The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-02-09 00:00:00

MR. GLADSTONE ON TREE FELLING.

Some experiments were made last Saturday on the
Roupell-park Estate, close to Tulse-hill station, with
a patent steam tree-feller, the invention of Messrs. A.
Rausome and Co., saw-mill engineers, of the Stanley
Works, Chelsea. The machine consists of a steam
cylinder of small diameter, having a long stroke,
attached to a light cast-iron bed-plate, on which it is
arranged to pivot on it& centre, the pivoting motion
being worked by a hand-wheel turning a worm which
gears into a quadrant cast in the back of the cylinder.
The saw is fixed to the end of the piston-rod, which
is made to travel in a true line by guides, and
the teeth of the saw are of such a form as to
cut only during the inward stroke. By this
device it is found that saws up to Oft. or
10ft, in length can be worked without any strain-
ing apparatus or guide, as its own cut is sufficient to
guide the saw in a straight line through the tree when
once entered. As the teeth suffer no resistance to the
outward stroke, all possibility of the saw buckling is
obviated. This little engine is supplied with steam
at high pressure from a small portable boiler through
a strong flexible steam pipe made of canvas and india-
rubber.

Four men are required to work each tree feller, one
to guide the machine, one to drive wedges into the cut
to prevent the tree pinching the saw, and to control
the direction in which it falls? one to stoke the boiler,
and the fourth to clear away underwood from the tree
next to be operated on. Machines are made for felling
trees up to 6ft., and there is no reason why they
should not be applicable to the largest timber that
grows.
More than ordinary interest attached to the pro-
ceedings of Saturday from the fact of Mr. Gladstone
having expressed a desire to be present to witness the
testing of an invention in which, from his wellknown
skill as an amateur tree-feller, he cannot but feel more
than ordinary curiosity. In spite of the weather being
anything but inviting, the right hon. gentleman, who
was accompanied by Mr. W. H. Gladstone, M.P.,
kept his appointment, and was received very warmly
by a considerable gathering of ladies and gentlemen,
and with loud cheers from the workmen round
about. The tree-feller was carried by four men
to the base of a solid young oak, between 21t.
and aft. in diameter. All the fixing it received
was a man thrusting a crowbar into the ground
behind to steady it, while a second steadied the
saw blade at the free end with his hands until a
few strokes gave it a bearing in the trunk of a tree,
just clear of the ground. The operation of the saw
blade was precisely analogous to that of a carpenter
using a ripping saw to cut a sapling close to the
ground. In four minutes after steam was turned on
the tree fell, and the measurement of the section gave
a diameter of 3ft. lin. in the widest part and of 2ft. 3in.
in the narrowest. Mr. Gladstone thought it would
take an expert wocdcutter a day to do what the
machine had done in a few miuntes. From the,
severity of the labour, six hours' continual wood-chop-
ping was a very good day'swork. There would be a great
economy of labour from the use of the machine, as
it cut close to the ground, whereas a man must have
" face "of at least a foot. His own experience was
that oak, though very hard, was not a bad tree to cut,
for the grain broke off easily, and did not cling to the
axe. Beech was far tougher, that and ash being the
two most difficult to fell of our English trees, on
account of their bending to the axe. Ash was subject
to fracture in felling, and he had a splinter of an ash
that had broken off in this way, in his own experience,
2ft. Bin. in length. The pleasantest timber to cut was
Spanish chestnut, because it came away so freely, the
grain breaking easily. Yew was the most horrible thing
to cut of all forest trees. The machine then being tested
did as much work in a minute as a man in an hour. The
right hon. gentleman was warmly cheered on leaving
the ground.