Foundations of Science (2024) 29:225–255

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-022-09894-6

Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors

Nenad Zrnić1 · Miloš Đorđević1 · Vlada Gašić1

Accepted: 12 December 2022 / Published online: 29 December 2022

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022

Abstract
The evolution of belt conveyors, as an important type of continuous conveying machinery,
is examined here in a historical perspective. For this purpose, the selected period is from
the ancient time, i.e. occurrence of conveying equipment, and up to the end of the nine-
teenth century. The basic postulation of a modern machine, including conveyors, is often
interlinked to that of its ancestor, which may be simple and primitive. Ancient machines
and principles of their work were the basis for later improvements which also brought the
inventions in engineering. For instance, Archimedes lifted water to high altitude with a
screw, which was regarded as the ancestor of today’s screw conveyor and essentially his
design has not changed since then. Bucket elevators also have their predecessors dating
back to ancient times. In the concrete case of belt conveyors, a first trace can be found in
the beginning of the seventeenth century, even classified as primitive example. During the
Industrial Revolutions, various machines, such conveyors, appeared. The first modern-like
belt conveyors are dedicated to the late eighteenth century due to the invention of Oliver
Evans in USA and to the nineteenth century, by Lyster in England, Lopatine in Russia and
Thomas Robins in USA. The technical solutions developed by the end of the nineteenth
century were forerunners of the today’s belt conveyors, while the key operational princi-
ples have not changed.

Keywords Continuous conveying machinery · Ancient conveyors · Belt conveyors ·

Evolution · History of machines

1 Introduction

When belt conveyors are mentioned, we mainly think of machines that are used to trans-
port various materials from one location to another. Hence, they are present all around
the world in a large number of operations. However, in the literature we can find some

* Miloš Đorđević
mddjordjevic@mas.bg.ac.rs
Nenad Zrnić
nzrnic@mas.bg.ac.rs
Vlada Gašić
vgasic@mas.bg.ac.rs
1
University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

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Vol.:(0123456789)
226 N. Zrnić et al.

other meanings of belt conveyors, starting from their basic working principle, which is
simply an endless belt made of flexible material. For instance, the conveyor belt met-
aphor was introduced in order to depicture the oceanic transport system. Created by
Wallace S. Broecker, it serves as part of a model which describes deep sea circulation
in large scale oceanography. To establish the relevance of North Atlantic deep water
production Broecker emphasized the importance of the conveyor belt (Brüning et al.,
1999). In the industrial world, the engagement of the conveyor belt in factories greatly
increased productivity and had a major impact on economic development. Moreover,
the implementation of belt conveyors in assembly line process changed mass produc-
tion forever. And though technology has improved over the years, the key operational
principles of the belt conveyors implemented by the end of the nineteenth century have
not changed.
Conveyors with the principle of continuous flow of operation, including belt conveyors,
are just one subset of the larger group of material handling equipment. Along with defini-
tion of material handling by the Material Handling Institute of America (Perotti, 2010),
one may find that material handling is all about movement; raw materials, parts, boxes,
crates, pallets, and baggage must be moved from a point A to a point B, ideally in the effi-
cient manner. The handled material is virtually limitless in size, shape, weight, or form.
Belt conveyors are by far the most common material handling conveyor in use today and
are an essential part of large-scale production and continuous processes (Fayed & Skocir,
1996). Depending on the type chosen, belt conveyors can carry a greater diversity of prod-
ucts at the rates of thousands of tons per hour in a continuous and uniform stream over long
distances than any other kind of continuously operating mechanical conveyor (Subba Rao,
2021). The type of belt conveyor to be covered is troughed belt conveyors. Troughed belt
conveyors are used almost exclusively for bulk material handling, Fig. 1. The materials car-
ried range from coal and iron ore to dog biscuits and crackers (Perotti, 2010).
Generally, many modern machines are related to their origins in ancient and medi-
eval times. Modern technology improved on some of the basic technological elements
that the ancients have left us. Having in mind that belt conveyors have completely
changed the production philosophy, it is very important to discover their roots and high-
light the link between ancient and modern solutions, which presents the primary goal
of this research. What makes this paper different from the available literature in this
field is the fact that the paper clearly establishes a connection between the principles of
conveyor operation from ancient times and the application of those principles to modern
conveyors that are related to the nineteenth century.

