'Lumbering' in fhe Shqdow of Mounf Shoslq, Colifornicl

frame resembled somewhat in appearance and action the window sash that you raise up and down in your home. They termed these sash saws. Later when heavier and stronger blades were made they ran in a sort of guide or , slot and called them "Mulay" sa$'s.

Early Power Methods

From the beginning of time men have been devising ways and means of avoiding hand labor. Along about l3Z2 : in Germany somebody first hitched up a water-wheel to ' more lumber. At various times other methods of power were devised. At various times windmills were used and, as you would expect of the early Texans, horses and often bxen operated sawmills. Teams walked around in a circle ' and operated wooden gearing which made the. saw blade move up and much after the same fashion you may find cane being pressed for syrup in some parts of the country today.

The first American sawmill run by water started making lumber in 1634, on the falls of the Piscatque on a line between Maine and New Hampshire, according to "A Popular History of American Invention," published in 1924. It made use of the up-and-down saws, and was con- sidered a big improvement over the "pit saw."

Circul,ar Saw Rediscovered

I The lumber industry did not make much .progress- in the speedy production of lumber until the introduction of ' the circular saw. This was a re-discovery. rather than a .:; n€w invention. Hippocrates thought up the idea back in ' ancient Greece (460 BC), but his application was some. what difierent. He used it in cutting holes in the skulls ' of some of his patients to relieve pressure on the brain, an operation which surgeons call trepanning.

Benjamin Cummings is usually given credit for being the first American to make use of the circular saw. He made the first one in his own black-"mith shop, although Samuel Miller had obtained a patent for a circular saw for woodworking in England in 1777. However, it is claimed that circular saws were used in Holland nearly a century before. The American, Benjamin Cummings, a miliwright by trade, hammered out his first in 1814 for use in his own sawmill at Schenectady, N. Y. It took him some time to adjust it to the existing power, but he finally got it working in fair shape.

About 1814 a patent was granted to Robert Eastman and J. Jacquith, of Brunswick, Maine. Eastman arranged for putting some extra notches into the rims, which he called "false teeth." Some time later, it was in 1846, an inventor named Spaulding, in Sacramento, California, devised a curved socket which held the "false teeth" sornewhat more securely.

Steam Causes Trouble

The harnessing of steam as motive power caused trouble both here and abroad. In 1663 a power mill was set up in London, but it caused riots by the pit sawyers who feared that the new contraption would drive them from their jobs. A similar thing happened in New Orleans where the first steam sawmill in this country was built in 1830. The rvorkers tore it apart, driven by the mistaken notion that it would throw the pit sawyers out of a means of livelihood.

Band Saw Developments

One of the sensations in the same Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia was a band saw in swift operation, which was exhibited by Henry Disston and Sons, Inc. Disston was a mechanic working in Philadelphia, where saws were made in a small shop. When the concern failed he took it over in payment for a claim for wages. Starting on the proverbial "shoestring" almost without capital, he built the solid foundations of the great manufacturing house which today bears his name. Another well known firm of sawmakers, the Simmonds Manufacturing Company of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, began as a scythe-factory.

At this same Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, a young man by the name. of Rufus Learned saw a scroll saw using a tl-inch band. He made up his mind that the band head rig would be the coming thing in sawmills.

The origin of the band saw is much older than is generally believed. William Newberry of London, England, patented the first endless bandsaw in 1808, but his machine and saw were not developed. His big trouble was his inability of making a smooth, strong joint. About 1846, a patent was obtained for a bandsaw, and the inventor was perhaps the last person you would suspect. It was Made,moiselle Crepin, a young woman of Paris, a member of a family in high social standing. This saw was exhibited in I&44 at the French International Exhibition in Paris. Another patent was later obtained by M. Perin who greatly improved the saw by improving the weakness in the Englishman's saw. He did a better job of perfecting the joint. It was he, more than anyone else, who made the general use of these saws possible This will help to explain why Rufus Learned ended up by going to France to get his first head rig band saw made.

Rufus Learned was an interesting character. Born at Jackson, Mississippi, then the political center of that part of the state. His mother disliked the idea of having the young man grow up in Jackson because it was the scene then of many brawls and duels, and so she sent him at 13 years of age to an aunt in Maine, where the family came from originally. This aunt died two years later and Mrs. Learned sent the boy money to come home. In those days that meant a trip by water to New Orleans, then up the river to Natchez, and then overland to Jackson.

