The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-08-25

90 the ceiling, where It lies flat and is
hooked fast When the car is To be load
Ell it Is run along side grain bin and a
telescOpic chute is lowered into one door
way. The grain doors are closed, valve
is opened and the grain pours into the
car until il il two-thirds full, the regular
load. The railroad contracts 10 bring the
grain from Chicago and deliver it along
side vessel anywhere in the harbor at
% cents bnshel. The car Is run into the
elevator structure here on the ground
floor. A man with a crowbar pries up
the grain door and the wheat comes rush.
ing out and falls into pit beside the car.
There are graiings over the pit to keep
out cDarse objects and for the workmen
10 walk upon. Down at the bottom of
the pit is the open end Of an iron shan,
inside Of which works an endless belt
faced with steel cups set a foot apart.
When the belt starts the grain Is caught
up in the cups and delivered in an al
most unbroken stream at the top of the
building, where the cups tip over as they
start to return. In half an hour a car is
unloaded and the last vestiges of the
grain are swept out and another car takes
its place All over the elevator floor are
other cars unloading.
Before. when the cars came in, an in
spector appointed by the Produce Ex-
change viewed the grain and fixed it,
grade. Now, as il arrives at the top of
the elevator. il falls into one of the two
hopper bins, fixed on scales, and is
weighed. One man watches from to 6
sets of scales. He sets his scale at 5000
or $500 pounds, and every time the bar
lifts he marks record of its weight,
turns a valve which directs the stream
into the other hopper, and turns another
valve, which lets the weighed grain run
out and through a chute into the great
bins. From that moment the identity of
a shipment Of grain is lost. 1t Is now
simply so many bushels of such a grade.
From the bottom Of that same bin there
is running a stream Of wheat which has
been sold and is going aboard. 1t goes
down into one of the same pits where it
first fell from car and it fills the place
with dust. Every bit of that dust costs
the railroad money, for il was all weigh
ed when the wheat came in. Now, the
elevator belt picks it up again and again
it goes to the weighing hoppers.
No wheat is loaded directly from the
elevators into ships at this harbor, but
goes 20 them in barges. Beside the ele-
.-asur lie sfav.. - .-o-.aafs H,.fft Ifl-a .anal
boats. From the scales grain comes
pouring down 100 feet or more through
ehutes which end with steel telescope
pipes foot in diameter. There are two
or three of the chutes, and two pipes 10 a
chute, and the pipes are pouring the
grain into the hold of the barge at every
hatehway. II a man were to hold his
arm under one OF those streams Of grain
it would be cut of as by a saw. In each
hatchway of the barges is a man with his
mouth and nose protected by muslin to
keep the dust out He is armed with a
big wooden butter bowl. mounted on a
handle. You think az first that he Is GO
ing to shovel the wheat with this but he
knows better trick. lie places the but
ter bowl under the stream OF wheat, and
this stream turned, by the smooth round
ed inside Of the bowl, shoots off TO one
side just as a stream Of water would, and
the trimmer, by turning the bowl from
time to time, sends the wheat wherever
he wants it. \ barge holds about 5000
bushels. In an hour or less this is load
ed. and then tug takes her OFF to the
ship.
a floating elevator lies alongside the
latter. The barge ties up beside the
floating elevator. leg of an endless belt
is thrust down into her hatchway, and
dozen men shovel the grain up to the ele-
vator to keep it supplied. In about an
hour and half the barge is emptied.
The elevator does not deliver the wheat
direct to the ship. Midway is another
set Of weighing hoppers, ard 1t passes
through these and Is weighed before
second elevator carries it to a chute
which sends it into the ships hold.
Ifthere is a discrepancy between the
railroad weights and the floating elevator
weights, the railroad pays in cash for
what is short or collects in cash for what
is over. 4 loss of more than two bush
els to a thousand would, however.
require al explanation. The dis
crepancies re usually losses, and these
aggregate b tween Chicago and the ship
about y pc cent. The floating elevators
get about a.. cents a bushel for putting
the grain aboard ship from the barges-