Arizona republican., 1899-10-11
, FROM PLACE TO PLACE. z

It would be rare treat for any person
 to pass through the mill, box factory boiler and engine rooms of the Arizona i Lumber company's plant at Flagstaff To see the latest lumber plant in the United States, to watch the apparently
 perfect mechanism as it devours tim-
 Der in the rough as though it were a
 hungry monster, and to trace a log
 from the time it comes up a great
 opening in one end of the mill until 1 it is cut into a thousand different
 pieces, which are then distributed, each
 kind in it's proper place, is a sight that
 is highly valued by any one who has
 the opportunity of seeing it.
 To be sure that a plant would be
 erected that would make and handle ] lumber in the cheapest possible man
 ner Treasurer F. W. Sisson and Presi- dent T. A. Riordan travelled all over the country and investigated every numbering plant of any note in the | United States. As a consequence the
 latest machinery was secured and ar
 ranged in a manner calculated to save
 the smallest item of energy and the least fraction of time.
 The logs are hauled into the timber yard at one end of the mill. Here they are loaded on a cable carriage and hauled up into the mill. From the cable carriage the logs are rolled onto skids, which lead to the saw carriage on which they are placed, one at time, as fast as sawed. The log is clamped on the carriage and passed by the saw and is adjusted so that any
 size of slice wanted is taken off. The first piece taken off is a slab which has
 one side round. The next few are an
 inch thick, with irregular edges. The
 log is then turned and the operation
 performed again. This is done until
 the log has been squared.
 The greater part of the lumber be-
 ing turned out at present goes into railroad ties. If the square is too large for one tie and too small for two. it is reduced by saving off two inches of stuff until the tie is secured. It is then taken off the carriage and fol- lows after the rest of the material, to be manipulated still further. The in strument that turns the log on the carriage is a long perpendicular arm with huge teeth. It rises from under and on the sawed side of the log, which. by the upward movement of the arm is revolved in the air against the car riage brackets back of the log. If the log does not fall into ] proper position the arm gathers itself, as it were, for the blow and hits the log whack that
 invariably settles it exactly right. The technical term for the instrument is steam nigger.'
 Governor Murphy remarked this summer while looking at it, that it would be good thing for a politician to have. The saw used is a hydraulic teIescoped band-saw, of which there | are but two in use in the United States. 1 The other is in Minneapolis There IS a guard on the front side of the saw l and it is raised or lowered according | to the size of the log. The saw has to be changed every two hours and half, a sharp one being put in at each change. The sharpening of the saws, both band and and circular, is done by machinery. The capacity of the band saw is 100000 fee for every ten hours run.
 After leaving this saw the lumber pa sses on to the circular saws. The ties are carried on rollers to an auto matic arrangement which trims the ends and throws them into a chute, from where they are loaded into cars below. Persons from sections where white oak ties are used might think the southwest was deficient in good tie timber The life of an oak tie is eight years. The life of a pine tie is six years. but where treated with pickling preparation it's life is length aned to fourteen years. The Santa F'e is treating all its ties of Arizona pine. The inch stuff is trimmed of it's uneven edges and with the two-inch stuff is gut into required widths by mere op- arating circular saws. The slabs are taken to other saws where all of the nch stuff possible is taken out. The rest is sawed into laths or left in slabs, which are sold for wood CT to mines for tagging. The inch stuff se- cured here is carted into a drying , house and put in condition for the box The saWdust from all the saws is carried in troughs to the boiler room. The small scraps and other waste is dropped into an elevator which carries them into a burner out tide the mill.
 If fuel was not so plentiful in Flag taff all that consumed by the burner ,ould be sold. It is burned to get it ut of the way. There is a dump of housands of tons of refuse which had accumulated before the burner was put ID last spring. The burner IS 1Uo Ieel ligh and twenty-five feet in diameter md is made of boiler iron, with brick i irepIace and a screen over the top.
 The mill is now done with the log. lumber not used in ties is taken out nto the yards. The runways and I ramways through the yards are so ar q anged that it is a dOwnhill push rom the mill to the pile and from the o ile to the cars, to the drying shed and I rom there to the box factory 2
 The box factory works up the short 3
 6; $8 ChTcnesreF-s EneIish Diamond BranG