GRAIN ELEVATOR 



2553 



GRAINS 



the grain from train or ship to the storage bins. 

 Grain elevators, formerly made of wood, are 

 now often of concrete construction, three stories 

 in height. The top floor 6f the building, called 

 the cupola, contains the loading and unloading 

 machinery and the shafts through which the 

 grain is distributed. The second story contains 

 the garners and storage bins, and on the 

 ground floor are the weighing hoppers and 

 cleaning machinery. Railway cars are un- 

 loaded by shoveling the wheat into a pit, 

 from which it is drawn into the elevator by 



unload the largest grain-carrying vessel in less 

 than four hours. Loading is simply a reversal 

 of the operations of unloading. Hollow legs 

 communicating with the storage bins are low- 

 ered into the hold of the vessel, the bins are 

 opened and the grain pours into the vessel. 



There are grain elevators in most English 

 and European towns, but they are not so large 

 nor do they handle such quantities of grain 

 as annually pass through the elevators of Can- 

 ada and the United States. The elevators of 

 Port Arthur, Canada, as yet the largest in the 



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INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT OF A GRAIN ELEVATOR 



(a) Legs; (6) garner; (c) scales; (d) distributing spouts ; (e) pulleys; (/) car spouts ; (a) stor- 

 age bins; (h) receiving hoppers; (i) motors and other machinery; (fc) conveyor belts. Tlu> Illustra- 

 tion at the left is a cross section view from the front of the building ; at the right, cross section view 

 from the side. 



means of a suction shaft, or an endless belt 

 with buckets attached at intervals. 



Elevators for unloading and loading ships are 

 equipped with shafts, or "legs," on the dock 

 side. The hatches of the vessel are removed, 

 the legs are lowered into the hold, the ma- 

 chinery, operated by steam, gas or electric 

 power, is set in motion and the grain is quickly 

 drawn up into the bins. In large elevators 

 12,000 bushels of grain may be unloaded each 

 hour per leg. As several legs are at work at 

 the same time the speed of unloading is greatly 

 increased. One of the largest elevators in the 

 world stands alongside the docks at Superior, 

 Wis. It has sixteen legs and can load or 



world, are noted for their speedy loading ami 

 unloading of vessels, and yearly handle vastly 

 increasing quantities of grain from \N 

 Canada. See POKT Aimii'K. K.ST.A. 



GRAINS, the "breadstuffs" of the worlds tin- 

 seeds of several valuable plants of the grass 

 family. Because Ceres, the Roman goddess of 

 the harvest, presided especially over the growth 

 of the grains, they are commonly known as 

 cereals. Since bread is more widely used by 

 civilized man than any other food, the raising 

 of grain constitutes one of the greatest indus- 

 tries in the world. There are six kinds of grain 

 of chief importance; these are wheat, rice, corn, 

 oats, barley and rye, and each has its own 



