January 1931: the pneumatic grain elevator

The pneumatic ‘Thomas Wiles’ grain elevator was designed and built by a company founded in Manchester by Henry Simon, an engineering polymath whose numerous achievements include the introduction of roller milling, which saw improvements in three key areas of flour processing, namely grinding, purifying and dressing.

Simon passed away in 1899 but his legacy continues with over 3400 staff operating globally to deliver milling expertise accumulated during the company’s 141-year history. Another facet of the Stockport headquartered company is handling, and in 1931 Henry Simon Ltd, as it was known, delivered a grain elevator capable of handling 110 tons of grain per hour.

The elevator was specially built to meet the demand of the grain trade in the Authority’s docks, and an outstanding feature of the design, said The Engineer, was the range of steamers it would serve, embracing the smaller tramp steamer to the large liners of the Atlantic Transport Company’s ‘Minnewaska’ and ‘Minnetonka’ vessels, which were the largest ships using the Port of London at the time.