Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-11-27

In the list of improvements made by the A.
w. Sprague Manufacturing Company in
this city, that at the easterly end of the dam
may be classed among the most radical and
noticeable. The old saw mill that had stood
near the lock in the dam, in a dilapidated
condition, hardly tit for use, with its old
fashioned fittings and machinery, cumbrous
and far from being economical has been re-
built and the structure enlarged The base
mept and frame work has been strengthened
by new timbers. Four powerful water wheels
o. the most approved pattern have been put
IN to drive the machinery with which the mill
is now fully supplied Practical mechanics
who have examined the mill say that it is one
OF the most thoroughly and faithfully con-
structed in the State. 1t is divided into two
stores with monitor top, supplying plenty
of light AS the means of ventilation in
saw mill are ordinarily supposed to be perfect,
no special provision was Of course necessary
in that direction. The large water wheels
and gearing are all in separate story beneath
the first floor leading from the wharf
The mill is leased by the owners to the
kennebec Land and Lumber Company, by
whom it is now run. 1t is only since the first
OF October that the new machinery was set in
motion and the works started up for the man.
ufacture Of various kinds of lumber but the
large amount that has accumulated since then
shows what the mill would be capable of do
ing if run an entire season.
Logs are RATED in the river and taken
oh tAn into, 4, ii I,, n
sluiceway on the east side of the mill, where
they are drawn up by heavy windlass, ex-
amined, and if found fit to make solid timber,
canted on to the frame connected with the
large circular saw for making timber, and soon
we have square work, and stick of tim.
Der is produced without the time honored
chalk line or the savage broad axe. One Of
these huge circulars, and there are two or
three in the mill, is capable Of manufacturing
5000 of timber per day. Two edgers, with
moving railways on which the operators stand,
are worked in most dexterous manner. These
men are riding back and forth eleven hours a
day, but they have to work their passage.
A gang saw is constantly engaged in cutting
up logs into boards, and what we should call
concealed circular appears at the bidding OF
the operator and cHts the lumber into any
given length. In the same story is a clap
board machine and other machinery for the
manufacture of large lumber. In the story
below we find machinery for the cutting up OF
small lumber into laths, shingles. broom
handles, bannisters, &C. Lumber discarded
above, is here used and made into useful arti-
Giles. person passing through this busy
place will notice particularly Perry's upright
single machine that almost seems to be guild
ed in its work by the faculty Of thought, so
nicely does it bold the bolts in its iron hands,
and shave OFF, the shingles to just The right
dimensions.
To dispose of the vast amount of manufac
tured lumber and the mill wood, or ''tdgings,"
is no small job. Running out from the mill
at various available points are several rail-
road tracks, on the narrow gauge principle,
and but two and onehalf feet between tracks
a mile of iron has been laid, making ene-
halt mile of track. Small platform cars.
drawn by either man or horse power, are
backed into the mill, loaded with the manu-
featured lumber, run out and switched off
in different directions on the tracks encir-
cling or crossing the large yard, which ex-
tends quite a distance north and south of the
MILL and the lumber is then piled up for dry
ing and the market. Cords upon cords of
mill wood, for fuel, are also piled up for sea-
soning, which will be sold this winter and
the next spring. Quite crew of men is re-
quired for this work alone.
A building 100 by 40 feet is being
erected near the wharf south of the mill,
which is to be two stories in height with a
large basement, and to be fitted up as a dry
house for the seasoning of lumber. A rail-
road will connect this building with the mill.
The company contemplate making provision
for a machine shop in the third story. An
office and stable, both of which were in the
log less than two months ago. have been built
in the mill yard; other buildings will be erected
as the wants of the Company demand. Large
contracts for lumber have already been filled,
the most of which is RATED and sent down
river to be loaded on schooners. Next year
the railroad company propose to run branch
track to the mill so that freight cars may be
loaded with lumber at the dry house or in the
yard and sent to any part of the world. All
kinds of shipping lumber of every grade and
dimension, are manuta ctured, spruce, cedar
and pine shingles, clapboards, laths, pickets,
door stuff broom handles, bannsters, &c.
Sixty men are employed at the mill As
work will be suspended on the closing of the
river, the most of these men will go into the
logging swamps and assist in securing logs for
next seasons operations. Mr.. Sylvester
Boothby, an expert enced lumberman and sur
veyor, has the entire management of affairs
at the mill, and has discharged his response
BILE duties to the acceptance Of the Company,
in whose employ he has been for several
years.
HalIOwelI Savings Institution.