The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-07-30
LUMBER MILLS TO-DAY.
Methods Have Changed Since the Days of
the Old-Time SawmiII.


way that seemed to be amazing, says a
writer in the Minneapolis Press They
used to have buzz saws in those days
about as big around as the full moon
and the way that a little Gypsy engine
of three or four horse power could make
them reyolve was a wonder But they
told me here that was out of date, and
that the Allegheny pine woods were not
in it.
So went down to real lumber mill
a Minneapolis lumber mill-yesterday.
The show is worth the price of admis-
where they feed forest into one end and
draw frame house out of the other. A
Minneapolis lumber mill is the Kellar of
the mechanic art. 1t swallows a log and
Yomlts wagon load of toothpicks. There
Is prestidigitation for you. The modern
lumber mill is place where the men are
machinery and the machinery seems to
do the thinking. Seems isn't really the
word. 1t does think. Or if you can
prove that it doesn' t you can't make me
believe it. | saw it think | saw d
great big leviathan of thing, jagged,
hooped, long-toothed monster, reach over
and pick up log, a log that was half as
big as the steel arch bridge, and pat it,
ana Garess It, and turn it over as a woman
would baby, tuck it in, and then-rip !!
1t was all over with Mr.. Log. 1t made
me think of when the wolf unmarked
himself to Little Red Riding Hood. He
had been good, and kind and loving and
all that, you know, but finally he showed
his cruel teeth. That's the way this hui
man monster, this machine that thought.
did with the log, the poor log that it had
| pretended to be SO fond of, and had cod
died and made love to- Down in this
mill where was there were three saws
running. This isn't technical, and I
don't know for sure what they call
them, but one was a buzz saw know a
buzz saw when 1 see it-and another was
saw like leather belt, a piece of
leather betting, l mean. 1t must have
been twenty five or thirty feet long, and
it ran over a big wheel that went around
million times second. Four or five
feet of the saw came down vertically,
just at the edge of a little railroad about
fifty or sixty feet long inside the mill.
There was fiat car on the railroad and
big piston rod was its motive power. The
car was fastened to the rod. Ruth was
half as surely tangled up. "Whither thou
may be sure the Car went right away.
A man pulled string and the rod did
the rest.
It was on this car that the thing with
the VOLTS teeth dumped the logs, one by
one. When they were in position, all
tucked in and feeling pretty comfortable,
I thank you, all at once that string was
pulled. and in about a second the poor,
unsuspecting log had it's nose up against
that leather belt saw and was being sliced
and trimmed into stick of square
timber. In about two minutes it had
lost all it's self-respect. 1t was nude,
shamefaced, pitiable.
Then some one pulled another string or
touched button, don't know which,
and what was left of the log was igno-
miniously thrown over board 1t fell up
on a moving sidewalk, something like
that thing they had down by the steamer
pier at the Worlds Fair, and the side
walk carried it off, first south, then east
l think this sidewalk thought. too 1t
seemed to. 1t did just the right thing at
| the right time 1t never made anything
that looked to me like a mistake. 1t
took this big timber and ran it over to
the middle of the mill, taking care of the
timbers the buzz saw was turning out,
| turning them into the same center
Every few minutes six or eight squared
timbers would be piled up on the side
walk that was at rest Then someone
pulled another string The sidewalk
that was at rest got move on itself not
very fast, but about as fast as fat man
with $3.50 in his peck ct would walk after
! taking dinner at the West.
| Down the pike little way was cider
press, or something. May be it wasn't a
cider press, for I am not a mechanical
| expert, but it looked like it, 1t was
about as big as a ton of hay and inside
Afi .frrf
and down, not around, but straight uE
and down, like typewriter girls jaws
when she chews gum and thinks she is
thinking. The sidewalk in the middle
of the mill walked right into the mouths
of these twenty -four devils that were do
ing this vertical dance.
And it was all off. You have seen pos
sibly a colored gentleman, an attache Of
your favorite free lunch counter cut uI
a cheese, haven't you? Well his work
was hard compared to that of the cider
mill 1t seemed to have positive relish
for timber. 1t went through that stack
of lunber-about half carload-like 6
tramp through hand-out; and when, in
about seven seconds, the sidewalk haG
pushed them entirely through the mil
there VS. a pile of inch planks ready fol
market. This sidewalk business seems te
be a sort of main push, sort of floor
| walker-that's not half bad-around G
lumber mill. When the cider mill gets
through with the inch planks they trave
right along on to another moving side
walk. 1t receives them courteously to its
bed and bears them away as bride
groom. Most any old place around the
mill yard is good enough for the moving
sidewalk to go to. The neW-made lum
Der is carried along east, west or south
until good, easy place to dump it shows
up, and then the sidewalk lets go it's
load, stops, piles it up, and goes back
after mere That's the honest truth.
stood on the bridge and saw two mer
with pike poles steering the logs thai
came down the boom. An endless cable
road came out of the water and ran III
sharp incline into the mill. 1t hat
great hooked teeth in it every ten feet
The men with the pike poles would pusl
the nose Of log on the cable and in hal
a second the big teeth would seize it by
the throat, then by the belly. then by the
feet and it was gone. 1t was a python
carrying off crocodile.