GRAIN ELEVATOR. A structure de signed for the manipulation and storage of grain awaiting transportation. It is usually a high rectangular or cylindrical edifice, built of steel, enforced concrete, or some other suitable material. The bins containing the grain may form with the elevators and machinery a single large building or the machinery and the bins may be in separate establishments.
There is in the larger establishments a working house connected with the bins or actually containing them. Other forms of elevators are those situated on railroad tracks, where a hopper receives the grain from the farmers' wagons whence it is scooped by belted buckets and conveyed to the bins. In the ordinary elevator the machinery and working rooms sur mount the main building, where the storage bins are grouped. Over this main building usually lies the distribu ting floor, and over this again the floor containing the weighing hoppers and ma chinery for cleaning, and surmounting this again are the garners, leg-driving machinery and turnhead spouts. The grain is carried upward by belted buckets to the turnhead spouts and so conveyed to the garners. From the garners it passes to the main building, being cleared or otherwise treated, in the course of passage. The elevator legs are usually separated by the length of a railroad car so that the operation of transferring from the car to the elevator or from the elevator to the car may be carried on simultaneously. With similar ends in
view elevators are often built over freight railroad tracks, generally they have the track running alongside. Power shovels remove the grain from the car to the hoppers, whence the grain is carried upward to the topmost story to be submitted to the manipulation be fore described in its journey through the various floors to its proper bins. The principle is similar in the transference of grain from vessels to railroad cars, and from railroad cars to vessels. The elevator legs are so placed on the water side that they come in connection with the vessel's hatches. The larger kind of these elevators are made of concrete, but in the smaller kind wood is largely used, and steel, brick and tile enter large ly into the construction. The bins are usually of steel or concrete with the main building of brick, while the upper stories may be of steel frame. Floating elevators are used to facilitate the trans fer of grain from vessels at different points in the dock. The largest elevator is at Montreal, Canada. The elevators in Chicago have a capacity for handling grain to the extent of over 50,000,000 bushels, the Armour Company having an elevator capable of handling 5,000,000 bushels.