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59-565: The Swissmill Tower , also known as Kornhaus , is the tallest operating grain elevator in the world. Standing at 118 metres (387 ft), it is the second-tallest building in the Swiss city of Zürich . The Swissmill Tower is a grain elevator close to Limmatplatz in Zürich . It was built near the Migros Tower, replacing a former grain elevator after the city voted in favor of building

118-592: A National Historic Sites of Canada . The Warner elevator row is, as of 2019, not designated a historic site, and is still in use as commercial grain elevators. All companies operating elevators in Canada are licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission . This is a list of grain elevators that are either in the process of becoming heritage sites or museums , or have been preserved for future generations. The Manchester Ship Canal grain elevator

177-409: A flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and marine water environments. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs , but on inland waterways, most are pushed by pusher boats , or other vessels. The term barge has a rich history, and therefore there are many types of barges. "Barge"

236-407: A British canal boat of traditional long, narrow design, steered with a tiller; spec. one not exceeding 7 feet (approx. 2.1 metres) in width or 72 feet (approx. 21.9 metres) in length The narrowboats were initially also known as barges, and the new canals were constructed with an adjacent towpath along which draft horses walked, towing the barges. These types of canal craft are so specific that on

295-481: A barge has given rise to the saying "I wouldn't touch that [subject/thing] with a barge pole." In the United States a barge was not a sailing vessel by the end of the 19th century. Indeed, barges were often created by cutting down ( razeeing ) sailing vessels. In New York this was an accepted meaning of the term barge. The somewhat smaller scow was built as such, but the scow also had its sailing counterpart

354-520: A chain reaction that would destroy the entire structure. (This dispersed-fuel explosion is the mechanism behind fuel-air bombs .) To prevent this, elevators have very rigorous rules against smoking or any other open flame. Many elevators also have various devices installed to maximize ventilation, safeguards against overheating in belt conveyors, legs, bearings, and explosion-proof electrical devices such as electric motors , switches, and lighting . Grain elevators in small Canadian communities often had

413-473: A common sight in the grain-growing areas of the world, such as the North American prairies . Larger terminal elevators are found at distribution centers, such as Chicago and Thunder 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

472-654: 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 the DeBruce grain elevator in Wichita, Kansas , exploded and killed seven people. An explosion on October 29, 2011, at the Bartlett Grain Company in Atchison, Kansas , killed six people. Two more men received severe burns, but

531-406: A distributor or consignor, from which it falls through spouts and/or conveyors and into one or more bins, silos, or tanks in a facility. When desired, silos, bins, and tanks are emptied by gravity flow, sweep augers , and conveyors. As grain is emptied from bins, tanks, and silos, it is conveyed, blended, and weighted into trucks, railroad cars , or barges for shipment. In Australian English ,

590-447: A dumb barge. In Europe, a Dumb barge is: An inland waterway transport freight vessel designed to be towed which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion . In America, a barge is generally pushed. Barges are used today for transporting low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods that way is very low and for larger project cargo, such as offshore wind turbine blades. Barges are also used for very heavy or bulky items;

649-553: A few decades, the term dumb barge evolved, and came to mean: 'a vessel propelled by oars only'. By the 1890s Dumb barge was still used only on the Thames. By 1880 barges on British rivers and canals were often towed by steam tugboats. On the Thames, many dumb barges still relied on their poles, oars and the tide. Others dumb barges made use of about 50 tugboats to tow them to their destinations. While many coal barges were towed, many dumb barges that handled single parcels were not. On

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708-496: A larger silo. The original mill ( Kornhaus ) was built in 1843 on the same site. The site required piles built to a depth of 45 metres (148 ft) in the bedrock of the Limmat Valley . The increase of its height to 118 metres (387 ft) was done by slipforming . This required as many as 60 construction workers processing concrete in three shifts around the clock. The construction took place in two stages. The first phase

767-581: 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 the Canadian Grain Act , section 2. Both necessity and the prospect of making money gave birth to the steam-powered grain elevator in Buffalo, New York , in 1843. Due to the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, Buffalo enjoyed

826-441: A row along the railway tracks. If a town were lucky enough to have two railways, it was to be known as the next Montreal . 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

885-564: 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 adapted Oliver 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

944-454: A typical American barge measures 195 by 35 feet (59.4 m × 10.7 m), and can carry up to about 1,500 short tons (1,400 t) of cargo. The most common European barges measure 251 by 37 feet (76.5 m × 11.4 m) and can carry up to about 2,450 tonnes (2,700 short tons). As an example, on June 26, 2006, in the US a 565-short-ton (513 t) catalytic cracking unit reactor

1003-648: A unique position in American geography. It stood at the intersection of two great all-water routes; one extended from New York Harbor , up the Hudson River to Albany , and beyond it, the Port of Buffalo; the other comprised the Great Lakes , which could theoretically take boaters in any direction they wished to go (north to Canada , west to Michigan or Wisconsin , south to Toledo and Cleveland , or east to

