3-034-703 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Fire at Chicago: corn elevators, 1871. Grain stores of Sturges, Buckingham & Co. before the fire. 'The traffic of Chicago, as a place of export from the interior, is supplied by twelve main lines of railway, with which forty railroads are directly connected, and by the Illinois Canal and river, which communicate with the Mississippi. Its first great staple of trade is grain, which was stored in immense granaries, called "elevators." Seventeen of these warehouses received from various railroads and canals, and had capacity of storage for above eleven million and a half bushels of grain. One of them stored 1,600,000 bushels, and the storing capacity of three others was 1,250,000 bushels. The Chicago Board of Trade has stringent rules for the inspection, weighing, and transfer of grain. Produce of nearly the same value from many different sources was stored in the same elevator, just as in the warehouses of the London Docks. The grain was stored for twenty days, giving the owners a certificate of quality. The certificates and samples were exhibited, and lots were sold by auction, every day at noon, in the Change Hall of the Board of Trade'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.