Another sawmill incident about this time influenced the young man's life. John A. Sutter was building a'sawmill in California. It was a water-powered sawmill on a river in the mountains above Sacramento. The ditch leading awav from the water wheel proved to be too small. In an effort to deepen this tailrace the water was turned into it one night in 1848. After shutting off the water one morning, some large flakes were found which proved to be gold, an event which led to the great gold rush in California in 1850. Young Learned did not get to Jackson, not on that trip at least, for hearing of the gold excitement he went via the Nicaragua route as a steerage passenger. After 15 months of gold mining along with a partner from Tennessee, they succurnbed to the lure of gold in Australia.

This venture reads more like one of the dime novels of that period than a recital of facts. Learned and his partner took shares in a Tontine boat which was bought by 400 men., The agreement was that any member of the company could leave the boat at any port, but only those who completed the voyage could share in the profits, and those who left earlier lost all their interest in the ship as well as the profits. Sidney was at that time an English penal colony. The first stop was at Honolulu. The Hula dancers must have spoken eloquently rvith hands and hips, for at that point the boat lost about 50 men. Their next stop was at Apia, where they lost 75 to 100 men from the same cause.

In Australia they staked their claims up in the hills, and found it necessary to build a long ditch, which they did after encountering many difficulties. Finally they swapped a ranch nearby for one-third interest in their ditch and mine. [-ater, Rufus Learned, then 18 years old, became poisoned and his eyes became so badly infected that he was ordered to take a sea voyage by his doctor and came back to the states, just prior to the opening of the War Between the States.

After the war, Mr. Learned came back to Natchez, I\{ississippi, to find the affairs of his step-father, Andrerv Brown, in bad shape, due to the vicissitudes following the conflict, and then decided to stay and help Mr. Brown get his sawmill properties out of the difficulty which they were in. Another influencing factor was that he wanted to marry Brown's daughter, which he did.

So, to get back to our sawmill narrative, when Rufus Learned saw that band scroll saw at the Philadelphia Exposition, he had a feeling that he must have a band saw to get the mill at Natchez back in good working order. Shortly after he got back from the Exposition, he saw the

A "Peckerwood" Saw

But to go back a little: in 1855 or 1856, when Andrerv Brou'n rvas running the mill, he tried out what was called a "peckerwood saw." This was simply an iron bar six to eight inches wide and about seven feet long, swung at the center with teeth on each end. It simply and literally chewed its way through the log, and though it could cut a three-foot log, it did such rough work it rvas abandoned. Incidentally, this sawmill, now known as R. F. Learned & Son, established in 1828, and still operating today "under the Hill" at almost the-same site, is the oldest sawmill in America to stay in the possession of the same family during the entire life of its ooeration.

The Future?

If, by this time, you choose to move out of the past and ponder for a moment on what the "sawmill" of the future r'vill look like, you can study preseat trends to help you dream up your picture. Will sawmills of today, cutting only LUMI3E,R, be regarded as quaint, the way we now view the old water-powered sash mills? Who knorvs?

l)ebarkers are l)ecoming as common as ants at a picnic. Start counting the things made of bark alone on your fingers and you will be out of hands before you have named them all. Slabs, edgings and trimmings now go tcr the chipper to be made into pulp, soon to become the nervsprint of tomorrow's paper. Shavings are made into lvall boards. Some pilot plants are even producing molasses from u'ood. The list of things using wood fiber as a base grorvs year by year, so is it too fantastic to believe that some day the entire tree may be dropped into a l.ropper, reduced to pulp, and then remade into a tl-rousand items for our use?

In the meantime, where can I get a car of 2x4-8 studs for quick shipment?

Northern Goliforniq Foresters Hold Meefing qf Fort Brogg

S. Forest Service Pho{o account of a mill in Indiana operating with a 4-inch band saw. He went to see it and at once tried to have the man who built it make him up a 6-inch saw. He was told that this was impossible, and that a 6-inch band would never be used. Later he learned that a man in New York at Peck's Slip had a mill similar to the Indiana plant. After studying this mill, Mr. Learned went to see Thomas P. Egan, of the concern which later became J.A. Fay & Egan Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio. One of Egan's best mill designers laid out a mill designed to carry a Ginch saw. But they had to go to France to get the saws made.

