Belt, Great, and Little Belt, straits: see Store Bælt and Lille Bælt, straits, Denmark.

belt, girdle or band worn around the body, originally to confine loose garments. Later the girdle became a decorative accessory and was used to carry belongings. The Greeks and Romans wore ornamental cords and bands of many materials, including metal. The medieval belt displayed brilliant goldwork and gems; it carried the purse, dagger, sword, and other personal belongings of the wearer. Since then the belt has varied in style and importance. It has been symbolic of strength, of alertness, and of integrity. In folklore belts have often been accorded supernatural power.

One of various devices that provide mechanized movement of material, as in a factory. Conveyor belts are used in industrial applications and also on large farms, in warehousing and freight-handling, and in movement of raw materials. Belt conveyors of fabric, rubber, plastic, leather, or metal are driven by a power-operated roll mounted underneath or at one end of the conveyor. The belt forms a continuous loop and is supported either on rollers (for heavy loads) or on a metal slider pan (if loads are light enough to prevent frictional drag on the belt). Motors operating through constant- or variable-speed reduction gears usually provide the power.

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Pair of pulleys attached to usually parallel shafts and connected by an encircling flexible belt (band) that can serve to transmit and modify rotary motion from one shaft to the other. Most belt drives consist of flat leather, rubber, or fabric belts running on cylindrical pulleys or of belts with a V-shaped cross section running on grooved pulleys. Another type of belt, used on some internal-combustion engines for connecting the crankshaft and camshafts, is the toothed (or timing) belt, a flat belt with evenly spaced transverse teeth that fit in matching grooves on the periphery of the pulley.

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or Edgeworth-Kuiper belt

Disk-shaped belt of billions of small icy bodies orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune, mostly at distances 30–50 times Earth's distance from the Sun. Gerard Peter Kuiper (1905–73) proposed the existence of this large flattened distribution of objects in 1951 in connection with his theory of the origin of the solar system (see solar nebula). Kenneth Edgeworth (1880–1972) independently had made similar proposals in 1943 and 1949. Whether the belt extends thinly as far as the Oort cloud is not known. Gravitational disturbances by Neptune of objects in the belt are thought to be the origin of most short-period comets. The first Kuiper belt object was discovered in 1992; the orbit, icy composition, and diminutive size of Pluto qualify this body, formerly considered a planet, as a giant Kuiper belt object.

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Traditional area, midwestern U.S. Roughly covering western Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota, Missouri, eastern Nebraska, and eastern Kansas, it is a region in which corn and soybeans are the dominant crops. Many farms are family-operated and average more than 300 acres (120 hectares). Despite the name, the region is agriculturally diverse, raising various feed-grains and livestock.

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Belt is a town in Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 633 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Great Falls Metropolitan Area. The current mayor is John Masonovich. The town is home to Belt Elementary School, Belt Middle School and Belt High School (sometimes called Belt Valley High School), collectively known as Belt School. Currently Calvin Johnson is the superintendent and Kathleen Prody is the principal. The current school building was built in 1949, though several major additions have followed, the most recent of which was completed in the late '90s.

The town's main street is called 'Castner Street' after its founder, John Castner. The street is home to the majority of the town's businesses, notably the Belt Creek Brew Pub, Belt Valley Grocery, and the Belt Creek Cafe.

Geography

Belt is located at (47.385935, -110.926587).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.3 square miles (0.9 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 633 people, 273 households, and 168 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,877.0 people per square mile (718.8/km²). There were 295 housing units at an average density of 874.7/sq mi (335.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 94.94% White, 1.42% African American, 1.42% Native American, 0.32% Pacific Islander, 0.16% from other races, and 1.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.11% of the population.

There were 273 households out of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.1% were married couples living together, 8.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.1% were non-families. 35.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 3.03.

In the city the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 25.9% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 90.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $25,469, and the median income for a family was $30,104. Males had a median income of $21,477 versus $20,192 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,970. About 10.2% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.8% of those under age 18 and 16.5% of those age 65 or over.

Notable residents

• James R. Browning - judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, was raised in Belt.
• Ryan Mapston - saddle bronc ride in the PRCA.

References

External links

• Belt Public Schools website