Do You Know How a Grain Elevator Works?

Well, you should! I always wondered as we traveled around and observed the elevators from the outside. In March, my nephew, Wyatt, gave me a tour of the feed mill in Hillsboro, Ohio. Wyatt worked there and based many of his FFA activities on that experience. In fact, he plans to attend Kansas State and major in Feed Science (?) when he graduates from high school next year.
As we started traveling in Alberta we saw a number of the old, wooden grain elevators which were painted up and had the name of the town on the side. We stopped at one in Nanton but it was closed. The Milepost Travel Guide indicated one in Spruce Grove was open for tours. So we stopped. We found out that at one time there were over 3000 in the province, spaced 8-10 miles apart, to allow the farmers to conveniently haul their grains to the elevator. Today there are fewer than 300 working elevators. they are being replaced with shiny, metal, mechanized, higher capacity units which are more efficient to operate.
Dee will kill me for writing this much about grain elevators. But I told you this would be an eclectic blog! And, after all, it is OUR blog.  So bear with me a few minutes longer.
The Spruce Grove Grain Elevator has been reclaimed by a volunteer organization to make sure the structure and works survive. The photos below are of the elevator. The basic operation goes like this:
1) the farmer brings the grain to the elevator in a truck or wagon, 2) the elevator operator checks the load for moisture content and purity of the grain and a price per ton is determined 3) the truck pulls in on the scale and dumps the load through a grate in the floor 4) the truck is now weighed, empty and the net weight of the grain and the payment to the farmer is determined. Next, 5) the grain in the basement is carried via conveyer to the top of the elevator where it is dumped in one of the bins. There is a turret on top which rotates to put the grain in the proper bin. The mechanical system by which this is accomplished by the operator is really interesting. 6) when a railcar/set of ten cars pulls along the elevator and a spout goes out over the car, again coming from the proper bin, and the grain is released, again weighing the car before and after.
The wooden structure and mechanics are simple yet effective. Many old elevators have a “man-elevator” in which a person gets in the small car and physically pulls himself up to the top of the elevator using his own strength (and counter-weights). A lot of cleaning and repair work is necessary to keep the elevator running correctly.
This discussion should weed out a few of you readers of this blog who are wondering why you are reading it in the first place!

Here I am inspecting the basement operation and as Dee points out – getting dirty!

I had to explain to the tour guide how it works. It was her first day!