Fig. 1  Throughed belt conveyor for bulk materials

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 227

2 Conveyors in Ancient Times: Screw Conveyors and Bucket Elevators

Screw conveyors, as example of rudimentary conveyor systems, date back to the ancient
times. Ancient conveyors were quite simpler, and could not perform like today’s (modern)
conveyors. However, ancient machines were the basis for improvements and inventions
(Zrnić et al., 2022). The ubiquitous screw conveyor used in countless industries for moving
virtually all types and condition of bulk materials is a descendent of the oldest postulation
of a mechanical continuous conveyor in recorded history. The principle of moving a mate-
rial by a helical screw is attributed to Archimedes (287–212 BC) for elevating water from
the hold of a King Hiero of Syracuse ship. The Roman engineer and architect Vitruvius
gave a detailed and informative description of the construction of an Archimedes screw in
his De Architectura, written in the first century BC (Vitruvius, 1914). The simplest form
of Archimedes’ screw consists of a pipe and a shaft in the shape of a helix with its lower
end dipped in the water (Rossi & Russo, 2009), Fig. 2 (left). As the device is rotated the
water rises up the pipe by gravity flow in the separate helical sectors. Equipment based on
similar helical principles have been used since the ancient times for raising water to irrigate
fields, operated manually, by animals, wind power and more recently by electric and inter-
nal combustion engines (Blackwell Publishing, 2008). Many centuries passed before the
need arose to handle other than water in a continuous mechanical manner. The demand to
process large quantities of grain from the newly exploited vast American plains led to the
mechanization of flour mills, an early type of which is thought to have been made by Evans
around 1742. His grandson, Oliver Evans, built a mechanised mill in 1785 that included
belt conveyors, along with bucket elevators and a form of screw conveyor that used a series
of wooden blades fixed in a helical pattern around a central wood shaft. These blades were
later replaced by formed metal sheet section (Blackwell Publishing, 2008). Today, the
application of the principle of the Archimedes’ screw is seen in many machines. For exam-
ple, screw conveyors and rotary feeders are used to transfer both solids and liquids from
one end of the conveyor to the other in industrial applications (Dixit et al., 2017; Zhang &
Yang, 2020).
Overall, more analogies can be found between modern conveyors and ancient conveying
equipment. A bucket elevator is also considered a conveyor because of its continuous drive
and its ability to deliver material between two points. The bucket elevator is one of the few
conveyors designated for the purpose of elevating material. It could be considered even as

Fig. 2  Archimedes screw water machine (left) and a current screw conveyor (right)

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228 N. Zrnić et al.

the oldest known form of conveyor (Patel & Patel, 2012). The ancestors of the modern-day
bucket elevator were predominantly used for elevating water by the use of pots (buckets)
attached to an endless rope or chain. The earliest recorded use of the bucket elevator dates
back to the days of Babylon (Fayed & Skocir, 1996). It is believed that the water used for
the famous Hanging Gardens of Semiramus was brought up to a height of around 100 m by
this means. The previous could be considered as a remarkable achievement, due to the fact
that modern elevators seldom work to heights greater than 50 m (Zoubir et al., 2019).
Water lifting devices have existed since ca. 3000 BC in different parts of the world
(Yannopoulos et al., 2015) and here will be presented some examples of them, fully related
to the principles of continuous work of bucket elevators. Devices such as water wheels and
chutes were made and constructed to use animals (muscle energy) to provide the energy
required to move the wheels (Oleson, 1984).
By the second century AD, during the Han Dynasty, the Chinese also used chain pumps
that lifted water from lower elevation to higher elevation. These were powered manually
(by foot pedals), by hydraulic waterwheels, or rotating mechanical waterwheels pulled
by animals-oxen. The water was used for public works during the Late Chinese Dynas-
ties (from the Thien Kung Khai Wu) (Needham, 1975). The mechanism shown in Fig. 3
(Needham, 1975; Paz et al., 2010) (possibly dating from the first century BC), consisted
of a chain of buckets that was set to motion by a horizontal shaft via pedals attached to it.

Fig. 3  Chinese chain water eleva-

tor (Needham, 1975)

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 229

However, the drawing provides only the evidence on water lifting (Paz et al., 2010). The
ancient Chinese also used a upright shaft type wind-turbine to power square-pallet chain-
pumps (https://​amc.​stust.​edu.​tw/​en/​node/​t01).
The Persian waterwheel (Raha) has also the key principle of work of bucket elevators,
as its chain of buckets imposes an almost constant load on the drive shaft to the waterwheel
(Fig. 4. Persian waterwheels are typically driven by some form of right angle drive Yan-
nopoulos et al., 2015).
A comparable device according to the principles of work, which might be used for
example of lifting water from rivers to higher places, is presented in Fig. 5. It was prob-
ably invented by Philo of Byzantium, who lived in Alexandria—Egypt, (ca. 280–220 BC)
as described in Oleson and Wikander (2000), Lazos (1998). This device can be used in a
strong current flowing downhill, which is copious enough in relation to the water which
this device lifts. It consists of a rectangular building similar to a tower. A trench is cut from
the river up to the tower. The proportions of the building are such that it is not structurally
weakened by its height (Yannopoulos et al., 2015). This device resembles at first glance the
bucket elevator for grain (Zrnic & Hoffmann, 2012), Fig. 6.
Examples of chain elevators for water lifting can be found in Landels (2000). This book
analysis ancient bucket elevator for water lifting described by well-known Roman engineer
Vitruvius (1914). Vitruvius gives in his book a very brief sketch of it at the end of the same
chapter (X, 4) without giving it a name, but from the passing reference in Hero (p. 207)
we gather that its Greek name was halysis (‘chain’). It had a treadmill on a horizontal axle,
and two parallel endless chains were suspended from the axle, with buckets fixed to them
at intervals, Fig. 7 (Landels, 2000). According to Vitruvius, the standard size of bucket
was one congius (equivalent to ca. 3.2 l). The chains were sufficiently long to hang down
to the water level below, so that the buckets dipped in as they reached their lowest point.