1062-509: Is attested from 1300, from Old French barge , from Vulgar Latin barga . The word originally could refer to any small boat; the modern meaning arose around 1480. Bark "small ship" is attested from 1420, from Old French barque , from Vulgar Latin barca (400 AD). The more precise meaning of Barque as "three-masted sailing vessel" arose in the 17th century, and often takes the French spelling for disambiguation. Both are probably derived from

1121-496: 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 and dust explosions in the United States in 1994: and 1997 In the ten-year period up to and including 1997, there were 129 explosions. Canadian Prairie grain elevators were

1180-402: Is the need to provide separate storage for ordinary and genetically modified grain to reduce the risk of accidental mixing of the two. In the past, grain elevators sometimes experienced silo 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

1239-627: The Atlantic 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 in Ohio and Indiana , and shipped on Lake 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

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1298-751: The Civil War , with the coming of the railroads . The world's second and third grain elevators were built in Toledo, Ohio, and Brooklyn , 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

1357-588: The Henninger Turm , stood 120 metres (394 ft) and was demolished in 2013. The Swissmill Tower can store 40,000 tonnes of grain. Swissmill is the largest mill company in Switzerland , processing 800 tons of grain daily. This represents 30% of the Swiss national grain requirements. It supplies flour for Swiss retailers Coop , Volg and Landi. Critics have said the silo's exterior and height are overly industrial. However, municipal authorities say that

1416-475: The Latin barica , from Greek baris "Egyptian boat", from Coptic bari "small boat", hieroglyphic Egyptian and similar ba-y-r for "basket-shaped boat". By extension, the term "embark" literally means to board the kind of boat called a "barque". In Great Britain a merchant barge was originally a flat bottomed merchant vessel for use on navigable rivers. Most of these barges had sails. For traffic on

1475-556: The Mississippi River to New Orleans . By 1842, Buffalo's port facilities clearly had become antiquated. They still relied upon techniques that had been in use since the European Middle Ages ; work teams of stevedores use block 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

1534-520: The River Severn the barge was described thus: "The lesser sort are called barges and frigates, being from forty to sixty feet in length, having a single mast and square sail, and carrying from twenty to forty tons burthen." The larger vessels were called trows. On the River Irwell there was reference to barges passing below Barton Aqueduct with their mast and sails standing. Early barges on

1593-625: The Thames were called west country barges. In the United Kingdom the word barge had many meanings by the 1890s, and these varied locally. On the Mersey a barge was called a 'Flat', on the Thames a Lighter or barge, and on the Humber a 'Keel'. A Lighter had neither mast nor rigging. A keel did have a single mast with sails. Barge and lighter were used indiscriminately. A local distinction

1652-500: The narrowboat , which usually had a beam a couple of inches less to allow for clearance e.g. 6 feet 10 inches (2.08 m) . It was soon realized that the narrow locks were too limiting, and later locks were therefore doubled in width to 14 feet (4.3 m). This led to the development of the widebeam canal boat. The narrowboat (one word) definition in the Oxford English Dictionary is: Narrowboat:

1711-469: The British canal system the term 'barge' is no longer used to describe narrowboats and widebeams . Narrowboats and widebeams are still seen on canals, mostly for leisure cruising, and now engine-powered. The people who moved barges were known as lightermen . Poles are used on barges to fend off other nearby vessels or a wharf. These are often called 'pike poles'. The long pole used to maneuver or propel

1770-589: The British river system and larger waterways, the Thames sailing barge , and Dutch barge and unspecified other styles of barge, are still known as barges. The term Dutch barge is nowadays often used to refer to an accommodation ship, but originally refers to the slightly larger Dutch version of the Thames sailing barge. During the Industrial Revolution , a substantial network of canals was developed in Great Britain from 1750 onward. Whilst

1829-482: The United States had 0.88 cubic kilometres (25 billion US bushels) of storage capacity, a growth of 25% over the previous decade. 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. A number of the city's historic elevators are clustered along "Elevator Alley", a narrow stretch of the Buffalo River immediately adjacent to

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1888-423: 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 an ethanol plant started in 2007 using one of the previously mothballed elevators to store corn. In

1947-400: 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

2006-566: The early 20th century, Buffalo's grain elevators inspired modernist architects such as Le Corbusier , who exclaimed, "The first fruits of the new age!" when he first saw them. Buffalo's grain elevators have been documented for the Historic American Engineering Record and added to the National Register of Historic Places . Currently, Enid, Oklahoma , holds the title of most grain storage capacity in

2065-502: The final port to the refinery. The Transportation Institute at Texas A&M found that inland barge transportation in the US produces far fewer emissions of carbon dioxide for each ton of cargo moved compared to transport by truck or rail. According to the study, transporting cargo by barge produces 43% less greenhouse gas emissions than rail and more than 800% less than trucks. Environmentalists claim that in areas where barges, tugboats and towboats idle may produce more emissions like in

