River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-12-15
TELEPHONES IN THE CAMPS
Lumber Woods Provided with Wires
for Speedy Communication
with Offices.

Throughout the forests, from the St.
Johns to Vancouver, lumber camps be-
longing to the same interests are con-
nected by telephone, the lines running
thence to the sawmills or wood pulp
works at frontier towns, from which
communication can be held even to the
metropolis.
1t was formerly the custom of each
lumber interest to maintain force OF
couriers, like the voyagers Of the Hud-
son Bay company, and these hardy
men, with knapsack, would travel 20
miles day through the wilderness.
over rough forest paths.
Now the mill calls each camp in turn
at stated hours and receives reports and
gives instructions to the foreman, and
it is not necessary to dwell on the COM
mercial advantages of maintaining such
close touch between headquarters and
outposts in any enterprise. Letters are
read to men showed in the forest 80
or a hundred miles away and answers
dictated by the lumbermen to stenog-
rapher, who transcribes them in the Of
flee and then mails them to their homes.
The relative contentment among ths
men which is established by this fire.
quent communication is highly advan-
tageous to the working force, and there
fore to the employers.
The applications of the telephone to
the operations of logging are alike novel
and useful. The lines are run upon
forest trees along the banks of rivers,
and telephones which are connected in
sheltering boxes are attached to trees
and co&nected to the line.
The bette noir of logging is the col
lectlng Of the logs together at some
narrow place in turbulent stream and
piling upon each other in a liam" to
which contributions are made by every
log floating down the river to this spot
The formation of a jam results from
some obstacle and generally occurs
without warning, and it requires great
labor, fraught with peril to remove
the logs from their CONSTRUCTED position.
It is frequently necessary to use dyna-
mite, and much lumber is destroyed by
such explosions.
With the use of the telephone warn
ing Of the initial formation of a jam
can be given by one of the men pa
trolling the banks, who telephones to
the men up the river to stop the further
flow of logs at calm places termed
trips" and 1t is an easy matter to
break the small JAM for which further
assistance can be had by summoning
men from points lower down the
stream.
AS soon as the small jam is removed
the men above are told through the
telephone to release the logs held at the
"trip" and the stream of logs is re-
sumed.
Under former conditions a larger
number of men were employed, and
when a jam was begun it was necessary
to send messengers from one to three
miles through the forest In various
directions to direct the gangs to stop
the flow of logs and others to summon
help who were down the stream to come
up and break the jam, which had
meanwhile time to amplify, and then,
after the jam had been broken, second
messengers must be sent up the stream
to release the logs at the "trip"
By the promptness of telephone COM
munication the rate of sending logs
down the stream is increased by the
avoidance of delays.
Beyond this the use of the telephone
renders log-driving feasible Oh the
smaller rapid, rough streams, where it
was formerly out of the question.