18 and will be advanced onwardly by the conveyor belts 82 and 84 across the plate 44 to the third sorting station 20 the third sorting station unless manually over ridden discharges all articles 70 not discharged by the first and second sorting stations 16 and 18 when an article 70 contacts and closes the switch 216 voltage is applied through the switch to a control solenoid valve 174b fig7 c thereby actuating a pneumatic cylinder 170b associated with the brake assembly 178 adjacent the roller 94 and stopping the roller after a delay caused by the delaying element 220 a solenoid valve 134b is actuated causing actuation of a pneumatic cylinder 132b associated with the discharging blades 152 and 154 and thereby opening the blades and discharging the article 70 onto the conveyor belt 184 of the third receiving assembly 40 as illustrated and described above the article sorting apparatus 10 will sort articles into three different article length categories longest articles being discharged at the first sorting station 16 articles of intermediate length being discharged by the second sorting station 18 and all other articles being discharged by the third sorting station 20 it will now be apparent that by the addition of more sorting stations similar to the first or second stations 16 or 18 sorting.