Archimedes in Nebraska

John bought a new (used) auger. If you don't know what an auger is, you're in good company: the sheriff asked, "Is that one of those tube things on wheels?" I had to call the sheriff because


Brett was going to haul this auger through town behind a pickup. It sticks up nearly fourteen feet when it's towed, and we wondered if that was enough to argue with power lines or traffic lights.

The sheriff had it right--a tube on wheels, with a simple, grand, ingenious rotating screw in the center. Our new one is ten inches in diameter, reaches forty feet towards the sky when in use, and will carry truckloads of corn from the ground to the top of a grain bin at the rate of 3600 bushels per hour---a bushel every second. The technology behind an auger is thousands of years old, developed by a Greek mathematician and inventor named Archimedes. Before combines and grain bins existed, "Archimedes screws"--augers--were used to move water from low-lying areas to higher irrigation canals. They are still used today to drain lowlands in Holland.

To find out whether our King Kong auger was going leave a trail of mayhem as it ripped through town, the sheriff had to call the police department, which usually sleeps on Saturday afternoons. The policeman had to call the Department of Roads, also napping. Before anyone got an answer to anything, the sheriff called back....."I don't know how high the stop lights are, but I think I just saw your man passing through town." No mayhem, no sparks, no screaming, no crumbling buildings on this sleepy Saturday afternoon.

The new auger actually employs three Archimedes' screws, in different orientations, to get the grain from where it spills out underneath the truck to the top of the grain bin. This one is the shortest of the three, in a hopper on the ground that receives the grain as it pours out of the truck.