Grain Elevators : Dart's Grain Warehouse with 'Elevating System' (IHS Built Environment Typology)

Dart's 1842 building in Buffalo is apparently a Grain Warehouse well along the evolutionary path of being a Grain Elevator - and is usually considered the first true Grain Elevator. It originally had a storage capacity of 55,000 bushels.

Based on this model, Dart's building appears to be a typical mid-19thC gabled multistory Warehouse, with the addition of the newly developed "marine leg," a movable and retractable bucket conveyor used to unload loose grain from a ship up into the warehouse. (See also Dart's entry in my Grain Elevator Chronology, and in other webpages in the History of Buffalo website.

Since the internal arrangements are unclear to me so far (vertical tube-like bins like later elevators?) and the form is not quite entirely self-contained (are the attached parts additions to a pre-existing warehouse?) I have placed it in my "Incipient Grain Elevator Type" for now.

The model is on display in the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society museum, and the photo is in the Joseph Dart webpage of the History of Buffalo website. Most of my information on Dart's Elevator comes from that website. I have clarified the photo for the sake of illustration.

Dart's Grain Warehouse with his 'Elevating System' had several advancements that set it apart for any previous mill or warehouse, and created a new (or incipient) building type - as well as a revolutionized industrial process. Some were pre-existing mechanisms or processes, but were assembled into a greater whole by Dart. They were:

a steam engine to power everything

with rope-and-pulley power trains to transfer power

a conveyer system to move grain vertically (a revision of an earlier invention)

using small buckets on a powered belt. This was the most innovative feature.
this was movement which did not rely on manpower to cary small amouts of it at a time, or horsepower to winch or drag it - instead, relying on steam power (and a couple generations later, electricity)

in the form of a "Loose Leg" to unload from 'ground level' in a ship up to the top of the elevator

the Loose Leg was a highly mechanized device (for the mid-19thC) that used "a rigid, nearly vertical frame to carry the bucket, chain, and sprocket assembly. The frame could be raised and lowered as a complete unit by means of a cradle of ropes and pulleys whose winches were powered by the same steam engine as drove the bucket conveyor. " It was "housed in a tall wooden sleeve, the conveyer could be canted outward at the bottom of the elevator structure and lowered directly into the hold of a waiting boat."

(if both extractable/detractable and in a detached, mobile structure, the Loose Leg was known as a "Marine Leg")

in the form of a fixed internal "Stiff Leg" which moved grain processed into the lower level of the warehouse back up to the upper level (for gravity unloading)

harnessing the simple force of gravity to unload the processed grain - instead of hauling it in small amounts horizontally by manpower and/or horsepower

which required hauling it vertically, thus needing the conveyer system

the early addition of powered scoops to help in unloading from ships

which also used power from the steam engine, "tapped by another set of winches, pulling ropes attached to large wooden scoops that were used to drag loose grain across the floor of the ship's hold and into the jaws of the conveyor."

the scoops were clearly an adaptation of the traditional "Slip Scoop" used to move earth - best visualized as a hybrid between a plow and a wheelbarrow. They were in the form of a large shovel blade-like scoop, usually about three feet square. They had two wheelbarrow-like handles extending backward for a man to control the direction and pitch of the scoop and its leading blade. Most important, it had a wye attached at the top mid-points of the side walls, which like a plow harnessed a horse (or mule or ox) in front. (The slip scoop soon evolved in to the dragline / steam shovel.)

the typical weigh scales to measure the grain so a price could be fixed

which were placed in the top of the elevator, where the grain was first moved to

large (presumably) vertical bins within the bulk of the building, where the grain was stored after being unloaded from the ship into the top of the elevator, and then unloaded through (presumably) chutec into the desired bin

instead of (presumably) horizontal bins where loose grain was moved to and dumped by manpower, or open warehouse space where sacks and casks of grain were stored unemptied

a typical drying facility (called a Marsh dryer) was part of the facility

grain was conveyed from a ship to the top of the elevator onto "a large metal surface some 800 feet square that was perforated with tiny holes. As the moist grain was raked across this surface it was dried by a blast of hot air from below. The grain was then drawn through a current of cold air to cool it before being shunted into a storage bin."

a system for cleaning grain (which was also typical?)

the grain was dropped into a large cylinder where a steam-powered exhaust fan blew out chaff and other impurities

The Buffalo website describes the novel movement of grain in this new building type:

Inside the ship [at the dock, full of grain], men who before this had carried barrels on their backs from boat to dock now shoveled grain into the conveyor belt buckets.

The grain they scooped was carried up this so-called loose leg...

... to a scale where it was weighed...

...before being distributed to large storage bins. There, grain would be stored until sold. At that moment, it would be drawn off through the bottom and...

...raised again to the scale by means of a "stiff leg" conveyer system that occupied a fixed position within the elevator house.

Finally, the grain "spouted" down into a waiting canal barge moored where the arriving lake vessel had docked.

The process involved the forces of steam power to lift the grain, and gravity to spout it. Thus was born a new building type. An early observer defined it as "a collection of elevating, weighing and distributing machinery, placed in and over a building made to fit its size and requirements, this building being a collection of boxes, or bins, of greater or lesser size and depth, fitted for the receipt of grain at the top and for discharging the same through openings in the bottom."

