picking-table

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In transportation, a platform-carrier or a belt-conveyer when used as a sorting-table. Coal, city refuse, or other mixed material to be sorted is fed to the moving conveyer and carried between two rows of pickers or sorters, who stand on each side of the moving table and pick the slate from the coal, or the old metals, fabrics, etc., from the refuse, as it passes between them. It is used in coal-breakers and destructor plants.