Hopper

There are two varieties of hopper, covered and open;

• Covered hoppers consist of two or three compartments with openings at the top and bottom of each compartment, and are for commodities which must be shielded from the elements, such as grain and chemicals.
• Open hoppers are often used for sawdust, wood chips, coal, and the like.

ACF manufactures a lot of these cars.

Hop"per (?), n. [See 1st Hop.]

1.

One who, or that which, hops.

2.

A chute, box, or receptacle, usually funnel-shaped with an opening at the lower part, for delivering or feeding any material, as to a machine; as, the wooden box with its trough through which grain passes into a mill by joining or shaking, or a funnel through which fuel passes into a furnace, or coal, etc., into a car.

3. Mus.

See Grasshopper, 2.

4. pl.

A game. See Hopscotch.

Johnson.

5. Zool. (a)

See Grasshopper, and Frog hopper, Grape hopper, Leaf hopper, Tree hopper, under Frog, Grape, Leaf, and Tree.

The larva of a cheese fly.

6. Naut.

A vessel for carrying waste, garbage, etc., out to sea, so constructed as to discharge its load by a mechanical contrivance; -- called also dumping scow.

Bell and hopper Metal., the apparatus at the top of a blast furnace, through which the charge is introduced, while the gases are retained. -- Hopper boy, a rake in a mill, moving in a circle to spread meal for drying, and to draw it over an opening in the floor, through which it falls. -- Hopper closet, a water-closet, without a movable pan, in which the receptacle is a funnel standing on a draintrap. -- Hopper cock, a faucet or valve for flushing the hopper of a water-closet.

© Webster 1913.