Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1895-09-12
LUMBER MILLS OF TO-DAY.
Methods 1ave Changed Since the Days of
the Oid-Time Sawmill.


woods on the Allegheny hills they had
sawmills on the creeks and rivers that
used to do business with the logs in a
way that seemed TO be amazing. They
used to have buzz saws in those days
about a. big around as the full moon,
and the way that little Gypsy engine
of three or four horse power could
make them revolve 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they told me here that / was out of
date, and that the Allegheny pine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 a real lumber
mill-a Minneapolis lumber mill The
show is worth the price of admission.
| A Minneapolis lumber mill is place
where they feed forest into one end
and draw a frame house out of the
other A Minneapolis lumber mill is
the Kellar of the mechanic art 1t
swallows log and vomits a wagon
load of tootbpicks There is prestidi-
| citation for you. The modern lum ber
mill is place where the men are ma
chinery and the machinery seems to
do the thinking. Seems isE't really
the word. 1t does think. Or, if you
can prove that it doesn't, you can't
make me, believe 1t. l saw it think.
| saw a great big leviathan of a
thing, jagged, hooked, long
toothed monster, reach over and
pick up log. a log that was half as
big as the steel arch bridge, and pat
it, and caress it, and turn it OYER as a
woman would baby, tuck it in, and
then-ripi 1t was all over with Mr..
Log. 1t made me think of when the
wolf unmasked himself to Little Red
Riding Hood. He had been good, and
kind, and loving. and all that, you
know, but finallyshe showed his cruel
teeth That's the way this human
monster, this machine that thought,
did with the log; the poor log that it
had pretended to be so fond of, and
had coddled and made love to.
Down in this mill where I was there
were three saws running. This isn't
technical, and / don't know for sure
what they call them, but one was a
buzz saw know a buzz saw when |
see it-and another was a saw like q
Gather belt piece of leather betting,
/ mean. 1t must have been twenty-five
or thirty feet long, and it ran over a
big wheel that went around million
times a second Four or five feet of
the saw came down vertically, just at
the edge of little railroad about fifty
or sixty feet long inside the mill.
There was a 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. WHITTIER thou goest?" Well,
when the rod went you may be sure
the car went, right away. \ man
pulled string and the rod did the
rest
1t was on this ear that the thing with
the VOLTS teeth dumped the logs, one
by one. When they were in position,
all tucked in and feeling pretty COM
Portable, thank you, all at once that
string was pulled, and in about a sec
ond the poor, unsuSpecting log had its
nose up against that leather belt saw
and was being sliced and trimmed into
a stick of square timber In about
two minutes it had lost all its self-re-
spect 1t was nude, shamefaced, pitia-
bic.
Then some one pulled another string
or touched a button, | do not know
which, and what was left of the log
was ANONYMOUSLY thrown overheard.
1t fell upon moving sidewalk, some
thing like that thing they had down
by the steamer pier at the worlds fair,
and the sidewalk carried it off, first
south, then east / think this sidewalk
thought, too. 1t seemed to. II 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 and laid 1t on another side
walk that was at rest The brother of
the moving sidewalk was very busy on
the other side of the mill taking care
of the tim bers the buzz saw was turn
ing out, turning them into the same
center. Every few minutes six or
eight squared timbers would be piled
up on the sidewalk that was at rest
Then some one pulled another string
The sidewalk that was at rest got
move on itself; not very fast, buta
as fast as fat man with one hundred |
and sixty dollars in his pocket would
Down the pike little way was a |
cider press, or something. Maybe it
wasn't a cider press. for ! am not a |
mechanical expert, but it looked like |
it 1t was about as big as ton of hay, |
and inside of il twenty-four saws were /
going up and down. not around, but |
straight up and down, like a type
writer 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 doing this
vertical dance.
And it was all off. You have seen
possibly a colored gentleman, an at
tache of your favorite free lunch /
counter, cut up cheese. haven't you2 |
Well, his work was hard compared TO |
that of the cider mill. 1t seemed to
have positive relish for timber. /.
went through that stack OF lumber
about half carload-like a tramp
through a hand-out; and when, in
about seven seconds, the sidewalk had
pushed them entirely through the mill,
there was a pile of inch planks ready
for market.
This sidewalk business seems to be a
sort of main push, a sort of fioorwalker
that's not half bad-around lumber
mill When the cider mill gets through
with the inch planks they travel right
along on to another moving sidewalk.
1t receives them courteously 10 its bed
and bears them away as bridegroom.
Most any old place around the mill
yard is good enough for the moving
sidewalk to go to. The new-made
lumber is carried along east, west or
south until a good, easy place TO dump
it shows up, and then the sidewalk lets
go of its load, stops, piles it up and
goes back after more. That's the hon
est truth.
stnaa OF, thn hridun a-,l 81 -. tr.-..