Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1917-02-22
RANDOM RECoLLEcTIoNs.
Continued from First Page.

off by the jointcr' to make it mar
row,r at each end. In fact, at
va ioas times there was so much Of
thii waste material that it could
no. even be -ivon away for kindling
wood, and it became necessary to
cart it off to a vacant lot and burn
it III o der to get rid of it. My,
how times have changed! There
was also an enormous waste of tim
ber in the manufacture Of heading
for barrels, in the saving, planning,
joining and turning. Many fam
| lily in Perrysburg got all of their
summer tirewood and winter kind
ling from the waste from the man
ufacture of slaves and heading. In
the later years Of the stave indus.
try. when things We're more sys.
| tematized and more modern ma
chinery usel, there was not quite
so much of the raw material wasted
and the "l.s.i ing were put up in
bundles and sold for kindling at
one cent per bundle. For savera'
years the old Touring mill located
on the river front used these list
ings'' as fuel for their boiler room
though it was of such light ma
terial that it KEEP a man. horse
and wagon busy all the time to
keep sufficient supply Oh hand tc
keep up seam in the boilers. and
many of the older residents will re
call the familiar sight of the wagon
with the big flaring wood rack, with
Joe Hetferman, the driver, as he
made his many trips from the stave
factory down the hill to the Touring
mill.
The timber used in the manufac-
ture of flour barrel slaves was elm
and red oak, and only occasionally
IA little white oak. For the barre
heads the timber used was cotton.
wood and Eastwood, and sycamore
Only the best timber in a tree could
be used, as the Staee bolts and head
ing bolts had to be straight grained
and free from knots, with all of the
bark stripped off. The greater part
of this raw material was brought
into the mills during the winter
time, when there was good sleigh.
ing, and in the early spring, and
stacked up i'll mammoth piles, some
times over thirty feet in height. In
those years we used to have greai
deal more snow and good sleighine
during the winters than in recent
years. In stacking up the stavt
bolts into great piles lot of snow
would get packed in between tn
pieces of timber, and as this snow
lasted until the piles were taken
down, the boys who were employed
in the factory enjoyed the novelty
of having SNOWFALL battles during
the noon hour in nearly every weel
during the entire summer.
The first process in the manufac
ture of slaves was the steaming OF
the bolts. This was done by plac
ing them in huge boX-like concern
closing the door, and turning on
the steam for a period of from 19 to
"a hours. When taken from the
steam box they were put through
the "equalizers," which consisted
of pair of circular saws on one
shaft, apart from each other the
distance of the length of the slaves
This trimmed the ends of the bolts
off evenly and made them all of the
same length. From the "equaliz-
ers" the bolts went to the cutter,
through which they passed rather
rapidly, the culls and waste were
thrown to one side, and the slaves
placed on large wheelbarrows and
taken across the railroad to the
large drying sheds, stacked up in
large loose piles so the air could
circulate through them, and left to
dry. After they were thoroughly