Abstract: For handling and more particularly for discharging materials lying in a pile upon a storage area like the bottom of a silo, a scraping element is driven into the pile of materials and the resisting force applied to said scraping element is measured. When the said force has reached a predetermined value, the direction of motion of the said scraping element is reversed in order to discharge an amount of materials from the silo. Means are provided to generate a control signal when the said value has been reached, said signal being applied to means for controlling the reversing movement of the scraping element. Thus the resistance encountered by the said scraping element and its driving means does not exceed an admissible value and no blocking can take place.