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 Grain hopper trailers lined up to unload at theCargill grain elevator inLa Crosse forbarges (Click for aerial video) |
Agrain elevator orgrain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In thegrain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing abucket elevator or apneumatic conveyor, which scoops upgrain from a lower level and deposits it in asilo or other storage facility.
In most cases, the term "grain elevator" also describes the entire elevator complex, including receiving and testing offices,weighbridges, and storage facilities. It may also mean organizations that operate or control several individual elevators, in different locations. In Australia, the term describes only the lifting mechanism.
Before the advent of the grain elevator, grain was usually handled in bags rather than in bulk (large quantities of loose grain). The Dart elevator was a major innovation—it was invented byJoseph Dart, a merchant, andRobert Dunbar, an engineer, in 1842, inBuffalo, New York. Using the steam-powered flour mills ofOliver Evans as their model, they invented the marine leg, which scooped loose grain out of the hulls of ships and elevated it to the top of a marine tower.[1]
Early grain elevators and bins were often built of framed or cribbed wood, and were prone to fire. In 1899 Frank H. Peavey "The Elevator King' along withCharles F. Haglin, invented the modern grain elevator. The firstPeavey-Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator still stands today in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The Peavey invented elevator was the first cylindrical concrete grain elevator in the world and is now widely used across Canada and the US.
Grain elevator bins, tanks, and silos are now usually made of steel or reinforced concrete. Bucket elevators are used to lift grain to a distributor or consignor, from which it falls through spouts and/orconveyors and into one or more bins, silos, or tanks in a facility. When desired, silos, bins, and tanks are emptied by gravity flow, sweepaugers, and conveyors. As grain is emptied from bins, tanks, and silos, it is conveyed, blended, and weighted into trucks,railroad cars, orbarges for shipment.
InAustralian English, the term "grain elevator" is reserved for elevator towers, while a receival and storage building or complex is distinguished by the formal term "receival point" or as a "wheat bin" or "silo". Large-scale grain receival, storage, andlogistics operations are known in Australia as bulk handling.
In Canada, the term "grain elevator" is used to refer to a place where farmers sell grain into the global grain distribution system, and/or a place where the grain is moved into rail cars or ocean-going ships for transport. Specifically, several types of grain elevators are defined under Canadian law, in theCanadian Grain Act, section 2.[2]
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Both necessity and the prospect of making money gave birth to the steam-powered grain elevator inBuffalo, New York, in 1843. Due to the completion of theErie Canal in 1825, Buffalo enjoyed a unique position in American geography. It stood at the intersection of two great all-water routes; one extended fromNew York Harbor, up theHudson River toAlbany, and beyond it, the Port of Buffalo; the other comprised theGreat Lakes, which could theoretically take boaters in any direction they wished to go (north toCanada, west toMichigan orWisconsin, south toToledo andCleveland, or east to theAtlantic Ocean). All through the 1830s, Buffalo benefited tremendously from its position. In particular, it was the recipient of most of the increasing quantities of grain (mostly wheat) that was being grown on farms inOhio andIndiana, and shipped onLake Erie for trans-shipment to the Erie Canal. If Buffalo had not been there, or when things got backed up there, that grain would have been loaded onto boats at Cincinnati and shipped down theMississippi River toNew Orleans.[1]
By 1842, Buffalo's port facilities clearly had become antiquated. They still relied upon techniques that had been in use since the EuropeanMiddle Ages; work teams ofstevedores useblock and tackles and their own backs to unload or load each sack of grain that had been stored ashore or in the boat's hull. Several days, sometimes even a week, were needed to serve a single grain-laden boat. Grain shipments were going down the Mississippi River, not over the Great Lakes/Erie Canal system.
