The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1904-05-06
LAMB DAVIS MILL
One of the Largest of Its Kind
and Best Equipped
UP.TO.DATE LUMBER Mill
In the Northwest. Saving of the BY
Product VIII he a Large
Item of Profit.

Der Company is rapidly approaching
completion. The mechanics who have
been employed on it now for about
year are putting the finishing touches
everywhere. The belts, of which there
are hundreds, varying in size from two
inches in width and few feet in length
to four feet wide and over hundred
feet long, are being rapidly put in po-
sition. The boilers, of which there is
a battery of five large ones, are all in
position. The connections are not all
made yet but in two weeks more this
part of the work will be about COM
plete.
Thele may possibly be larger mills in
the state OF Washington than the
Lamb-Davis mill, but we are assured
by competent and well posted mill men
that there is not a mill in the North
west that is so thoroughly equipped
with up-to-date labor saving ma
chinery. The feeding OF the fires under
the boilers will even be done automat-
locally by machinery. Every particle
of waste material will be put to some
use. The saving effected in what might
very properly be called the by-product
will be an item of no inconsiderable
consequence in itself
In operating the big mill the part
that human labor will play will be com
paratively small and will mainly be
confined to pulling lever here and
pushing one at another point. To use
an expression that was made house
hold word a few years ago by the East
man Kodak Company-with slight
change-human hands touch the levers
and machinery does the rest.
The amount of money which this
company has invested in various enter
prises, together with others which will
be begun as soon as the plans are pre-
pared and some other prelimineries are
gone over, will not fall far short of a
half million dollars.
The water system is already so far
completed that all the residences in the
western portion of the town are sup
piled by the Tumwater gravity system.
The electric lighting plant will be put
! in within the next three months. A
large part of the machinery for the
same is already on the ground. The
large planning mill and sash and door
factory together with dry kiln OF
large capacity will be built just as soon
the work on the big mill is completed.
1t is the purpose OF the company to put
to Use every particle of material To
this end they will make laths and may
also later on add box factory.
A feature OF the mill we failed to
mention is the hundreds and hundreds
of feet of conveyors, of different kinds,
conveyors for carrying the logs to the
saws, other conveyors for carrying the
| material from the two big double edge
band saws which cut the log going and
coming. to the re-saws, gang Saws, cut
off saws and edgers. and still other con-
veyors to carry the material to the
planer. to the dry kiln and to the yard.
Several thousand feet of conveyors car
ry the sawdust and other refuse and
waste to the boiler room to be consumed
in the furnaces. The whole plant is
perfectly bewiidering mass of machin-
cry, belts, pullcys and conveyors, that
green hand can make neither heads nor
tails of.
About the middle OF May it may be
possible to make trial run, but 1T may
be two weeks later before the mill will
begin to run regularly.
tits estimated that the company will
give employment to from two to three
hundred hands in its various depart
ments, including the logging camps in
the mountains. The importance of this
enterprise to this town cannot be too
highly valued. 1t is only second to the
Great Northern railway.
The company owns an extensive and
valuable tract of timber land up about
Lake Wenatchee, q large part of which
is western pine, valuable and useful
wood for finishing. 1t has been estlma-
ted that there is enough timber to en-
ploy the mill from twenty to thirty
years.
The dam which the company is hav-
ing built across the Wenatchee river
near town is for the purpose OF raising
the water and flooding the lowlands ad-
ioisiing the mill in order to make log
pond.
The dam has already cost over thirty
Thousand dollars and is not completed.
The cool weather OF the past week has
allowed the Work to progress sufficient
lv until now there is practically no dan