Fig. 4  Persian waterwheel (Yan-

nopoulos et al., 2015)

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230 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 5  Bucket elevator for lifting

water by Philo of Alexandria
(Ηumphrey et al., 2003)

Fig. 6  Modern bucket elevator for grain

They were then held upright all the way up to the axle, tipping over automatically as they
reached it, and emptying their contents into a conduit (Fig. 7). This arrangement can be
done to work more efficiently than on the bucket-wheel, since the buckets do not start to
tip until they actually reach the axle, and then they turn over quickly and decisively. Waste
by spillage can be reduced to a negligible minimum. This device obviously bear a resem-
blance to, at first glance, the bucket chain elevator used nowadays, Fig. 8.
In 1556, Georgius Agricola (1494–1555) wrote De Re Metallica, Fig. 9 (Agricola,
1556). The final work of the town doctor of Chemnitz (a town in Saxony), was pub-
lished posthumously in Basel in an lavishly illustrated edition. This book on mining and

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 231

Fig. 7  Ancient chain bucket

elevator (Pollio, 1914)

metallurgy included more than 200 excellent woodprint illustrations of various equipment
and techniques. The book remained the standard reference for more than two centuries
(Agricola’s De re met al. &lica, 2005). Handtools and different sorts of buckets, wheelbar-
rows and trucks on wooded plankways are also mentioned. Agricola then provides details
of various types of machines for lifting weights. Some of these are man-powered and some
powered by up to four horses or by waterwheels. If this is not possible treadmills will be
installed underground. Instead of lifting weights similar machines use chains of buckets
to lift water. One illustration was of a chain of buckets manually operated by means of
an elaborate train of gears, acting as a reducer with details of spare parts and assembling,
similar to bucket elevator, Fig. 10 (Agricola, 1912; Hydraulic Pumps of Agricola’s De Re
Metallica, 2004). This design included interchangeable links and buckets of standardized
size and shape. This design was the forerunner of the modem bucket elevator. The simple
design of a bucket elevator makes it a viable form of conveyor even nowadays.

3 Early History of Belt Conveyors

It is clear that even before the first belt conveyor was invented people have used the prin-
ciples of conveyors for many centuries. According to Dartnall, (2005a), the hystory of
belt conveyors (considering primitive form of their design) starts round the beginning
of the seventeenth century. However, according to the available references and lack of

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232 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 8  Modern bucket chain

elevator

documented data, it seems that the invention of those conveyors can neither be assigned to
an exact date nor to a specific inventor. In fact, there are various technical innovations that
could be seen as trailblazers for the modern conveyor belt. Probably, the first representation
of the primitive form of a conveyor belt was given by Hieronymus Megiser in 1614, Fig. 11
(Deutsche Fotothek, 1614). However, some references, without clear evidence, associate
this device with an earlier period (1561) and call it „elevator with endless chain “ used for
moving earth, instead traditionally water (Dartnall, 2005b). Anyway, it seems to never have
occurred to anyone before to use it for moving some other material than water during many
centuries.

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 233

Fig. 9  Original title page and translation from the first Latin edition (Agricola, 1556; Agricola’s, 2015)

One may consider the book “Belt conveyors and belt elevators”, Fig. 12 (Hetzel, 1922),
as very important literature that deals with historical development of belt conveyors.
It is written by Frederic Hetzel (1870–1946) who served as a draftsman and engineer at
the Link-Belt Company from 1890 to 1918 and developed thirteen patents for Link-Belt
Company.
Hetzel mentioned that the earliest reference to the use of belt conveyors in American
practice is in Oliver Evans’ “Miller’s Guide” published in Philadelphia in 1795, Fig. 13
(Hetzel, 1922; Zrnić et al., 2022).
Evans is remembered for two major inventions: the automatic flour mill and the high-
pressure steam engine and for the most practical technical handbook of the nineteenth cen-
tury (Ferguson, 1980). Evans built and improved an automated (without the employment of
manual labor) flour mills using various devices such as bucket chains (elevators) for raising
vertically and conveyor belts for moving horizontally. “The Evans mill demonstrated for
the first time the fully integrated automatic factory “ (Ferguson, 1980). Evans has linked
the processes of grinding into one continuous flow operation and thus achieved automati-
zation and exclusion of manual labor. Automatization induced invention of some entirely
novel devices like i.e. mechanical hopper boy. Evans had essentially completed his con-
cept of the automatic flour mill in 1789. Afterwards he added two more devices for mate-
rial handling: the drill (rake conveyor) and the descender, which was just a simple belt
conveyor (Ferguson, 1980). The “Miller’s Guide” illustrates a flat belt (Fig. 14—position
E–F).
Evans was granted a federal patent on milling improvements. His innovative solutions
were adopted by more than 100 mills by 1792. „By 1930 it was estimated that over one mil-
lion bushels of grain had passed through Colvin Run Mill “ (ASME International, 2001).