A merchant named Joseph Dart Jr., is generally credited as being the one who adaptedOliver Evans' grain elevator (originally a manufacturing device) for use in a commercial framework (the trans-shipment of grain in bulk from lakers to canal boats), but the actual design and construction of the world's first steam-powered "grain storage and transfer warehouse" was executed by an engineer named Robert Dunbar. Thanks to the historicDart's Elevator (operational on 1 June 1843), which worked almost seven times faster than its nonmechanized predecessors, Buffalo was able to keep pace with—and thus further stimulate—the rapid growth of American agricultural production in the 1840s and 1850s, but especially after theCivil War, with the coming of therailroads.[1]
The world's second and third grain elevators were built in Toledo, Ohio, andBrooklyn, New York, in 1847. These fledgling American cities were connected through an emerging international grain trade of unprecedented proportions. Grain shipments from farms in Ohio were loaded onto ships by elevators at Toledo; these ships were unloaded by elevators at Buffalo that shipped their grain to canal boats (and, later, rail cars), which were unloaded by elevators in Brooklyn, where the grain was either distributed toEast Coast flour mills or loaded for further shipment toEngland, theNetherlands, orGermany. This eastern flow of grain, though, was matched by an equally important flow of people and capital in the opposite direction, that is, from east to west. Because of the money to be made in grain production, and of course, because of the existence of an all-water route to get there, increasing numbers of immigrants in Brooklyn came to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to become farmers. More farmers meant more prairies turned into farmlands, which in turn meant increased grain production, which of course meant that more grain elevators would have to be built in places such as Toledo, Buffalo, and Brooklyn (and Cleveland,Chicago, andDuluth). Through this loop of productivity set in motion by the invention of the grain elevator, the United States became a major international producer of wheat, corn, and oats.[1]
In the early 20th century, concern arose about monopolistic practices in the grain elevator industry, leading to testimony before theInterstate Commerce Commission in 1906.[3] This led to several grain elevators being burned down in Nebraska, allegedly in protest.[3]
Today, grain elevators are a common sight in the grain-growing areas of the world, such as theNorth Americanprairies. Larger terminal elevators are found at distribution centers, such as Chicago andThunder Bay, Ontario, where grain is sent for processing, or loaded aboard trains or ships to go further afield.
Buffalo, New York, the world's largest grain port from the 1850s until the first half of the 20th century, once had the United States' largest capacity for the storage of grain in over 30 concrete grain elevators located along the inner and outer harbors. While several are still in productive use, many of those that remain are presently idle. In a nascent trend, some of the city's inactive capacity has recently come back online, with anethanol plant started in 2007 using one of the previously mothballed elevators to store corn. In the early 20th century, Buffalo's grain elevators inspired modernist architects such asLe Corbusier, who exclaimed, "The first fruits of the new age!" when he first saw them. Buffalo's grain elevators have been documented for theHistoric American Engineering Record and added to theNational Register of Historic Places. Currently,Enid, Oklahoma, holds the title of most grain storage capacity in the United States.
In farming communities, each town had one or more small grain elevators that served the local growers. The classic grain elevator was constructed with wooden cribbing and had nine or more larger square or rectangular bins arranged in 3 × 3 or 3 × 4 or 4 × 4 or more patterns. Wooden-cribbed elevators usually had a driveway with truck scale and office on one side, a rail line on the other side, and additional grain-storage annex bins on either side.
In more recent times with improved transportation, centralized and much larger elevators serve many farms. Some of them are quite large. Two elevators inKansas (one inHutchinson and one inWichita) are half a mile long. The loss of the grain elevators from small towns is often considered a great change in their identity, and efforts to preserve them as heritage structures are made. At the same time, many larger grain farms have their own grain-handling facilities for storage and loading onto trucks.
Elevator operators buy grain from farmers, either for cash or at a contracted price, and then sellfutures contracts for the same quantity of grain, usually each day. They profit through the narrowing "basis", that is, the difference between the local cash price, and the futures price, that occurs at certain times of the year.
Before economical truck transportation was available, grain elevator operators sometimes used their purchasing power to control prices. This was especially easy, since farmers often had only one elevator within a reasonable distance of their farms. This led some governments to take over the administration of grain elevators. An example of this is theSaskatchewan Wheat Pool. For the same reason, many elevators were purchased bycooperatives.
A recent problem with grain elevators is the need to provide separate storage for ordinary andgenetically modified grain to reduce the risk of accidental mixing of the two.
Grain elevators sometimes experiencesilo explosions. Fine powder from the millions of grains passing through the facility would accumulate and mix with the oxygen in the air. A spark could spread from one floating particle to the other, creating a chain reaction that would destroy the entire structure. (This dispersed-fuel explosion is the mechanism behindfuel-air bombs.) To prevent this, elevators have very rigorous rules againstsmoking or any other open flame. Many elevators also have various devices installed to maximize ventilation, safeguards against overheating in belt conveyors, legs, bearings, andexplosion-proof electrical devices such aselectric motors, switches, andlighting.
