How to set the right direction
Crouched, use the hopper on the side of the container where you want to send things. The nose should look at the recipient; Floor installation defaults downward. Recipe - 5 iron ingots around the chest. Reference: Minecraft: hopper.
hopper picks up from the container directly above him and picks up the dropped items from above. She doesn't suck out a chest that's on the side just because the spout is facing it. The side spout is needed for shipping.
Test three hoppers
Place the final chest, send the first hopper into it, the next one into the first one, the third one into the second one. Place the entrance chest above the third one. When building, move from the destination to the source so that each connection is visible.
Clear the chain and throw 32 stone. Everyone must end up at the end. In a normal chain, the limit of one hopper is about 2,5 items per second; the game will take time plus the passage delay. Server settings may change the speed.
A practical example of feeding into different furnace slots is shown here: A compact auto smelter with three hoppers.
Blocking and overflow
The lever or adjacent powered wiring blocks the hopper's own transfers. At the same time, other devices can continue to put items into her inventory - the blocking is not a wall to any external flow.
When the chest is full, the nearest hopper is filled, then the previous ones. Five slots is a small buffer, not endless storage. If items come as drops, stop the source before the entire chain is filled or provide an emergency chest.
For maintenance, provide a controlled stop: Building a farm shutoff switch in Minecraft.