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234 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 10  Chain of buckets (bucket

elevator) for pumping in a mine
(Agricola, 1556)

Colvin Run Mill was built somewhere around 1813 and it ran on as a commercial mill
for over a century. Its milling ended in the mid-1930s and was abandoned afterwards. In
1972 the mill was opened as a museum with fully operated machinery (ASME Interna-
tional, 2001). Major mechanisms of the Colvin Run Mill are shown in Fig. 15.
Four main machines were used in Colvin Run Mill to automatically move grain and
meal from one part of the mill to another: grain elevators, wooden Archimedean screws
or conveyors, an automated shaker assembly and a mechanical raking machine invented
by Oliver Evans to cool and dry flour—called the hopper boy. The mill was driven by
waterwheel made of white oak, Fig. 16. The waterwheel contained sixty buckets with each
bucket holded approximately ca. 57 l of water. The waterwheel rotated outside at a rate of
10 rpm spinned the top grinding stones inside at 100 rpm and produced up to ca. 19 kW
(ASME International, 2001) (Fig. 17).

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 235

Fig. 11  Primitive conveyor belt

for transporting soil from the
moat (Deutsche Fotothek, 1614)

Fig. 12  The first page of Hetzel’s

book “Belt conveyors and belt
elevators” (1922) (Hetzel, 1922)

“The ubiquity of bucket wheel elevators, screw conveyors and belt conveyors and the
philosophy of continuous production that they suggested, made easy if not inevitable the
adoption in other industries of the notion of continuous production, eliminating wherever
possible human intervention—muscular and mental.” (Ferguson, 1980).

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236 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 13  Front covers from “Miller’s Guide” (left, middle) (https://​archi​ve.​org/​detai​ls/​young​millw​right​

m00ev​an) and Oliver Evans himself (1755–1819) (https://​picryl.​com/​media/​oliver-​evans​engra​ving-​by-​
wgjac​kman-​cropp​ed-​be3a46)

Fig. 14  Colvin Run Mill (Fergu-

son, 1980)

When the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain during the eighteenth century,
and a little later in America, manual labor began to be substituted by steam-powered
machinery (Zrnić et al., 2022). As far as is known, the first steam-powered belt con-
veyor was put into operation by the British Navy in 1804 for the production of ship’s
biscuits, Fig. 18.

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 237

Fig. 15  The major mechanisms of Colvin Run Mill (ASME International, 2001)

In accordance with (Dartnall, 2005b), belts sliding in troughs, Fig. 19 (left), were used
before 1840 to convey materials such as clay, shavings, saw-mill refuse and crushed stone.
The return run slid back; or sometimes it was carried on rollers. When heavy and abrasive
materials were conveyed with such conveyors, the belt did not last long. Sticky materials
such as for instance clay also caused some problems. The clay stuck to the sides and bot-
tom of the trough, hardened there, and wore out the belt rapidly. Some of described prob-
lems were solved by the design shown in Fig. 19 (right) (Dartnall, 2005b)—a form of clay
conveyor widely used about 1870s. This construction used rolling friction in lubricated
bearings instead of sliding friction on dirty rough surfaces. That resulted in saving power
and preservation of the belt. Disadvantage of this construction was some leakage of the
conveyed material under the skirt-boards or trough sides. Also, the edges of the belt were
still subject to injurious wear (Hetzel, 1922). The further development of conveyor belts is
strongly connected to the development of grain elevators (Zrnić et al., 2022).
The main change of used materials for belt (such as canvas or woven cotton fab-
ric) occured due to invention of vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear in 1844. Then,
he received patent number 3633 from the United States Patent Office (Zrnić et al., 2022;
https://​paten​timag​es.​stora​ge.​googl​eapis.​com/​1a/​13/​8e/​18751​846de​d131/​US3633.​pdf).
This innovation made rubber a more stable substance, much more resistant to temperature
changes and more durable.
Through the history the construction of conveyor belt has passed through mul-
tiple changes in design. Between 1859 and 1863, wide composite belts were used in

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238 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 16  Colvin Run Mill water-

wheel (ASME International,
2001)