2124-797: The grain elevator at Ellerslie, 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 by Edmonton . 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,

2183-897: The grain was either distributed to East Coast flour mills or loaded for further shipment to England , the Netherlands , or Germany . 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 , and Duluth ). Through this loop of productivity set in motion by

2242-505: The harbor. The alley runs under Ohio Street and along Childs Street in the city's First Ward neighborhood. In Canada, the term "elevator row" refers to a row of four or more wood-crib prairie grain elevators. In the early pioneer days of Western 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

2301-558: The invention of the grain elevator, the United States became a major international producer of wheat, corn, and oats. In the early 20th century, concern arose about monopolistic practices in the grain elevator industry, leading to testimony before the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1906. This led to several grain elevators being burned down in Nebraska, allegedly in protest. Today, grain elevators are

2360-414: The largest of these could accommodate ocean-going vessels e.g the later Manchester Ship Canal , a complex network of smaller canals was also developed. These smaller canals had locks, bridges and tunnels that were at minimum only 7 feet (2.1 m) wide at the waterline . On wider sections, standard barges and other vessels could trade, but full access to the network necessitated the parallel development of

2419-518: The locks and dams of the Mississippi River. Self-propelled barges may be used for traveling downstream or upstream in placid waters; they are operated as an unpowered barge, with the assistance of a tugboat, when traveling upstream in faster waters. Canal barges are usually made for the particular canal in which they will operate. Unpowered vessels—barges—may be used for other purposes, such as large accommodation vessels , towed to where they are needed and stationed there as long as necessary. An example

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2478-605: 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 in Inglis, Manitoba , and the other in Warner, Alberta . The Inglis Grain Elevators National Historic Site has been protected as

2537-559: The modern grain elevator. The first Peavey-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

2596-417: 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;

2655-579: 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 in Kansas (one in Hutchinson and one in Wichita ) 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

2714-406: The remaining four were not hurt. Almost any finely divided organic substance becomes an explosive 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

2773-525: The sailing scow. The innovation that led to the modern barge was the use of iron barges towed by a steam tugboat. These were first used to transport grain and other bulk products. From about 1840 to 1870 the towed iron barge was quickly introduced on the Rhine, Danube, Don, Dniester , and rivers in Egypt, India and Australia. Many of these barges were built in Great Britain. Nowadays 'barge' generally refers to

2832-439: 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 sell futures 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

2891-422: The silo was intentionally designed in that way. Its external appearance is intended to express its interior – an industrial plant. In July 2016, there was a proposal to cover the tower's exterior with plants, in response to a request by Zürich politicians to redo the facade. Architect Miriam Vázquez suggested this during the planning phase, but later deemed it too expensive. Grain elevator In most cases,

2950-726: The subjects of the National Film Board of Canada documentaries Grain Elevator and Death of a Skyline . During the sixth season of the History Channel series Ax 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. Barge Barge typically refers to

3009-471: 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

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3068-495: 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, and logistics 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

3127-426: The world's first steam-powered "grain storage and transfer warehouse" was executed by an engineer named Robert Dunbar. Thanks to the historic Dart'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

3186-577: 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 the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool . For the same reason, many elevators were purchased by cooperatives . A recent problem with grain elevators

3245-520: Was a major innovation—it was invented by Joseph Dart , a merchant, and Robert Dunbar , an engineer, in 1842, in Buffalo, New York . Using the steam-powered flour mills of Oliver 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. 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 with Charles F. Haglin , invented

3304-523: 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. Given a large enough suspension of combustible flour or grain dust in the air, a significant explosion can occur. The 1878 explosion of the Washburn "A" Mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota , killed 18, leveled two nearby mills, damaged many others, and caused

3363-746: Was completed in early July 2015. The second began in September 2015, and end in April 2016. Mill operations continued during construction. The works were carried out by Implenia . At 118 metres (387 ft), the Swissmill Tower is the tallest operating grain elevator in the world. The second tallest, the Schapfen Mill Tower in Ulm, Germany , is 115 metres (377 ft) tall excluding the antenna. The tallest grain elevator ever constructed,

3422-671: Was shipped by barge from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma to a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi . Extremely large objects are normally shipped in sections and assembled after delivery, but shipping an assembled unit reduces costs and avoids reliance on construction labor at the delivery site, which in the case of the reactor was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina . Of the reactor's 700-mile (1,100 km) journey, only about 40 miles (64 km) were traveled overland, from

3481-416: Was that any flat that was not propelled by steam was a barge, although it might be a sailing flat. The term Dumb barge was probably taken into use to end the confusion. The term Dumb barge surfaced in the early nineteenth century. It first denoted the use of a barge as a mooring platform in a fixed place. As it went up and down with the tides, it made a very convenient mooring place for steam vessels. Within

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