The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-03-24
Grain Elevators.
IHarper's Magazine for April.

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[Harpers Magazine for APRIL
In order to begin at the beginning-go to
the bottom, as it were, of an elevator, one must
climb to the very top. The building is per-
haps one hundred and fifty feet long by seven
ty-fve feet wide, and, like all OF its class, it
rises eighty feet or more to the caves, above
which narrow top part, forty or fifty feet
higher, is perched upon the ridgepole. 1t is
built of wood, sheathed with corrugated iron
little way up, and then slated the rest of the
way.
Entering one end, where two railway tracks
run into the building we find a narrow wood
en- stairway, and begin our ascent. The flights
are short ones, but eighteen are stepped over
before we emerge into the topmost attic.
Alongside of US, as we climbed, has been rum
ming the strong belt which carries the power
from the engine on the ground-f1oor to the
gearing in the roof-a belt of rubber canvass
four feet wide, and perhaps two hundred and
fifty feet long.
When grain is brought-perhaps hundred
carloads from the vast fields OF Dakota or the
wide farms between here and st. Paul-the
train is backed right into the elevator, and
stands so that opposite each car door is re-
ceiver, which is kind of vat or hopper, in the
platform. By the help of steam shovels, OPP
Grating almost automatically, two men in each
car will in ten minutes or less empty the
whole train.
AS fast as the grain is dumped, the receiver
| delivers it to iron buckets holding about peck
each, which are attached to endless belts, and
travel up sort of chimney, called "leg,"
to this roof chamber. These buckets will hoist
5000 bushels an hour at their ordinary rate of
speed. That is equal ID one bucket going up
| "A 900 times at the rate of 800 times min
utes-tolerable lively work To-day up here
in the topmost loft there is nothing doing, ard
we are saved strangulation. The light hardly
penetrates the cobwebbed windows, and the
most pulverous of dust lies everywhere half an
nch deep, showing the marks of a few boot
soles, many footprints of rats, and the lace
like tracks of hundreds of spiders and bugs.
You step over and under broad horizontal
belts as you make your way gingerly from one
end of the attic to the other They run the
fans that winnow the grain as it comes up in
the buckets, after which it is dropped into the
hoppers, ten feet wide, and twice as deep, that
open like hatchways every few feet in the CEN
tire of the floor Now all is perfectly quiet;
we are so high that even the clamor OF the
wharves does not reach us. But when the
machinery starts in motion, then fearful roars,
and clash of cogs, and whipping of slackened
belts, assault the garrett, until this whole up
per region rocks like ship in a gale,and chaff
and dust cloud the eyes and stit1e the throat.
Descending one story, we find another gar
ret, with nothing in it but the square bodies
of the hoppers. Going down second fight
shows US that the hoppers are suspended
not upon pillars, but loosely on stirrups, so as
| to shake little, and the iron gate which lets
on or shuts off the fall of the grain through
the tubular orifice at the bottom is operated
by steam.
There are twelve OF these hoppers. Stick
ing up through the floor underneath each one
cape the laring mouths of twelve spouts or
sluices, all of which point directly at the gate
in the hopper as though earnestly begging its
bounty of grain. Every one of these IA
spouts leads into bin, near or distant, and
all are numbered, so that the superintendent
knows which spout conducts to any one bin,
and can distribute his cargoes accordingly,
the result of his choice being recordedin cab
alistic authorizations upon blackboard close
| nv movah1e conductor ia SWING into
| place between the hopper and the spout the
gate pulled open and down slides the wheat,
with unsteady rushing noise into the CRATE
full bin
To see the bins we descend again, this time
reaching the top of the wide part of the build
ing We walk circumspectly, in the half
light, amid a maze of beams, stringers, and
cross pieces of wood and iron. The whole
interior of the elevator below this level is now
seen to consist of a series of rooms, between
which there is no communication. TLey are
ceilingless, and the only exit from them is
through a spout in the bottom. Peering over
the edges from the narrow foot-walks
we can only guess how far the person
would fall who should loose his balance
for the eye cannot reach the bottom
it is sixty-five feet below, and hidden in dark
ness. Of these deep bins there are IA, some
twice the size OF others. Sometimes they are
all full at once, and hold eight or nine hun
dred thousand bushels, weighing fifty millions
of pounds, and good for over two hundred
thousand barrels of flour.