The original band mill had wooden wheels covered with leather. The first improvement was to put in an iron lower wheel and a little later an iron wheel was put in above. They had no precedent to go by, so the first idea was that it was necessary to crown the wheel in order to keep on the band saw. They found this would not rvork, so they figured out a plan of tensioning the saws on the edges, as it is done todav. and ran them on flat surfaced rvheels.

Professional foresters-the men responsible for growing California's timber crops-held their annual spring field meeting in the Fort Bragg area June 1 and 2 this year, announced Leon R. Thomas, Fresno, chairman of the Northern California Section, Society of American Foresters. To give members of the professional society an opportunity to inspect recent developments in forestry methods on the ground, a different section of the state's timberland is visited each year. From 125 to 150 of the Society's 750 members in Northern California attended at Fort Bragg. They looked at North Coast forestry in all stages, by visiting everything from a forest tree nursery to sawmills.

On June 1, the program covered sawmilling operations and featured the work of Union Lumber Company. A banquet was held at 7:@ p.m. at the Anchor Inn, Noyo Harbor. John Philbrick spoke on early-day logging along the Mendocino Coast. Trips to the woods were scheduled June 2. Production of trees for reforestation was seen at the Parlin Fork nursery, operated by the California Division of Forestry. At Jackson State Forest, the group inspected a pine plantation and timber harvesting operations. Union Lumber Companv rvas host at a lumberiack lunch.

Lumber Yord Plcnning Kit Offered by Hyster Gompony

This new Hyster-produced lurnber dealer's Yard Planning Kit now makes it possible for the lumber dealer to duplicate his yard in miniature and see at a glance all elements that make up a yard. A variety of storage arrangements can be tried until the best solution is reached and before any physical labor or alteration costs have been expended.

The Yard Planning Kit consists of templets to scale, representing standard items or package sizes sorted by a retail or wholesale yard, and industrial trucks in sizes and types commonly used in lumber yards. Instructions and a large, clear acetate grid sheet, inventory forms and industrial truck specifications, are included. The kit can be obtained at production cost, $5.00, through any Hyster industrial truck dealer or by writing to Hyster Company, 2902 N.E. Clackamas Street, Portland 8, Oregon.

Wesfern Pine's 'Fence Folio' Recdy

A colorful consumer publication entitled "Western Pine's Fence Folio," from the Western Pine Association, is designed to show how the 10 versatile woods of the Western Pine Region can be used in fences and details all important information about fences, their design and building for the home craftsman. Included is a variety of fence ideas in full color, details on the "what" of material selection, a basic plan of fence construction and a check list for the home fence designer and builder. Single copies of the new folder may be obtained by writing the Western Pine Association, Yeon Building, Portland 4, Oregon.

For retailers who may wish to utilize the publications in large numbers, special quantity rates of lf cents each for from two to 999 folders are available; for quantities greater than a thousand, rates are $10 per thousand, F.O.B. Portland.

The publications make excellent envelope enclosures (they were especially designed for this use) with customer mailings of invoices and other matter. They also make excellent counter sales helps or sales-stimulators at home shou's, fairs and similar occasions.

L. \ t. Mortinez Qo. Moves lo Berkeley

L. W. Martinez, owner of the wholesale lumber firm bearing his name, moved his offices across San Francisco Bay and closer to his Berkeley home on September 1. The new L. W. Martinez Company offices are in Berkeley's Mercantile Building, 208,2 Center Street. The new phone number is THornwall 5-2577, and the teletype has been changed to OA 336. The firm had been located in San Francisco for nearly N years, originally at 16 California Street, and since 1942 in the Hobart building on Market street.

Martinez began his long lumber career back around 1920 with Pelican Bay Lumber Company. He later wen( with Sudden and Christenson and became salesmanager of, first,

Hoquium Lumber t Uiit Company and, later, Sudden & Christenson's Prosper Mill Company. During the late twenties, Martinez organized his own sawmill at Coos Bay, Oregon, and operated that venture until establishing L. W. Martinez Company in San Francisco in 1937.