When not in use, this loose leg conveyer belt was retracted by means of a steam engine to its original vertical position inside the elevator. A hood or cupola, some twenty feet in height, on the roof of the structure provided the extra room needed to store it upright. It was the most distinctive external feature of Dart's elevator and those that followed its example.

At first this pioneer "marine leg," as these boat-to-elevator devices came to be called, was equipped with two-quart buckets 28 inches apart. Dunbar's original system was able to raise 600 bushels an hour, ten times the amount human workmen had been able to carry. Soon, however, with improvements, the capacity of the marine leg rose to 2000 bushels an hour and the elevator's storage capacity increased from 55,000 bushels to over 110,000 bushels.

Dart's Sources

In a paper read before members of the Buffalo Historical Society in 1865, Joseph Dart paid tribute to his acquaintance, Oliver Evans, an American inventor and millwright who invented a gravity-fed grain mill with a bucket conveyor as the means for raising grain to storage bins at the top of the plant, where it would flow down under its own weight through the sequence of milling processes.

... Dart and Dunbar owed a serious debt in their invention to miller Oliver Evans, who earlier had devised a similar conveyer system to handle flour and grain in his milling operation in Philadelphia.

...Joseph Dart hit on the idea of adapting a system of belts and with attached buckets to scoop out the grain. Dart had seen such a system used to move grain around internally around the Ellicott grain mill in Maryland [whose equipment was designed by Oliver Evans].*

Buffalo's early elevator operators developed the ability to dry and clean the grain they received here sometimes in less than optimal condition. Often the grain in ship holds became wet during the lake voyage. In order to prevent damp grain from spoiling, it needed to be dried before being put into storage.

Economic Effect

By 1860, the Dart Elevator had spawned ten similar structures on the Buffalo waterfront and given the city a storage capacity of over one-and-a-half-million bushels. With an addition of sixteen more elevators by the end of the Civil War, Buffalo surpassed the grain commerce of London, Odessa, and Rotterdam to become the world's largest grain port. Without the invention of the versatile and efficient elevator, this meteoric rise would have been impossible. [Odessa, Russia; London, England; and Rotterdam, Holland]

"Grain elevators make ideal structures for the storage of grain," writes industrial historian Henry H. Baxter, whose ancestors designed many of Buffalo's later elevators. "In the elevator's bins, grain can be kept dry, cool, free from vermin, and safe from pilferage. Moreover, elevators make it possible to weigh and sample grain to determine the quality, quantity, and grade as a basis of payment."

Construction - of early Buffalo Elevators

Heavy timber frames sustained these early structures that contained rectangular storage bins built on the traditional crib system.

In order to support the enormous weight of the stored grain (100,000 bushels weighs about 3000 tons), and because these elevators were located on mud and sand adjacent to the river, it was necessary to erect them on pilings. Typically, closely spaced log piles were driven deep into the soft earth to form a solid foundation on which the elevator could be raised. A basement course of stone or brick was laid on the pilings to a height of about 16 feet, above which rose a framed superstructure of oak, elm or beech. The internal bins were supported on a series of posts, struts, and girders.

With their exteriors covered with boarding, the first elevators resembled enormous sheds or barns. Their tall, ungainly proportions and steeply sloping roofs evoked a decidedly Medieval appearance.

Above from "A History of Buffalo's Grain Elevators - Excerpt from the 2002 Buffalo Grain Elevator Multiple Property Submission to the National Register of Historic Places" (with edits) except paragraphs marked * from Tim Tielman's "Buffalo's unusual claim to architectural fame"

Plentiful in the Buffalo area, wood was used for construction of grain elevators for half a century. The earliest elevators were located on or near the water and served only lake or canal boats. Later materials included steel, concrete, tile and brick. Although the exterior arrangement often varied, the interior arrangement was always similar. "Engineering News" in 1898 noted:

To all but a few of our readers doubtless the exterior aspect of the modern storage elevator for grain is familiar enough, but a much smaller number probably is acquainted with the interior arrangement of these structures.

Briefly described, the main body of the building, called by elevator men "the house," is mostly occupied with bins for storing the grain, while the surmounting structure, which is generally three stories high, and is called the "cupola," contains the operating machinery and working rooms.

Generally the topmost story of the cupola contains the leg-driving machinery and [t]urnhead spouts; the middle story, the garners, and the lowest story, the weighing hoppers and cleaning machines.

Below the cupola and main roof, and extending over the entire width and length of the house is the distributing or spout floor. Here are the conveyors for transporting lengthwise of the building, and the distributing spouts for transferring by gravity from the scale hoppers to the bins.

By means of the "legs," [Ed. note: This refers to legs inside the building, as opposed to the exterior marine towers or movable legs] reaching from the bottoms of pits sunk below the foundations of the bins to the topmost story of the cupola, and containing bucket conveyors, the grain is elevated to the turnhead spouts and discharged into the garners. From these it passes to the lower floors where it is weighted, cleaned, if desired, and finally spouted to its proper bin. ("The Steel Tank Grain Elevator "Great Northern" at Buffalo, N.Y," Engineering News," p. 218)

From "Joseph Dart - reprinted from the application for landmark status for the Great Northern grain elevator (City of Buffalo approved 4/10/90)" by Chuck LaChiusa

You are at Built Environment : Structures : Buildings : Grain Elevators : Self-Contained Master Type: Incipient Types: Dart's Warehouse with 'Elevating System' in Buffalo, NY