Dart's Elevator

Dart's Elevator was the world's first steam-powered grain elevator. It was designed and built by Joseph Dart and Robert Dunbar in 1842 in Buffalo, New York. The elevator burned in the 1860s.

Designed and built in 1842 by Dart and Dunbar, the Dart Elevator in Buffalo, New York was 50 by 100 feet. It was the world's first steam-powered grain elevator. It had a leather vertical conveyor belt with buckets. This system could unload grain from the interiors of a lake boat hull, and do it far faster than the manual methods previously employed. The boat just had to be moored next to the storage elevator. Dunbar designed most of the grain elevators that at the end of the nineteenth century were along the Buffalo River. The city of Buffalo received grain from the states of Michigan and Illinois in volume in the 1830s. That presented the problem of congestion on the docks. The existing method of managing the transfer of grain from boats overwhelmed the port. Dart invented a mechanical system of belts with buckets attached to scoop up the grain from the hulls of boats and put into storage.

Dart also devised a means of lowering the bottom end of the bucket into the holds of the large vessels that brought grain across the Great Lakes or of the barges that moved it along the Erie Canal. This was a turning point in the industry, marking a shift from the manual labor of men on ladders to a mechanized system. An important feature in Dart’s invention was the use of a rigid, nearly vertical frame to hold the bucket, chain, and sprocket assembly. This vertical assembly is contained in a building and referred to as the "marine tower" leg. This vertical conveyor assembly is housed in a wooden sleeve and could be leaned outward at the bottom of the elevator structure. It then is lowered directly into the interior of a vessel that had grain in its hold.

Dart's elevator utilized a set of grain bins. On top of them was a cupola that had equipment for weighing. Incoming grain was taken to the top by the grain elevator vertical assembly and discharged by gravity to storage after being weighed. Then sold grain to be transferred was taken from the storage bins. It was elevated again to the cupola, weighed out and dispensed to a barge, train or grain carriage vehicle. The" marine leg" of the elevator was most important to these procedures and functions. Dart's innovations permitted the grain to be brought up with a set of scoop buckets attached to an endless loop belt. The elevator system undone and positioned the elevator leg in different forms. One was the "stiff leg" within the building which brought up grain into the grain elevator storage facilities from land based transports. Another was the "loose leg" brought up grain from ships and barges into the grain elevator building. The "loose leg" was kept in a raised position within the grain elevator building when not in use. That required an unusual tower above the cupola roof. When a ship's cargo of grain was to be unloaded the "loose leg" was lowered into the belly interior of the ship's hull.

...
Wikipedia