The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-10-06
FINE DESCRIPTION OF
BIGGEST MILL ON EARTH
Mr.. 6iIlingsley Describes Interesting
Iy the Operations of the Giant
MiII-The Figures of the
Lumber Cut Amazingly
Wonderful

To the Editor Ocala Banner:
/ arrived in this town from Seattle
and other Puget Sound cities last
Wednesday night. While waiting to
see some parties who are now out of
the city have looked around some;
have found many things very interest
ing to me, and as l relate here a few
of these interesting conditions, trust
my Marion county friends will en-
joy them.
Yesterday | visited the largest saw
mill on earth, located at Hoaquim, on
Gray's Harbor, Washington. In this
mill logs of any diameter and length
can be handler easier than we handle
the ordinary pine logs of Florida. We
will start a description of this mill in
the right place. i. e., the part that we
know as the ''log slip" This slip be-
gins in. the water of Gray's Harbor,
and carries the logs up into the mill.
Its dimensions are about like this
twelve feet wide and four feet deep,
built as ours are, V-shaped, with
steel chain forged out of Pin iron,
12-in. links, on which are fastened
sharp carriers, or chains, which are
about "a inches wide, and weigh not
less than $50 pounds each. Logs
ranging in diameter from two feet or
less to twelve feet, and of any old
length, are carried into the mill on
this chain. After the log is up on
the mill deck it is kicked out of this
slip with kickers that are operated
with steam cylinders of 24-in. bore
and 4S-in. stroke. The shaft on which
the kicker-arms are fastened is about
s inches in diameter. After being
kicked out of the log slip these logs
are caught or stopped by series of
loader-arms, similar to ours, but built
equally as heavy as the kicker. Up
to this point this mill is built just the
same as our larger mills are, but, of
course, much heavier, but the ma
chine that takes the logs from the
loader is freak, peculiar to the Pa
cific coast, and in this particular mill
a genuine freak peculiar to itself, on
account of its immense size. After
the log has been thrown to this freak
by the loader it is literally picked up.
regardless of it's size or length, and
thrown on carriage, so wide and so
long and so heavy that 1 am afraid
to describe it for fear that my friends
will think they ought to send for me
and sober me up. But l am going to
describe this freak "nigger" if it
costs me my reputation at home.
This niger" or log turner, works
just opposite to our steam "colored
man." in that he turns the log just
as our live "niggers" do. He has four
or five arms that lie fiat alongside of
the log skids. He also has as many
knees that he raises up to prevent the
log catching against the ends of the
head blocks as it is thrown on the
carriage. Now, when log is deliv-
cred to this niger" he receives it
on his arms and throws it on the car
riage, and if the log doesn't lie just
to suit the sawyer, this accommodate
ing 'nigger" simply picks it up on his
knees and rolls it in his lap until it
suits the sawyer, then he lays it down
on the head blocks without changing
its position, where it is "dogged," and
a slab wide enough to make a side
walk in front of Masters store is TAX
en- off. When the log comes back to
"Mr. Niger" he again raises his
knees, and with eant-hook, that ten
men couldn't carry out of the mill,
this niger" turns the log over in
his lap, and with his immense arms,
he shoves the log out of his lap onto
the carriage. Now, another slab is
taken off, wide enough for a sidewalk
in front of Carmichael's on Saturday
afternoon, and then, if they happen
to be cutting railroad crossties, they
take off or S-inch cut wide enough
for barbecue table at Rou's Well, in
the good old days where Thagard
made his maiden speech for the col
lectors office. This cut is automati.
cally delivered to an edger that re.
duces it to crossties in much less
time than it takes to write of it.
I find that TO make this description
complete l must change my mind and
describe this carriage at all hazards.
1t runs on four steel tracks which are
spaced so that they make a track
about ten feet wide. The head blocks
on this carriage have an opening of
something like ten feet, and the set
works is the kind peculiar to the Pa
cific coast mills, operated by heavy
steel wire cable and the motion of
the carriage. These logs are sawed
of course, with band-miIls, having
very large WheeIs-in this instance