Southwark Foundry in Philadelphia for grain conveying. Those belts consisted of two
parallel leather belts to which bent iron bars or spreaders were riveted at intervals to
support a trough of canvas which carried the grain (Hetzel, 1922).
Also, in the early 1870s several installations of composite belt conveyors were car-
ried out. Composite belt was made of 7-inch-wide (≈ 18 cm) rubber belts support-
ing a 2-foot-wide (≈ 60 cm) canvas trough, which sagged 4–5 inches (≈ 10–13 cm)
in the middle, Fig. 20. Aside from fact that composite belt had only 12–14 inches(≈
30–35 cm) of belt width to engage the face of the driving pulley, the main disadvantage
originated from different elasticity of rubber and canvas which resulted in tearing loose
the spreader-bars from their fastenings and causing real trouble (Hetzel, 1922).
In 1859 in Russia the first indications on the use of conveyor belts in the mining
industry were published by Alexander Lopatine industrialist in Yeniseysk, Figs. 21 and
22.
The belt is powered by water, steam or horses. In July 1860, A. Lopatine put into ser-
vice, in Pétropavlosk, three conveyors transporting gold-bearing sand. Lopatine’s sand
conveyor had all essential parts of the modern conveyor belt. It included an endless
belt, a drive head pulley and a tail pulley, a transmission, a frame and most importantly,
idlers. It was the first conveyor belt in history, made to transport rocks both in surface

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 239

Fig. 17  Text of the Colvin Run

Mill plaque (ASME Interna-
tional, 2001)

Fig. 18  Steam powered conveyor belt, 1804 (https://​www.​timet​oast.​com/​timel​ines/​signi​ficant-​miles​tones-​

in-​devel​opment-​of-​conve​yorbe​lts)

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240 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 19  Conveyor belt sliding in wood trough, 1830 (left) (Hetzel, 1922) and clay conveyor belt supported
on rollers, 1870 (right) (Hetzel, 1922; Zrnić et al., 2022)

Fig. 20  Composite belt for grain

conveyor, 1870 (Hetzel, 1922)

works and in the mining industry (in general). Thus, A. Lopatine was the first to apply
complex conveying in the practice of mining works.
Another Russian engineer left his mark in the history of belt conveyor development.
Michel Koouzov developed a system of conveyors in Siberia individually controlled by
steam. In 1873 he was granted a patent for the implementation of this system.
Somewhere about the same time as Lopatine, in Europe, George Lyster was also
working on the development of belt conveyors. George Fosbery Lyster (1821–1899) was
Irish (Fig. 23), educated at King William’s College on the Isle of Man. He was appren-
ticed as an engineer under James Meadows Rendel.
He was responsible for most of the Birkenhead docks and docks at the north end
of the dock estate. He also built the Herculaneum Dock, Harrington Dock and Toxteth
Dock. He widened the River Shannon and in the 1850s built the Great Harbour of Ref-
uge at Holyhead. In 1861 he succeeded John Bernard Hartley as Engineer-in-Chief to
Liverpool Docks, Fig. 24. Lyster and Westmacott made experiments with 12-inch (≈
300 mm) belt and showed that conveyor belts can carry more grain with less power than
screw conveyors.
In 1866, P. G. B. Westmacott, alongside experiments with rollers piloted with
George Fosbery Lyster, patented the traveling tripper pushed by hand (Fig. 25)—great

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 241

Fig. 21  Alexander Lopatine

(https://​www.​loc.​gov/​item/​20186​
86789/)

Fig. 22  Belt conveyor, by A. Lopatine (Faddeev, 1971)

improvement of fixed tripper, earlier invented and patented by Oren C. Dodge in 1863
(Hetzel, 1922).
For the purpose of changing the discharge point at will, two guide rollers with the dis-
charge chute are mounted on a trolley. The ejector carriage is shifted by hand while the belt
is at a standstill. Figure 26 shows implementation of Robins, suitable for heavily loaded
belt when support rollers must be attached to the discharge carriage (Hanffstengel, 1908).

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242 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 23  George Fosbery Lyster

(https://​www.​wikiw​and.​com/​en/​
George_​Fosbe​ry_​Lyster)

Fig. 24  General view of band conveyor with adjustable throw-off carriage designed for the Liverpool Docks
(Zimmer, 1905)

Due to double bending by 180° in the opposite direction discharge carriage damages the
belt by increasing the wear. When the material being conveyed is moist, its particles stick
to the belt and press into the surface. Robins therefore cleans the belt at each discharge
point by attaching a rapidly rotating brush underneath the roller, which throws the dirt into
the discharge chute (von Hanffstengel, 1908).
Until 1885, spool-shaped rollers were used in America to convey grain. Their main dis-
advantage was different angular velocity of the middle of the roller compared to its edges.
The deeper the trough the greater the difference in angular velocity of the middle and ends

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 243

Fig. 25  Adjustable throw-off carriage designed for the Liverpool Docks (Zimmer, 1905)

