I see big, from a distance, tall farm silos from time to time. They're for storing grain, right? It makes sense to me (though I don't know that's how they actually work) that you would put the grain in at the top of the tall silo and take the grain out at the bottom. As I understand it, silos have been around for hundreds of years. Before there was electricity or other modern machinery, how did they get the grain to the top of the silo to fill it up?
To start with there are two major styles of silos. One with a well secured roof and one without. The danger is the fine powder is explosive and over the centuries some have decided to have a lightly attached roof that's easily blown off and put back while others have tried to contain the explosion. Regardless of which style used different ways have been used to get grain into silos over the centuries and the heights have grown as the ability to lift the grain improved.
Edit to add: Some real old ones had ramps or stairs around them to allow people to walk to the top to put the grain in.
In Roman times many silos were attached to multi-story buildings and they went up the stairs inside to put the grain in, carried up by slaves in large baskets.
Some early grain silos were built into the ground so the grain was removed just below ground level and put in from above. Some were built into hillsides so the grain went in the top and came out at ground level.
Larger silos used rope and wood buckets on pulleys to get grain to the top of the silo and some used and Achemedies Screw to lift the grain. As the mechanisms for lifting improved so did the height of the silos.
typo edit
The danger is the fine powder is explosive and over the centuries some have decided to have a lightly attached roof that's easily blown odd and put back while others have tried to contain the explosion.
These days there is a preference for preventing grain dust explosions in the first place, using either strong ventilation to prevent the buildup of air born grain dust in confined spaces or the use of dust collection systems.
There are also stringent codes, electrical and otherwise, to limit ignition sources in dusty environments, including grain-handling facilities. They're a huge pain in the butt to deal with, but not quite as painful as seeing your workplace become subject of the evening news
They're a huge pain in the butt to deal with, but not quite as painful as seeing your workplace become subject of the evening news
Or watching it get distributed across several counties.
Most farms don't use upright silos anymore, a silo is used for silage, which is chopped feed, that ferments ,,,Corn,milo, feed, they chop it up with a chopper , then pack it in with a tractor & a blade, the old concrete silos they had a blower that blew the chopped feed into it..then they packed it by hand or by a machine...lots of work...the tall blue silos are for silage or wet grains...
Most farm storage you see is for grains, grain bins , use augers or legs, which are like upright conveyor belts that have big cups called buckets that carry grain to the top ..
One aspect I forgot to mention earlier is here in Australia be it a single silo or a dozen together while in the USA they usually call the multi-silo storage areas are usually called Grain Elevators in the USA.
'Silo' is a word that has sort of 'evolved'.
Traditionally, silos were used to create 'silage', vegetation stored in a manner that maintained dietary components rather better than hay for winter feeding of cattle. Loaded from the top, the bottom layers underwent some fermentation and were removed for animal feed.
What are commonly called 'silos' today (they must be silos, because silos are round, m'kay?) are grain storage bins. Clusters of them are commonly termed 'grain elevators' in the US. Some have provision for heated air to dry the stored grain. Agin, usually loaded from the top and emptied from the bottom via various conveyor schemes.
In large grain storage bins it is not unusual for a worker to get inside to move grain around as it is moved in or out. This is dangerous work.
incidentally, silos were outlawed in Louisiana ever since a Cajun went inside one and walked himself to death looking for a corner to pee in.
incidentally, silos were outlawed in Louisiana ever since a Cajun went inside one and walked himself to death looking for a corner to pee in.
1985 was a good year for inventive movie deaths. The one relevant to this discussion is at the bottom of this page:
https://www.filmsite.org/bestdeaths31.html
AJ
tall farm silos from time to time. They're for storing grain
Yes ... and no. If it's tall and narrow (and in the US, typically blue), it's a farm silo. If it's shorter and wider (and typically just metal colored), it's a grain bin.
Silos hold material that's intended to become silage - fodder for animals. Grain bins (which historically were called granaries) are used to hold grain for later use as a grain - food for people or animals, but designed to store the grain, not have it turn into silage.
The tall silo structure you reference is a relatively modern invention (late 1800's), so there's always been 'modern' equipment to fill them. Grain augers, conveyors, and chain loaders running off the PTO (Power Take Off) on newer tractors that have those, belt driven for older steam tractors.
Older granaries were typically below ground or at best only 2 or 3 stories tall, so to fill them you'd simply carry baskets of grain up ladders or stairs.