Grain elevators in small Canadian communities often had the name of the community painted on two sides of the elevator in large block letters, with the name of the elevator operator emblazoned on the other two sides. This made identification of the community easier for rail operators (and incidentally, for lost drivers and pilots). The old community name often remained on an elevator long after the town had either disappeared or been amalgamated into another community; the grain elevator atEllerslie, Alberta, remained marked with its old community name until it was demolished, which took place more than 20 years after the village had been annexed byEdmonton.
One of the major historical trends in the grain trade has been the closure of many smaller elevators and the consolidation of the grain trade to fewer places and among fewer companies. For example, in 1961, 1,642 "country elevators" (the smallest type) were in Alberta, holding 3,452,240 tonnes (3,805,440 short tons) of grain. By 2010, only 79 "primary elevators" (as they are now known) remained, holding 1,613,960 tonnes (1,779,090 short tons).
Despite this consolidation, overall storage capacity has increased in many places. In 2017, the United States had 0.88 cubic kilometres (25 billion US bushels) of storage capacity, a growth of 25% over the previous decade.[5]
The city of Buffalo is not only the birthplace of the modern grain elevator, but also has the world's largest number of extant examples.[6] A number of the city's historic elevators are clustered along "Elevator Alley", a narrow stretch of theBuffalo River immediately adjacent to the harbor. The alley runs under Ohio Street and along Childs Street in the city's First Ward neighborhood.[7]
In Canada, the term "elevator row" refers to a row of four or morewood-cribprairie grain elevators.
In the early pioneer days ofWestern Canada's prairie towns, when a good farming spot was settled, many people wanted to make money by building their own grain elevators. This brought in droves of private grain companies. Towns boasted dozens of elevator companies, which all stood in a row along the railway tracks. If a town were lucky enough to have two railways, it was to be known as the nextMontreal. Many elevator rows had two or more elevators of the same company. Small towns bragged of their large elevator rows in promotional pamphlets to attract settlers. With so much competition in the 1920s, consolidation began almost immediately, and many small companies were merged or absorbed into larger companies.
In the mid-1990s, with the cost of grain so low, many private elevator companies once again had to merge, this time causing thousands of "prairie sentinels" to be torn down. Because so many grain elevators have been torn down, Canada has only two surviving elevator rows; one located inInglis, Manitoba, and the other inWarner, Alberta. TheInglis Grain Elevators National Historic Site has been protected as aNational Historic Sites of Canada. TheWarner elevator row is, as of 2019, not designated a historic site, and is still in use as commercial grain elevators.
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All companies operating elevators in Canada are licensed by theCanadian Grain Commission.[8]
This is a list of grain elevators that are either in the process of becomingheritage sites ormuseums, or have been preserved for future generations.
TheManchester Ship Canal grain elevator was completed in 1898. It had a capacity of 40,000 tons and its automatic conveying and spouting system could distribute grain into 226 bins.[33]
Given a large enough suspension of combustibleflour orgrain dust in the air, a significantexplosion can occur. The 1878 explosion of theWashburn "A" Mill inMinneapolis, Minnesota, killed 18, leveled two nearby mills, damaged many others, and caused a destructive fire that gutted much of the nearby milling district. (The Washburn "A" mill was later rebuilt and continued to be used until 1965.) Another example occurred in 1998, when theDeBruce grain elevator inWichita, Kansas, exploded and killed seven people.[37] An explosion on October 29, 2011, at the Bartlett Grain Company inAtchison, Kansas, killed six people. Two more men received severe burns, but the remaining four were not hurt.[38]
Almost any finely dividedorganic substance becomes anexplosive material when dispersed as an air suspension; hence, a very fine flour is dangerously explosive in air suspension. This poses a significant risk when milling grain to produce flour, so mills go to great lengths to remove sources of sparks. These measures include carefully sifting the grain before it is milled or ground to remove stones, which could strike sparks from the millstones, and the use of magnets to remove metallic debris able to strike sparks.
The earliest recorded flour explosion took place in an Italian mill in 1785, but many have occurred since. These two references give numbers of recorded flour anddust explosions in the United States in 1994:[39] and 1997[40] In the ten-year period up to and including 1997, there were 129 explosions.
Canadian Prairie grain elevators were the subjects of theNational Film Board of Canada documentariesGrain Elevator[41] andDeath of a Skyline.[42]
During the sixth season of theHistory Channel seriesAx Men, one of the featured crews takes on the job of dismantling the Globe Elevator in Wisconsin. This structure was the largest grain-storage facility in the world when it was built in the 1880s.
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