Fig. 26  Robins’ design of throw-off carriage (von Hanffstengel, 1908)

of the roller was. One of proposed solutions to this problem was the use of “Dish-pan”
idler, with independently rotating spherical side rollers, Fig. 27 (Hetzel, 1922).
The idea worked for light load, while heavy load caused noticable loss of power in driv-
ing the conveyor. This concept was utilized one decade and after 1890 this form of idler
gradually became obsolete (Hetzel, 1922) (Fig. 28).
In the same period, between 1880 and 1890 belts were made to convey coal and ore
and other materials heavier than grain. Design of such conveyors was based on the same
principles as for the grain conveying. One of the largest installations at that time was the
ore concentrating plant of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Co in Sparta,
New Jersey (Hetzel, 1922), where Thomas Edison (1847–1931), world famous physi-
cist, developed large complex of mines, crushers, separators and accompanying build-
ings known as “Edison” or, more properly, “The Works of the New Jersey and Pennsyl-
vania Concentrating Company” (Agreement, 1890). This company had over 50 cotton
belt conveyors with continuous skirt boards along the carrying run to keep the load from
rolling off the belt, ranging from 20″ to 30″ wide and up to 500 ft long. Thomas Edison
assisted in the design of the troughed idler (Zrnić et al., 2022). The first idlers used for

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244 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 27  “Dish-pan” idler and return idler for 36-inch (≈ 90 cm) grain belt, 1880. (Hetzel, 1922)

Fig. 28  Flat wooden scroll made by Jeffrey, followed by spool-shaped roller and “Dish-pan” roller—from
left to right (von Hanffstengel, 1908)

Fig. 29  Troughing idler for ore conveyor. (Edison, N. J., 1893.) (Hetzel, 1922)

conveying coal and ore were cast-iron spool-shaped idlers. Troubles with angular veloc-
ity of spool-shaped idlers are already explained. Having that in mind in 1893 during the
rebuilt of Edison plant, idlers shown in Fig. 29 idlers replaced spool-shaped idlers.
The main problem at Edison was with the belts due to cuts made to the fabric by
sharp pieces of heavy ore caused mainly by improper delivery/loading of material to the
belts (it seems there was no effort to deliver the material to the receiving belt with some
velocity in the direction of travel) and improper construction of the belts themselves.
In 1891, an American inventor Thomas Robins (1868–1957) visited the Edison plant
and noticed that:

• thin layer of rubber which covered the belt resisted abrasion much longer than did
the duck which formed the body of the belt;

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 245

• each layer of duck wore out faster than the one preceding it, showing that as the belt
wore thin and the tension on the threads increased, they were cut more easily;
• belts wore out in the middle and split longitudinally while the edges were still good.

He concluded that main problems occurred to the belt and that sole function of the fab-
ric in a rubber belt is to give the belt tensile strength and it should be protected from cuts,
abrasion and deterioration by covers of rubber compound (Hetzel, 1922). Thomas Robins,
Fig. 30 (Robins, 1915; Zrnić et al., 2022), is also remembered for a series of inventions
which led to the development of a belt conveyor system used for carrying coal, ores and
other products (Edwin & Robins, 1920; Zrnić et al., 2022).
After around two decades of practice with spool-shaped and „Dish-pan “ idlers in the
1890s, American designers of grain-conveying equipment concluded that the best way to
convey grain is by flat or nearly flat belt. Fig. 31.
Grain was carefully loaded on a flat belt, but to prevent scatter and spillage of conveyed
material at the loading points and to increase capacity, concentrator pulleys were used at
the loading points or at intervals along the length of the conveyor. Figure 32. This was the
beginning of the implementation of troughing idlers.
First concentrators were inclined at 60°, but this incline caused many longitudinal crack-
ing of belt. The connection between the steep angle of troughing and the splitting of belts
was quite apparent and since the latter was a serious difficulty incline was reduced to 45°,
more common to 35° and even to 30° and 22°. This led to the use of three-pulley idlers
with the two bends 30°, 20° and as low as 10° and to the use of five-pulley idlers where
each of the four bends is 15° (Hetzel, 1922).
Concentrators were made on separate stand or in combination with horizontal pulleys,
Figs. 33 and 34.

Fig. 30  Thomas Robins, 1915

(Robins, 2013)

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246 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 31  40-inch (≈ 1 m) flat grain belt, 1897 (Link-Belt Company) (Hetzel, 1922)

Fig. 32  36-inch (≈ 90 cm) grain belts with concentrators every 15 feet (≈ 4.5 m) (James Stewart & Co.,
1908.) (Hetzel, 1922)

Robins was the first to make the trough-shaped volume a success. It seems that Thomas
Robins, independently of Lyster, eliminated the difficulty inherent in the two-pulley trough-
ing idler by adding a horizontal pulley. The earliest Robins idlers had a rather wide gap
between the adjacent edges of the pulleys, a distance sufficient to allow belt to sag between
the pulleys, Fig. 35. The same defect existed in various two-pulley, four-pulley and two-
plane three-pulley idlers, in which the edges were not brought close together. When the
belt sags between the pulleys of a troughing idler as shown in Fig. 35, it is not only in
danger of cracking by direct flexure under the load, but there is a tendency of the edges of
the pulleys to seize the sag of the belt and squeeze it together to form a sharp bend. This
squeezing action causes the belt to crack or to split lengthwise. After the first few years of
experience, this problem was solved by making the gap less and the distance between the
pulleys as small as practicable (Hetzel, 1922).

