Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1891-11-21
AS lrNM oF woop.
Some Interesting Facts aud Figures
About the Anaconda CoIn.
pany's Wood Pile.

+ About thc Anaconda Conn
pany's Wood Pile.
4 II il stated that the Anaconda
company has 10000 cords Of wood
! banked at the McCune fiume, near
the Smelter city, all Of VIII ch is TO
be used in the reduction Of ores at
the great smelters.
The average reader would hastily
glance over the above little para
graph without giving it another
moments consideration. Aud vet
it is an item that affords food for
interesting study.
One hundred and fifty thousand
cords of wood
Let us see what it means. First,
how many acres Of ground would
that cover if banked closely? Take
out your pencil and figure and you
will find that this amount of wood
will cover every foot of space, four
feet high, of 10 acres.
Wonder how many sticks Of wood
there are in the pile? A cordwood
stick is supposed to be about 6x6
inches, 4 feet long. A little calcu-
lation with cubic inches will show
that under this estimate of dimen-
sion there are 5l2 sticks in each
cord, and then there must be in the
10000 cords 5l2 times that
amount, or 76,s00,0o0 pieces Of
wood.
Now it is getting interesting
How much space would that wood
cover if each stick were TO be strung
out end for end? That's easy. II
each stick is four feet long there
must be in the 76.S0O,OoO sticks
3J7 100000 linear feet. Now as it
takes $3.50 feet to make mile, we
soon find that this amount OF
wood, if each sick were to be laid
endwise, would stretch out about
+ IS, IS2 miles.
Whewl Just think Of that The
world is said to measure in circum-
ference something like "a 800 miles,
50 it will be seen that the pile Of
wood near Anaconda could encircle
the globe twice and then have y, 1882
miles left to start off encircling it
from north to south.
Let us now take this pile in an
other way. If piled up for meas
urement and banked in straight
line, these l50, 900 cords would reach
from Butte to Billings. IL the wood
were to be loaded ON railroad ears
and shipped away, estimating ears
at "a feet long, and loading the
wood two cords high, as is the Gus.
tom, it would require train OF
: 1868 cars. Or estimate 80 cars to
train and if two trains per day
; were loaded it would occupy 252
: DAYS to haul il away.
If one man would accept the con,
tract Of cutting this wood he would
have a nice job "n his hands, and in
his old age would have amasscd q
snug fortune for his heirs and the
/. lawyers to squabble over. An or
) binary wood-chopper will cut 3!
cords per day. lie receives Sl.2'
for the cutting, or S4.37! for hi,
days work. Now, il that man was
industrious and worked every day
in the year, he could finish the jot
9 in lis years and would have re
: ceived SlST, 800 for his labor, or a
E the rate of 81 ,630.50 per year. |
wood-choppers stay away from Tho
towns ard don't run up agains
sure-thing games, bunco-sharps anC
e fiim-tlamcrs, and keep away from
! some of Bu,te's dives, especial,
3 dedicated to robbing that class. the,
could get along nicely on VI do,
, and allow 800 per year for curren
expenses. flour woodchopper woulc
o so behave himself, and should h.
0 die when he finished the job h
: would leave fortune Of Sl33,97j
:. for his heirs.
! There are, of course, other ex
= penses with getting this wood to tn
! smelters, which would swell tn
cost The retail price in Butte j
now about IS per cord, ana the An
acouda company gets theirs for Ii,
tie, if any, less than that figure
# We find, therefore, that 10000
: cords of wood represent value @
: $3.50, 00O.-Butte Inter- Mountain.