July i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



313 



FIVE MILES OF RUBBER BELTING IN A GRAIN ELEVATOR. 



A NOTABLE installation of rubber belt conveyors is 

 that embraced in the system of grain elevators of the 

 Grand Trunk Railway Co., at Portland, Maine. Within 

 a few years past Portland has become an extensive 

 grain shipping port by reason of the facilities afTorded by the 



BELT CONVEYOR FLOOR. 



Grand Trunk railway in connection 

 with the increased grain traffic of 

 the Canadian northwest. The sys- 

 tem at Portland comprises an eleva- 

 tor with 1,000,000 bushels capacity, 

 completed in 1897, and a 1,500,000 

 bushel elevator, now ready for ope- 

 ration, which, together with their 

 wharf conveyors, are so connected 

 as to form one establishment. 



The elevating equipment gives an 

 unloading capacity from the train 

 yards of 400 carloads of grain per 

 day. The total length of elevator 

 belting employed is 8700 feet. The 

 .old elevator is equipped with lifting 

 buckets 7x7X18 inches in size, 

 mounted on 20-inch belts, and the 

 new elevator with 7 X 7 X 20 inch 

 buckets on 22-inch 

 belts. The elevating 

 capacity is 2,000,000 

 bushels a day. Each 

 elevator has the usual 

 reversing belt con- 

 veyor in the cupola, 

 for distributing grain 

 longitudinally of the 

 house, into a total of 

 370 bins in the two 

 elevators. 



The belt conveyor 

 system connecting 

 the two elevators 

 sends out six ship- 

 ping galleries, each 

 560 feet long, along 

 the wharves where 



ocean steamers are loaded. There are other galleries connect- 

 ing the elevators with the yards of the Grand Trunk railway. 

 The total length of the conveyors is over one mile, giving em- 

 ployment to over three miles of rubber belting, and making 

 a system which is asserted to be the most extensive in exist- 

 ence. Each gallery conveyor has a capacity of 15,000 bushels 



per hour, making the 

 total carrying capac- 

 ity of the wharf con- 

 veyors 900,000 bush- 

 els per day. 



The belting for the 

 new elevator was fur- 

 nished by the Boston 

 Woven Hose and 

 Rubber Co. The total 

 length of conveyor 

 belts in the entire 

 system is approxi- 

 mately 16,500 feet, 

 and that of the ele- 

 vating belts is 8700 

 feet. The architects and engineers 

 of the entire system were the John 

 S. Metcalf Co. (No. 804, The Tem- 

 ple, Chicago), who have had charge 

 of the construction of some of the 

 largest elevators in the United 

 States, and also several abroad, in- 

 cluding the extensive elevator of the 

 Manchester Ship Canal Co., in Eng- 

 land. It is through the courtesy of 

 this firm that the illustrations which 

 appear on this page have been ob- 

 tained. There are thousands of grain 

 elevators in the United States, and 

 though not so large as the one at Port- 

 land, their combined requirements of 

 belting have developed an important 

 special demand, adding largely to 



DOUBLE BELT GALLERY- 



SIDE GALLERY OF NEW ELEVATOR, 



the profits of the rubber industry. 



TRIPPER DISCHARGE TO DOCK SPOUT. 



SINQLE BELT GALLERY AND ROPE TRANSMISSION. 



