The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1902-06-20
The Press Association N Getting.
CONTINUED from last week

00OCSoCOWu 10 lOCdCcu dU Gu0 COu-
fluence Of the Sampit, Pee Dee, Black
and Waccamaw rivers, where they
empty into Winyah Bay, about twelve
miles from the ocean; Is protected
by land locked harbor, where thes
government has been .expending two
million dollars in building jetties for
the past ten years and the work will
continue for some time yet. So far
the channel has been dredged and
secured by the effect Of the jetties
until vessels drawing sixteen feet Of
water can come up to the wharves
right in the heart Of the City, giving
her the world for market. Besides
this sea front, she has one thousand
miles OF Manageable streams giving her
access to the interior of the State.
1t is claimed that 65O,000 of this
States population live in the terri
tory drained by the waters emptying
into Winyah Bay, and that on this
territory 420,OO0 bales Of cotton are
annually grown. The business of
the port last year amounted to $S,-
600, 900 showing an increase Of 12A
per cent over the year before.
The Atlantic Coast Lumber Co.'S
plant, located here, is claimed to be
| the largest in the world. Their out
put is incomprehensible to the ordi-
nary mind. 65O,0O0 feet of lumber
is sawed and handled per day. A
months run on full time would build
every house in Union, including
| the five cotton mills with
Buffalo and Lockhart thrown in, and
yet this enormous quantity is han
died with less fuss and confusion than
the manager of Bailey's lumber yard
would deliver wagon load Of plank
to the Buffalo train. Four to five
log trains quarter CT mile long are
daily delivered to this plant after be-
ing cut from the stump % to 30 miles
away. These logs on arrival are
dumped into the log pond aud guided
to the endless chain on which clutches
are fastened to catch the log, and
when once the grippers are attached
up goes the log to tho carriage whict.
shoves it back and forth against a
band saw, with teeth on both sides,
when it is cut going d
coming and the plank dropping IF
nearly as fast as you can count them
are automatically conveyed to The
sorting skids where they ure carried
to the proper bin and there deposi.ct 81
according to their width and leuctt
the machine never making a mistake q
in getting a wrong size in the pocket
intended for another-the plank are
then dumped on dry kiln cars and
conveyed to the dry kilns, and after
seasoning are rolled to the wharf and
loaded on steamers for New York and
Boston. Nearly the whole work is
done by machinery. The negro of
course is in the picture, plentiful in
tho woods where the logs are cut and
on the wharf where each plank has
to be stacked separately in the hold
of the ship, but no one has much to
do from the time the cars are loaded
till the time comes for loading the
ships--they are dumped, while you
are looking for the modus operandi,
picked up by the endless chain fas-
tened to the carriage, stabbed, turned,
squared and put into plank without
any hand ever touching them.
The number 3 plant is as near a
perfect automaton as you can find.
1t is not exactly double of mum ber
l and but does twice the work, it
has two endless chains pulling the
logs from the pond into both sides of
the shed and each chain delivers it's
logs to q separate slabber and squar-
ing saw. AS soon as the log Is squar-
ed each machine tosses its squared
log to the center of the run between
them, where they are picked up by
another carriage and driven through
q gig saw arrangement composed of
forty-eight saws set one inch apart
which simply does the work. This
machine will deliver 144 inch plank
8 inches wide at each run Of the car
riage IL it is loaded with eight inch
square logs and this wagon load Of
lumber is sorted automatically, car
ried to dry kilns and delivered from
there by machinery. The slabs are
automatically carried to the hog
which chews them to a coarse saw
dust when the conveyors come in and
carries it to the boilers.
The company employ 2,7OC hands
and have suburb of their own-a
regular little village-with hotel
department store and all other con-
veniences, they have bought up most
Of Pawley's Island and are building a
railroad so as to convey their white
employees there aad back every day
in summer without any cost, simply
to keep them healthy, thereby get
ting enough work out Of healthy
laborer in excess Of what sckly one
could perform to pay the additional
expense. They are doing everything
that concentrated wealth can do to