William Noyes - Handwork in Wood

An improvement on this is the locomotive boom derrick which is widely used both on the Pacific coast and of late in the Lake Superior region. It is a combined locomotive, skidder and loader. Its most unique feature is that it can be lifted off the track so as to allow flat cars to run underneath it. This feat is accomplished thus: A device, which is something like that used in elevating the bodies of coal wagons, lifts the engine several feet above the rails. Then steel legs, which are curved outwardly, are lowered until the shoes which are attached to them rest on the outward end of the railroad ties. The truck of the locomotive is then folded up under it out of the way and cars can run under it, the curved legs giving plenty of clearance. The derrick attached is of the breast type, the two legs being firmly fastened. When anchored the engine can be used either for skidding or loading. For skidding, there are two cables, one being run out while the other is being wound on its drum.

Fig. 28. Log Train, Humboldt County, California.

In loading, the machine is located so that the empty car will be directly in front of it, and then the logs are lifted up and placed on the car by the derrick. When the car is loaded the machine can either move on to the next car, or pull it under itself into place. With the help of four men it can load from 125,000 to 150,000 feet of timber in a day. By means of the cable it can make up a train, and then by lowering the truck and raising the legs out of the way, it is converted into a locomotive and hauls the train away to the mill or railway station at the rate of three or four miles at hour.

As forests are cut away along the water courses, railways have to be resorted to more and more, Fig. 28. This has had a stimulative effect on the logging business, for now the logger is independent of the snow. On account of the steep grades and sharp curves often necessary in logging railways, a geared locomotive is sometimes used, Fig. 29. It can haul a train of twenty loaded cars up a twelve per cent grade. The geared engine has also been used as a substitute for cable power, in "yarding" operations. The "turns" of logs are drawn over the ground between the rails, being fastened to the rear of the engine by hook and cable. This has proved to be a very economical use of power and plant.

Fig. 29. Donkey Engine Yarding.

Fig. 30. Giant Raft. In the background is a completed raft;

in the foreground a cradle in which a raft is being built.

Another method of traction where the woodland is open enough is with a traction engine. The ones employed have sixty to one hundred horse power. The great logs may be placed on wood rollers, as a house is when moved, or the logs may be hauled in on a low truck with broad wheels. The "tractor" hauls the log direct to the railway if the distance is not too great.

Fig. 31. Snow Locomotive. Takes the place of 12 teamsters and 12 horses. Minnesota.

In Northern Michigan a "snow locomotive," Fig. 31, is coming into use, which has tremendous tractive power, hauling one hundred to one hundred fifty tons of lumber over snow or ice. It moves on runners, but there is between them a large cylinder armed with teeth. This cylinder can be raised or lowered by the operator as it moves over the surface of the ground. The teeth catch in the snow or ice, and since the cylinder is heated by the exhaust steam, it melts and packs the snow for the trucks following it. The drum is six feet in diameter, with walls an inch and a half thick, and it weighs seven tons. It is used in all sorts of places where horses cannot go, as in swamps, and by substituting wheels for runners it has even been used on sand.

In the Canadian lakes there has been devised a queer creature called an "alligator," a small and heavily equipped vessel for hauling the logs thru the lakes. When its operations in one lake are finished, a wire cable is taken ashore and made fast to some tree or other safe anchorage, the capstan on its forward deck is revolved by steam and the "alligator" hauls itself out of the water across lots to the next lake and begins work there.

The greatest improvement in water transportation is the giant raft, Fig. 30. When such a raft is made up, logs of uniform length are placed together, the width of the raft being from sixty to one hundred feet and its length, one thousand feet or more. It may contain a million board feet of timber. The different sections are placed end to end, and long boom sticks, i. e., logs sixty to seventy feet long, are placed around them to bind the different sections together, and finally the whole mass is heavily chained. Such a raft has been towed across the Pacific.

References 2

River Lumbering.

Pinchot, Primer , II, pp. 40-53.

White, Blazed Trail , pp. 5-15, 25, 38-39, 52-53, 63-65, 72-85, 91-99, 113-125, 134, 181-196, 216-229, 257, 268, 320-343, 355, 365 ff.

For. Bull. , No. 34, pp. 33-41, Fox.

White, Jun. Mun. , 10: 362.

Hulbert, Outl. , 76; 801.

Wood Craft , 4: 55.

Smith, K., World's Work , 7: 4435.

Mechanical Methods.

World's Work , 7: 4435.

Outl. , 76: 812.

Bruncken, p. 86.

Bruncken, pp. 76-87.

Munn, Cosmop. , 37: 441.

Roth, First Book , pp. 133-174.

Hovey-King, Rev. of Rev. , 27: 317.

Jones, Cosmop. , 15: 63.

Price, World's Work , 5: 3207.

For. Bull. , No. 61.

Cassier , 29: 443, April, '06.

Cosmop. , 37: 445.

Rev. of Rev. , 28: 319.

The principal saws in a mill are of three kinds, the circular, Fig. 32, the gang, Fig. 33, and the band, Fig. 34. The circular-saw, tho very rapid, is the most wasteful because of the wide kerf, and of course the larger the saw the thicker it is and the wider the kerf. The waste in sawdust is about one-fifth of the log. In order to lessen this amount two smaller saws, one hung directly above the other, have been used. One saws the lower half of the log and the other the upper half. In this way, it is possible to cut very large logs with the circular-saw and with less waste. The circular-saw is not a perfectly flat disc, but when at rest is slightly convex on one side and concave on the other. This fullness can be pushed back and forth as can the bottom of an oil-can. When moving at a high rate of speed, however, the saw flattens itself by centrifugal force. This enables it to cut straight with great accuracy.

Fig. 32. Double Circular-Saw and Carriage.

A gang-saw is simply a series of straight saw-blades set in a vertical frame. This has a reciprocating motion, enabling it to cut a log into a number of boards at one time. It has this drawback, that it must cut the size of lumber for which it is set; that is, the sawyer has no choice in cutting the thickness, but it is very economical, wasting only one-eighth of the log in sawdust. A special form is the flooring gang. It consists of a number of saws placed one inch apart. Thick planks are run thru it to saw up flooring.