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Implements and Machines

Grain Elevator

Also Known As Grain terminal
Threshing and Post-Harvest Processing Implements

The tall storehouse that lifts, stockpiles and pours grain in bulk, the building that turned harvests into a flowing commodity. The merchant Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar built the first steam-powered elevator in Buffalo, New York, operational on the first of June 1843, and it unloaded ships roughly seven times faster than the sack-and-shoulder work it replaced. Bulk handling made the modern grain trade possible, and the elevator became the skyline of every prairie town that shipped wheat. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Introduced Year
1843 1
The Dart elevator in Buffalo became operational on 1 June 1843; the invention is dated 1842.
Origin
Buffalo entrepreneur Joseph Dart, with Scottish mechanical engineer Robert Dunbar, built the first steam-powered grain elevator in America on the Buffalo River, applying Oliver Evans steam-milling principles to a mechanized marine leg that scooped grain from ship holds; it opened in June 1843. 2
Classification
Power Source
Steam 1
Connections

Associated With

grain elevators and silos are paired grain-storage and handling structures, the elevator moving grain into and out of silo storage

Powered By

Steam Engine, Concepts
Sources
1. Grain Elevator (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section; Dart and Dunbar history
    A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain.
  • lead description or Wikipedia lead (power-source)
    The merchant Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar built the first steam-powered elevator in Buffalo, New York, operational on the first of June 1843, and it unloaded ships roughly seven times faster than the sack-and-shoulder work it replaced.
View the Source
2. Joseph Dart (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationGrain elevator section
Quote, Grain elevator section
Alongside Scottish mechanical engineer Robert Dunbar, Dart oversaw construction of a steam-powered grain elevator, the first in America.
View the Source
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