THE WAREHOUSING OF GRAIN. 125 



During the same years the average amount of grain that 

 came to the principal ports was as follows, the amount being 

 in cwts. :— 



Wheat. Barley. Oats. Maize. Total, 



lionclon . . 11,461,026 2,197,124 9,331,458 3,533,321 26,522,929 



Liverpool . 15,895,198 339,944 168,960 8,329,874 24,733,476- 



Hull . . . 5,472,641 1,660,386 742,036 1,600,892 9,475,955 



Bristol . . 3,301,954 3,190,517 191,600 2,028,898 8,712,961^ 



Glasgow comes next with a total of a little over five 

 millions, and Dublin and Leitli follow with about 3| millions 

 each. It will be seen that Bristol stands far ahead of any- 

 other port as regards barley. 



Grain chiefly comes in bulk ; but from India, Australia, 

 South America, and California it comes in sacks. 



Until a comparatively recent date, the usual way of getting 

 grain into a grain warehouse or granary, was by men carry- 

 ing the grain in sacks to a hoist or jigger, by means of which 

 it was raised to the various floors. The same method was 

 usually adopted to get it out of the building, but sometimes 

 the sacks were slid down inclined shoots. It was, however, 

 found that, where large quantities of grain had to be dealt 

 with, such a process was both slow and costly. 



Somewhat over twenty years ago, when the design of the 

 two large [grain warehouses at Liverpool and Birkenhead 

 was under consideration, great attention was directed to- 

 wards ascertaining the best means pf conveying the grain 

 horizontally from one part of the warehouse to another, and 

 for that purpose a number of interesting experiments were 

 made. The following particulars regarding the Liverpool 

 warehouses are mostly taken from a paper read to the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers by Mr. Westmacott, 

 of Sir W. Armstrong & Co. 



The first trials were made with a revolving screw, 12 



