Elevators

Elevators, a word generally used to signify a mechanical contrivance for raising things quickly from one level to a higher one. In America it often implies what in England is called a lift, and may represent anything of the above nature from the tray worked by a rope which raises dishes from an hotel kitchen to the restaurant to the elaborate apparatus which, by hydraulic power, lowers or raises passengers to or from the Mersey Tunnel or the stations of the South London Electric Railway. The name is also applied to contrivances - generally hydraulic - for discharging grain from barges or ships into warehouses, or vice versa. This kind of elevator is much used in the United States and in parts of Europe (Antwerp, for example), and is generally hydraulic. The main parts are a continuous chain carrying buckets, and a travelling band of indiarubber or canvas. The buckets work vertically, and pour the grain upon the travelling band, which conveys it horizontally to the required destination. Another description of elevator consists of a huge double scoop which, as it descends into a bulk of grain, opens wide at the bottom and grasps a certain quantity upon which it closes, and then ascending and turning to the point desired opens again and drops the grain which it had taken up.