Litchfield enquirer., 1880-11-04
WESTERN CORRESPONDENCE.
~ LYONS, Iowa, Oct 10, 1886

~a'.s.Ss aes.a< Lyons, Iowa. Oct 10, 1880.
ED. Exc, Lets, jump into the wagon and
all take ride First class fare from Chica-
go to Kansas City, about 500 miles, only 80
cents. It's hard on the tramps, cheaper to
ride than to walk, The way they get around
| it, is to beg so cents aud take the ride d
| You have doubtless heard of -ours big blow. !"
1t was the most extensive and severe wind
storm that has occurred for many years, COW
| ering several states and continuing 4S hours,
reaching at times, in some places, Is miles an
hour. In Chicago, cars were blown into the
| lake. The river and lake was lowered feet,
so that boats grounded in the Chicago river.
| The disasters on the iakeare many and attend
! with the loss of many lives. AT this writing,
60 hours after the storm, it is feared that one
of the lake steam boats went down with all on
board II SO you will have heard Of it through
| other sources. 1t was most severe in Southern
Minnesota, Dacotah, and Northern Iowa, where
it was accompanied with snow, and trains
| were blockaded. One bank was over 600 feet
long and feet deep. This, iD the middle of
| October is unprecedented. Potatoes and 9TH
er vegetables have been frozen in the ground.
The wind blew the boards around our lumber
yards SO proniiscuously, that some Of the mills
shut down and sent the men home. One man
was blown from a lumber pile and had his
arm broken; milk wagons turned over, &c
might enumerate other casualties, but the
above is sufficient to give you an idea OF the
force of the great, storm. A river captain says
that not a raft moved mile in three days on
the river, but some broke from their moorings
and were scattered badly.
send you a description of new mill that
has just been built that is so we'll written and
shows such marked improvements in that
branch of the business that your readers can
hardly fail to be interested:
It is in fact succession of labor saving ma
chinery from one end of the building to the
other. From the moment the log leaves the
river until its discovered parts lie scattered In
half dozen piles away back in the yards. as
boards, lath, shingles or klndling wood, 1t is
manipulated by steam-propelled mechanism.
1t is first grappled at the river by an endless
chain having hooks or spurs at intervals of
Young's own conception land carried rapidly
up the steep incline on roiiers.te the saving
floor in the second story of the MILL The or
binary way is TO draw the log up the incline
| with chain and pulleys, but only one log can
be handled at once, while by the new method
| half dozen logs may be going up the incline
at once thus materially increasing the rapidity
with which the logs are handled. From the
chain the log is carried forward on ''live rob
| lers, " or concave wheels, and at the proper
place is bodily and instantaneouslY lifted out
Of the trough formed by the rollers, on to
| transfer chains, by means of two beams, each
| four inches square, which shoot upward under
| the log and throw it eMher side at the will of
| the operator at the lever. The transfer chains
carry the log literally to the carriage. and
| machine called the niger" rights the log in
| the proper position for sabbng. The log is
| then rushed along, and slices or slabs are TAX
| en- of from either side, leaving what is called
| the ''cant, which then goes forward to the
gang, or series of upright. rapidly moving saws,
which convert the log at one operation into
pile of boards. Slabs, cants, lumber and saw
dust are respectively borne away on live rollers
| to their proper places The boards made by
| the gang are piled up by machinery and taken
| to the edger, where they are trimmed to the
| required width and the journey in then resum-
ed. Not until the boards reach the yards and
are taken FROM the lumber buggies to the piles
are they touched by the men. 7r"7
The mill is 56x236 feet in size, and the ma
chiuery is driven by 28x48 inch, 900 horse
power. Reynolds Corliss engine of Milwaukee
manufacture, calculated to run at a speed of
eighty revolutions per minute and now @aak-
ing seventy. II is handsome piece of ma
chinery and is located in spacious engine
room that when completed will be as neat ard
attractive as parlor. The main shaft is thir-.
teen inches in diameter and twenty feet long,
with an extension nine inches in diameter and
fourteen and half feet in length carrying two
immense wood-and-paper friction pulleys, Of
thirty inch face and eleven feet diameter
These drive all the machinery, including the
two heavy iron gangs, thirty -seven and forty
inches wide, respectively, each standing on
solid masonry 1880 feet in size and ten feet
Deep These gangs move perpendicularly at
the inconceivab'e speed of 225 and PAT strokes
respectively, per minute. The cants are pre-
pared by tive heavy double rotaries. The log
carriages are propelled by two Prescott steam
''feeds." There is one edgel with four saws
and another with six saws, and D compile
ment Of single, lath and flooring machines.
Other contrivances are worthy Of mention
such as the long sawdust carriers, the furnaces
and their admirable fuel supplying apparatus
and the water works W it'll immense cietern fed
ground far out into the river. Nothing could
be imagined by the novice tending to make
the mill more complete. The average capaci-
ty of the mill, when in full motion, is 175,OO0
feet of lumber, 81, 600 Hath and 40, 900 to 50,-
900 shingles. Employment In the mill and
yards will be given to $50 men. ea
The lumber interests here, have grown to
such proportions that they can get only about
one third the amount OF ears needed to supply
the demand, and it is growing to be . serious
question how the lumber is to, be disposed of,
if the railroads cannot handle it,. oa s.s:s36
The Post-ofice was burglarized again last
week securing about Is dollars in sGall coins
No stamps were taken though some were in
plain sight, nor did they disturb anything in
my department The thief left for Chicago
and is well known. He lived only few doors
from here aud though young is an old '.jail
bird" sss.. -. -. :
presume yeu have heard from theelections
in Ohio and Indiana. As / predicted, the
Maine election proved more of a ''Bull Run"
than waterloo" defeat. But think the Oc-
tober election genuine t'Waterloo" for Han
cock. The chief point Of interest for. some
days with US has been whether the majority 10
Indiana would exceed twenty times 32g on
which q bet has been pending. The latest re-.
turns ssgoes it one better" Republicans are
wearing 500 badges, in response to the chalk
ers. III ~ 5{a3 fss~a tenlsg A b.
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A. En- -