Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-11-14
EARLY HISTORY OF sAw-MIrLs.

P' WIN "eugeS INTO as many ana as thin
| pieces as possitfe, and if it was necessary to
have them still thinner, they were hewn on
ooth sides to the proper size. This simple
anu Wasteful manner of making boards has
| sun been continued in Russia to the present
time. Peter the Great tried to put stop to
IL oy forbidding hewn boards to be transported
on the river Neva. The saw, however, though
/ so convenient and beneficial has not been able
10 Danish entirely the practice of splitting tim
Der used in roofing, or in making furniture
ana utensils: and indeed, it must be allowed
that this method is attended with peculiar ad-
Vantages, which that of saving never can pos
sesS The wood-splltters perform their work
more expeditiously than sawyers, and split
! timber is much stronger than that which has
! been sawn for the fissure follows the grain of
| the wood, and leaves it whole whereas. the
saw proceeding in the line chalked out for it,
| divides the fibers, and by these means lessons
| lis cohesion and solidity. Split timber in
ueed often turns out crooked and warped
| out In many purposes to which it is applied,
| thlS is not preJudicial, and such faults may be
amended. As the fbers, however retain their
natural strength and direction, thin boards
| particularly can be bent much better. This
great advantage in making pipe-stayes, or
sleVe-frameS, which require still more art in
forming various implements of the like kind.
Our common saw, which needs only to be
guided by the hand of the workman, howev-
/
habltants of America when they were subdu-
ed by the Europeans.
The saws of the Grecian carpenters had the
same form, and were made in the same inge-
NOUS manner as ours at.present. This is
fniIy shown by painting still preserved
mong the antiquities of Herculaneum. Two
GEM are represented at the end of a bench,
which consists of long table that rests upon
| two four-footed stools. The piece of wood
which is to be sawn through is secured by
cramps. The saw with which the genii are at
work has perfect resemblance to our frame
saw. 1t consists of a square frame, having in
the middle blade, the teeth of which stand
perpendicular to the frame. The piece of
wood which is to be sawn extends beyond the
end OF the bench, and one of the workman
appears standing and the other sitting on the
ground. The arms in hich the blade is fast
ened, have the same form as that given to
them at present. In the bench are seen holes
in which the cramps that hold the timber are
stuck. They are shaped like the figure Z,
and the ends OF them reach below the boards
that form the top of it. The French call
cramp of this kind un ralet.
The most beneficial and ingenious improve
ment was, without doubt the invention Of
saw-mils, which are driven either by water,
wind, or by steam. Mills of the graf kind
were erected as early as the fourth century,
IN Germany, on the small river Roer, or Ruer;
Tor though A AsoniuS speaks properly of water
mills for cutting stone, and not timber, il
cannot be doubted that these were invented
later than mills for manufacturing boards, or
that both kinds were erected at that time.
The art, however of cutting marble with
saw Is very old. Pliuy conjectures that it
was invented in Cara at least he knew no
building incrusted with marble of greater an
tiquity than the palace of King Mausolus, at
Halicarnassus. This editice is celebrated by
Fitruvius for the beauty of its marble, and
PllQV gives an accOnnt of the difiaraDt binds
of sand used for cutting it !; for it is the sand
properly, says he, and not the saw, which pro-
duces this effect. The latter presses down
the former, and rubS 1t against the marble
and the coarser the sand is, the longer will be
the time required to polish the marble which
has been cut by it. Stones of the soap-rock
kind, which indeed softer than marble,
and which would require less force than wood,
were sawn at that period; but it appears
that the far harder CLASSY kinds of stone
were sawn then also. Tor We are told of the
discovery of building which was encrusted
with cut agate, cornelian, lapislaZui, and a.
methysts. There is, however, found no ac-
count in any OF the Greek or Roman writer's
of a mill for saving wood, and as the writer's
OF modern times speak of saw-mils as new
and uncommon, it would seem that the oldest
construction of them has been forgotten, or
that some improvement has made them appear
entirely new.
When the Iufan. Henry sent settlers to the
island of Madeira, which was discovered in
l42O, and caused European fruits of every
Kind TO be carried thither, he ordered saw |
mills to be erected also, for the purpose of
saving into boards, the various species of ex- |
cellcnt timber with which the island abounded |
and which were afterwards transported to |
Portugal. About the year 1929 the city of
Breslau had a saw-mill, which produced a |
yearly rent of three marks, and IN 1890 the |
magistrates of Erfurt purchased a forest, in |
which they caused saw-miil to be erected, |
and they rented another mill in the neighbor. |
hood besides. Norway, which is covered with |
forests: had the first mill about the year |
1880. This mode OF manufacturing timber /
was called the new art and because the ex- |
portation of boards was by these means in |
creased. that circumstance gave occasion to |
the deal tythe, introduced by Christian III, |
in the year 1915. Soon after, the celebrated |
Henry Ranzau caused the first mill of this |
kind to be built in Holstein. In 1862 there |
was a saw-mill at Joachimsthal, which We |
are told, belonged to Jacob Gensen, mathema- |
tician. In the year 1555 the Bishop of Ely, |
ambassador from Queen Mary OF England TO |
the court of Rome, having seen saw-mill in |
the neighcorhood of Lyons, the writer of his |
travels thought it worthy of particular des- |
cription. In the sixteenth century, however, |
there were mills with different saw blades, by |
which plank could be cut into several boards |
at the same time. Pighins saw one of these, |
in 1915, on the Danube, near Ratisbun, when |
he accompanied Charles, prince of Juliers |
and Ceves on his travels. 1t may here be |
asked whether the Dutch had such mills first, |
as is commonly, believed. The first saw-mil |
was erected in Holland at Saardam, in the |
year 1896, and the invention of 1t is ascribed |
to Cornelius Cornelssen, but he is as little |
the inventor the mathematician of Joac- |
himsthal. Perhaps he was the first person |
who built a aw-mill at that place, which is
village of great trade, and has still great |