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 247

Fig. 33  Concentrator pulleys mounted on a separate stand (Hetzel, 1922)

Fig. 34  Concentrators mounted on a stand with carrying pulleys (Hetzel, 1922)

Fig. 35  Sag of belt into gap

between idler pulleys (Hetzel,
1922)

Robins made new design of idler with concentrators and horizontal pulley placed in-line
on hollow shafts (Fig. 36). This arrangement provided easier and better lubrication and
sealing, as well as easier install and use—turning forth and back was the same (Hetzel,
1922).

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248 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 36  Cross-section of Robins’ three-pulley idler (left) (von Hanffstengel, 1908) and same construction—
solution for the support of belt conveyor handling materials other than grain by Robins’ Conveying Belt
Company (right) (Zimmer, 1905)

According to Fig. 36, he uses three support rollers lying in a vertical plane for the
loaded strand, which rotate on thick-walled tubes mounted in fixed blocks. The angle of
inclination of the side rollers is 15° to 30°. The trestles are bolted to a board and shipped
as is, making assembly very easy. On the longitudinal beams there is a dust-proof board
covering—in the case of iron construction a sheet metal of 1.5 mm thickness—in order
to protect the back of the empty run, which also rests on three separate cast-iron rollers,
from contamination. A conveyor by Robins, used as a sorting belt, is shown in Fig. 37
(von Hanffstengel, 1908).
From 1890s great expansion in the use of all kinds of conveying machinery hap-
pened. Robins and his company (Robins Conveying Belt Company, today Hewitt-Rob-
ins Company) did most of the pioneer work in extending the use of belt conveyors to
the handling materials other than grain (Fig. 36, right) and incorporating engineering
knowledge into the conveying business (Zrnić et al., 2022).

Fig. 37  Robins’ Sorting Belt (von Hanffstengel, 1908)

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Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 249

Fig. 38  Different reel arrangements related to Robins’ design (left and in the middle) and automatic lubrica-
tion system for oblique rollers (right) (von Hanffstengel, 1908)

Fig. 39  Robins’ five-pulley idler, 1909 (Hetzel, 1922)

The Robins reel arrangement is protected in America, but is reproduced in Germany

by several companies with minor modifications. For example, reel arrangements shown in
Fig. 38 are related to the Robins design. What is remarkable here is the support of the
oblique rollers and their automatic lubrication, explained by Fig. 38, right (von Hanffsten-
gel, 1908).
Further developing idlers, in 1909 Robins made a five-pulley idler, Fig. 39. His idler
and the Peck idler of 1913 are alike in using five pulleys with the inclined pulleys set at 15°
and 30° from the horizontal. Most of the multiple-pulley idlers are made with this arrange-
ment of five pulleys (Hetzel, 1922).
“By the use of a greater number of pulleys, the belt would be bent through a smaller
angle along each line of longitudinal flexure, the internal stress on the filler threads of the
belt fabric would be diminished, there would be less risk of pinching the belt between pul-
leys and the tendency to crack or split the belt would be less. The complication of parts
and the increased difficulty of lubricating the pulleys were obvious disadvantages which
delayed the introduction of multiple-pulley idlers and they did not come into use until after
1905.” (Hetzel, 1922).
Early experiments by Robins showed that rubber specially compounded resisted the
action of a sand blast much better than did other materials. “In the rubber-belt business as
in the rubber-tire business, it has been found that nothing protects the fabric carcass of the
belt or the tire so well as a rubber cover or tread.” (Hetzel, 1922). Robins experimented
with various rubber compounds and in 1893 he patented the belt shown in Fig. 40 which
resisted abrasion very well but the belt was so stiff that it would not conform to the shape
of the troughing idlers, which, as shown in Fig. 42, had the side pulleys inclined at 45°.
His work on improving belting led him to construction of multi ply belts with rubber
covers, then to reducing thickness of the underside and increasing the thickness on the

13
250 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 40  Patent of conveyor belt by Thomas Robins, in 1893 (Hetzel, 1922)

carrying side to provide longer belt life. Further work on improving belts resulted in intro-
duction of the stepped-ply belts, in which the plies stepped off toward the center with cor-
responding increasing thickness of rubber in the central zone Fig. 41. The omission of the
plies at the middle made the belt more flexible in cross section, allowed it to conform more
closely to the shape of the troughing idlers and at the same time left a thick stiff edge to
bear against the side guide pulleys, Fig. 42. These pulleys were necessary to keep the belt
straight on 45° troughing idlers, especially when the belts were comparatively narrow and
stiff and when the inclined idlers came every 4 or 5 ft (Zrnić et al., 2022). Similar solu-
tion suggested Ridgway, in his patent of 1902. He omitted some of the plies at the bending
points of a rubber belt and increased the rubber there, to get greater flexibility. Some belts

Fig. 41  Robins’ stepped-ply belt 1896 (Hetzel, 1922)

