Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-22
Great Logs Tossed About as if They
Were Toothpieks.
MACHINERY DOES MOST OF THE WORK
There Are Saws That Rise From
the Floor When Needed.
ALL REFU Sc UTILIZE

From the Lewiston Oie) Journal.
If YOU wish to see lumber manufactured
in modern fashion come to Berlin and go
through the sawnill. a mile up the river
from the depot. The mill is inside the gran
lite state line. but the wheels turned
with water that comes from the pine tree
state. and the timber that it feeds on is
grown on the Maine side of the common
wealth chalk mark. So, to ell intents and
purposes. il is Maine Institution.
And the mills wonder.
1t eats up lumber at a rate which seems
almost incredible The work is done 10y
two band saws, both of which are kept
hunning at concert pitch during the day,
and one of which is always singing away
through the archaeological nights. This
gives the machinists a chance to make
necessary repairs. and still it does not stop
the steady outflow of lumber at the tail
of the mill.
Each of those machines is good for an
average of 5000 feet every twelve hours,
which makes a total of 10000 feet for
tweuty-four hours, This is just good,
healthy average. 1t is no marker on what
the saws are capable of when they are
pushed to the limit The other day they
made them hustle for all there was in them
and when they footed up the days totals
one saw had $500 to its credit and the
other had a score of 10000. How's that for
twelve hours work?
But the most interesting thing Is the
fact that all this lumber is handled by less
than twenty-five men, That shows what
the development of saWmll machinery has
come to within the past rev years In an
its course through the mill there is hardly
the touch of a hand laid on the feeting
logs.
Does All the Heavy Work.
Machinery is called upon to do all the
work that requires any outlay Of strength
and for the most part all that remains for
the workmen to do is to press a lever here
or step on a controller there The auto
matte attachments do the rest and do it
with an e1se. a surety and a speed which
man could never approach.
There isn't a moment, from the time that
the endless chain seizes the log on the slip
al the upper end of the mill till the finished
boards slide down the ircline to the cars
at the other eEd that the log or the partly
finished lumber IS beyond the reach of some
device or other that can change Its course
in twinkling-
Indeed until a stick of timber feels itself
sliding aboard the cars. 1t is never in alb
sOlute certainty to what it will be made
into. Clay in the potter's hands has twice
the independence of stick of timber when
ii enters the mill at Berlin
The machinery IS irresistible and brooks
no trifiing from obstreperous logs. 1t mat
tiers not how long or now massive may be
the spruce that floats down to the slip the
machinery will be found equal to the occa-
sion and the big log will find itself doing
exactly as II is told at every stage of the
game. If you nave never seen the machin-
cry work you will wonder what can be
done with a sixty-footer, thirty inches in
diameter, but after you have stood at the
slip for a half hour you will believe that
nothing is beyond the power Of the mill
men.
When the stxty-footer heaves in sight up
the pond. it is steered into the saw mill
hoo hN-
with Dickpoles at the sorting gap" These
men guide the logs either into the boom for
the saw mill or into the boom for pulp and
Single stock. The sixty-footer, having
passed them. is carried along by the cur
rent till it gets to the slip"
Up the Incline.
The slip is the incline from the water to
the log bed of the saw MILL 1t Is trough
shaped and in the bottom of the trough
runs an endless chain with sharp spurs
every two or three feet. These points catch
the log when the machinery is started and
carry ii up the incline. 1t is no use for the
log to protest. II may writhe back and
forth In the narrow confines of the trough
but 1t cannot get away from the sharp
teeth which dig into it's under surface As
it reaches the top of the incline it's nose Is
iH the air and 1t remains there till its
weight tips it down onto the floor
1t is now the log bed" and its troubles
have just begun. This log bed looks inno-
cent enough at first glance. but that is be-
cause you don't know the log bed 1t is
capable OF all sorts of capers, as the log
will find out before many minutes have
passed.
AS the sixty-footer dropped to the floor,
the man who stood Just inside the mill
gave q glance at the raised figures which
run along the slip beside the big log These
hgures show at glance the length of the
log. and he decides how he will cut it,
1t happens that just then he is wanting
some thirty-foot lumber so he throws over
lever in front till the end of it IS opposite
the thirty-foot figure on the slip. The
man who threw the lever is known as the
marker. and he has one man to help
him.
Comes Through the Floor.
AS the log came to a stop at the thirty
foot mark. you might have SEEN had you
been watching closely. the marker shift
his foot as a motorman does when he rings
the warning gong on an electric car. The
slight pressure of the foot opened a steam
valve under the floor. and through an OPEN
ing so narrow that you have not seen it at
all rises a circular saw. 1t finds the big
log lying squaIeIy across the doorway and
Il goes hum-nins through that piece of
spruce as easily as you can cut a block of
ice cream with hot knife.
The big saw is known as the cutoff saw,
and 1t is seven feet in diameter. Once IL
has shown its teeth above the bark on
the upper side Of the log. the marker takes
his foot off the button on the floor and the
saw sinks back into the seculsion of the
room below
The log is now resting on a narrow strip
of Dlanking which divides the mill Ike a
watershed. On one side IL is a straight in
cline TO saw No !, and on the other to
saw No , The log rests midway between
the two and you begin to wonder how it
Is to be started in either direction but
even as you do so n pair OF giant arms
rise from the floor and life the log till II
UPS TO the desired side and rolls down to
the others which are awaiting their turn
on the carriage. Another turn of the lever
sends the second piece of the sixty-footer
up TO the point where the steel arms are
lying IN ambush This time the lumber Is
wanted on the other side Of the house and
q similar pair of arms rising in the oppo-
site direction start it down their incline
Ihese arms. like the cutoff saw are work
ed by the marker
Onto the Carriage.
The logs are now resting one back of an
other on the inclines. the lower one kent
from rolling onto the saw carriage nv 3,