part of the parliament under the "praemunientes" clause. the next convocation was summoned in the first year of queen anne, when the lower house, under the leadership of dean aldrich, its prolocutor, challenged the right of the archbishop to prorogue it, and presented a petition to the queen, praying her majesty to call the question into her own presence. the question was thereupon examined by the queen's council, when the right of the president to prorogue both houses of convocation by a schedule of prorogation was held to be proved, and further, that it could not be altered except by an act of parliament. during the remaining years of the reign of queen anne the two houses of convocation were engaged either in internecine strife, or in censuring sermons or books, as teaching latitudinarian or heretical doctrines; and, when it had been assembled concurrently with parliament on the accession of king george