The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1892-06-24
Ghelrmorra-Sfm
THE ORIGIN or sAw.MILLS.


Southern L~umbcnman.
Ii cannot be denied that our
forefalliers executed their work
well, but in many respects they
were peculiarly wasteful in both
time and material TO attain this
end. This can he particularly no.
ticed in The latter ease in the his.
tory OF saw mills. Owing. perhaps.
10 their prejudices or the superb.
orliy OF splitting timber over saw.
Ing timber in the simple early mills,
saw-mills were not encouraged 10
any extent until The seventeenth
century, although their invention
dates much further back. Even
this sounds a crude age for this
ingenious tool TO be used, but we
must not forget that The invention
of the saw by the Greeks dates far
back into the misty ages of time.
When we compare this age and the
time which elapsed before lis uni.
versal adoption, we see how great
our foreiathers' prejudices against
new inventions we're. Indeed, so
great was the quantity of timber
wasted by splitting in Russia in
the sixteenth century hat Peter
the Great forbid it TO be transport.
ed into the Neva. But IN spite of
this, split timber is still used for
many purposes because OF its su
periOr strength and l%oughness.
Germany in ages back is well
known to have been a great inven.
tive country, and we find that the
Germans had The honor of erecting
The first saw.mill on the banks of
the little nver Reur, in the fourth
century. The early mills were all
either driven by wind or water,
and this early mill Vas driven by
water. True, this null is stated to
have been for saving stone, but
there is no doubt that those for
saving wood were erected con.
iemporaneously. This mill ap.
pears 10 have been the only one
erected in hundreds of years, for
they were not universally used,
and many later writers speak OF
saw.mills in their lime as new in
yentiOns.
The next instance we find of a
saw-mill is in The records of the
city of Augsburg, which states that
three were erected on the banks of
the Harvey brook in that city IN
1882, owned by Tie Hospital of The
Holy Ghost. Again when the in.
FAINT Henry of Germany sert set.
tiers to The new found island of
Madeira, in the fifteenth century,
he ordered them to erect saw.miils,
in order order 10 convert some OF
The beautiful timbers found there
into deals. The city of Breslau
had a saw mill in 1927, which pro-
'duced a yearly rent of three marks.
J In 1880 IA saw.mill was erected in
The forest OF Eriurt. Norway, that
j timber covered country, owned its
I first saw in 1880, for we read of a
= deal 1.-THE being instituted by
"Chrisiian Ill. All these mills had
sonly one blade in a reciprocating
frame, and those having several
blades in one frame were not used
until 1915, when several of that
kind were erected on the banks of
the Danube. Holland, which at
one time owned more saw mills
than any other country, erected lis
first IN 1896, at Saardam. In Eng
land saw.mills had The same fate
as Strasburg. They were violently
opposed by The hand sawyefs, and
the first one erected, that near
London IN 1868, had TO be aban.
dOned, and the one at Limehouse
in 1867 so excited The rage of the
populace that they pulled it down.
Circular saws and driving saw-mills
saw'mills by steam power were
probably contemporary, and they
were first erected just about a cen
fury ago. Sweden owned the
largest saw-mill in the world at
that time, one driven by a water
mill twelve feet in breadth, which
drove seventy two frame saws.
What would they say 10 our circu-
lar saws nOW2