Fig. 42  Stepped-ply belt on 45°

troughing idlers required the use
of side-guide pulleys to insure
the belt alignment (Hetzel, 1922)

13
Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 251

of this “hinged-edge” design were used in this country and in England and in some cases
they gave satisfactory results (Hetzel, 1922).
The troughed belts also include the Ridgway double belt conveyor (Fig. 43). The Ridg-
way patent of 1904 had a double belt structure in which the load is carried on a troughed
belt, supported by saddle-shaped cleats mounted on a flat belt running underneath over its
own separate pulleys. Its construction is developed based on the idea to separate the sup-
porting element from the pulling one. The cotton insert represent tensile member, while the
rubber coating protects the band from external injuries. An inner flat belt transmits most of
the driving force, and the outer, less tensioned belt is used primarily to carry the material
(von Hanffstengel, 1908).
In addition to Hetzels’ “Belt conveyors and belt elevators” and Evans’ “Miller’s Guide”,
there are several other significant books dealing with the development of conveyors. Zim-
mer’s “Mechanical handling of material” is certainly one of them (Zimmer, 1905, Fig. 44).
George Frederick Zimmer (1854–1935), Engineer of Mark Lane, London, had a lot of
experience in designing conveyors and he was known as the inventor of the swinging con-
veyor, the simplest conveyor capable of conveying all materials (Fig. 45; https://​www.​grace​
sguide.​co.​uk/​George_​Fried​rich_​Zimmer).

4 Conclusions

In recent centuries, the development of sciences and technologies had a significant impact
on our society. This impact was subjected to analysis from several standpoints, i.e., scien-
tific (or in the field of machinery evolution rather technological, because many inventions
do not have formal scientific background and approval), communication, historical and
anthropological (Pisano et al., 2021).
The emphasis in this paper is given on technological development of belt conveyors
until the occurrence of their first modern-like types, along with the historical background
of evolution of conveyors. Of course, belt conveyors have a great impact on society (imple-
mentation in the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire car intro-
duced Henry Ford in 1913 Heizer, 1998), but this analysis goes beyond the scope of this
paper. As many other machines belt, conveyors have their ancestors in ancient times with
the similar principles of operation which characterized all types of conveying equipment.
However, it is very difficult or even impossible to assign very strictly the belt conveyor
invention to an exact date or to a specific inventor. Moreover, it is impossible to find evi-
dences whether some inventors have been familiar with development of new/similar solu-
tions in other countries/continents or not, particularly having in mind the lack of communi-
cations in that period and delay of information flows. The most of the references published
in USA named Americans Oliver Evans and Thomas Robins as the inventors of belt con-
veyors, while UK references named English engineer George Lyster. Russian entrepreneur

Fig. 43  Ridgway double belt conveyor (von Hanffstengel, 1908)

13
252 N. Zrnić et al.

Fig. 44  The title page of Zim-

mer’s book “The mechanical
handling of material” (1905)
(Zimmer, 1905)

Fig. 45  1902-Swinging conveyor (https://​www.​grace​sguide.​co.​uk/​George_​Fried​rich_​Zimmer)

13
Historical Background and Evolution of Belt Conveyors 253

Alexander Lopatine, as the first inventor of belt conveyors in mines is mentioned in the
literature written in Russian language. For that reason Lopatine’s contribution to the devel-
opment of belt conveyors isn’t recognized by majority of the authors in the other parts of
the world. The characteristics of all four mentioned principal inventors in the field of belt
conveyors is that all of them had a strong entrepreneurial spirit, they established their own
companies based on the delivered inventions. Also, it is worthwhile to highlight that their
inventions went beyond their formal education. Finally, it is evident that the first modern-
like belt conveyors were developed in the late nineteenth century, comprising more-less all
elements of today’s conveyors. Due to permanent impovement, they have now outstanding
performances regarding the capacity, size and length. Hence, this can be considered as evo-
lution of conveyors where all the stages have some level of importance.
Acknowledgements This research is a contribution to the MESTD of Serbia funded project “Inte-
grated research in the fields of macro, micro and nano mechanical engineering” (Contract Number:
451–03–68/2020–14/200105).

Declarations
Conflict of interest On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of inter-
est.

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Professor Dr Nenad Zrnić is head of the Department of material handling, constructions and logistics at the
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. He is expert in material handling and convey-
ing equipment and systems. He published many papers in this field and was involved in many international
projects and projects for industry. He is the member of the IFToMM Permanent Commission for the History
of Mechanism and Machine Science.

Miloš Đorđević is a Research Assistant at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
He has been working at the department of Material Handling, Construction and Logistics for 15 years. His
fields of research include Ecodesign and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) of products, design and analysis of
material handling machines and equipment as well as hoisting equipment.

Vlada Gašić is Associate Professor at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. He
has the 20-year experience in research and teaching activities at the department for Material Handling, Con-
struction and Logistics. His research fields include structural analysis, finite element analysis and design of
various types of material handling equipment and machines.

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