Boy Areo Building Up

San Francisco-Industrial and commercial building reported in nine Bay area counties during the second quarter of 1956 more than doubled the like 1955 period, reported the San Francisco Bay Area Council. Building permits totaled $18.4 million in the quarter, against $8 million last year.

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All new houses in the $10,000-plus price range in southern California will have vear-round air conditioning, recently predicted Francis S. Cornell, vice-president and general manager of the A. O. Smith Corp., on the occasion of planning the firm's new $2,500,@0 equipment plant to serve the 11 western states.

Millionaire lumberman and financier Arthur King Wilson, 57, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $5000 fine for tax evasion, reported The San Francisco Chronicle August 3. He remained free in $2500 bail after his attorney, Spurgeon Auakian, announced he would appeal.

' Officials of Georgia-Pacific Corp. and their u'ives last month visited the Hammond Lumber Company properties in California on an inspection tour {rom their Portland, Oregon, headquarters. The Hammond purchase by G-F was recently made and the deal is expected to be finalized early this fall.

The new office building of the Durable Plywood Co. was singed by flames last month, with unofficial estimates of the fire and water damage running well into the thousands of dollars.

Herb Galitz was recently elected president of the Southern California Chapter, Producers Council, Inc., whose members number 80 national manufacturers of building materials.

Southwest Lumber Mills, Inc., rvith mills in Flagstaff and McNary, Ariz., shorved a net improrzement in earnings of $1,0O4,880 last year.

More serious damage was averted in a recent fire at the Save Way Lumber Co., near Buena Park, Calif., when firemen from the Knott station confined the blaze to lumber piles in the yard and arvay from the building, said Owner Ben Turner.

Spokane, Wash.-Potlatch Forests, Inc., Lerviston, Idaho, is acquiring the assets of Deer Park (Wash.) Pine Industry, Inc. Deer Park's mill produces about 45 million board feet of lumber a year with sales of $5 million. Potlatch's holdings include a $12 million pulp mill, several lumber mills and extensive timber.

Bakersfield, Calif.-The Kern County Planning Commission has approved a 180-1ot subdivision in a $1,960,000 investment here.

Phoenix, Ariz.-Federal court has denied jurisdiction in litigation surrounding receivership and dissolution of the F. P. Drew & Sons Lumber Co., Mesa, Ariz.

Harry W. Steiff was elected president of the Vermiculite Institute at its recent l5th annual at Chandler, Ariz. Speakers included Gilbert E. Morris, superintendent of building for the City of Los Angeles. Guest Speaker Clifford Warren, Phoenix, said mass production has brought air conditioning within reach of modest-income families, with many new houses being engineered for it; 1951 had only 7500 home units but this year there will be about 200,000.

Robert G. Neasham, Z2-year-old apprentice from Santa Clara, Calif., was named Champion Bricklayer Apprentice oi 1956 after a 6-day elimination contest at the Union-Industries Show in Seattle last month; he beat out 37 other youths in the competition sponsored by the Bricklayers, Masons & Plasterers International.

Fqirhurst Adds Hosselberg to Force

Bert Hasselberg, for the past two and one-half years associated with Arcata Redwood Company's San Francisco sales office, joined the sales staff of Fairhurst Lumber Company on August 16. The announcement was made from the San Rafael headquarters of Fairhurst Lumber Com{iny (Calif.) by General Salesmanager Chuck Noble. Hasselberg will rnake San Rafael his headquarters and will continue to service the Northern California trade.

Bert Hasselberg, a graduate of the University of Washington '42, began a career of lumber in the late 30's when he worked part time in various woods operations while attending school and college. After his graduation from college, he went to work for the A.'M. Paulson Lumber Agen- cy, first at Scott Lumber Company, Burney, and later in tfre Paulson Lumber Agency sales offices in San Francisco. In 1946, Hasselberg became a partner and manager of a retail yard in San Carlos, remaining at that point until 1948, when he joined California Lumber Sales in Oakland. He was with the latter firm up to the time that he went to Arcata Redwood Company.

NPDA in S. F. Oclober 25

Among the Fall regional meetings National Plywood Distributors Assn. is Francis hotel, San Francisco, Thursday,

(Tell them you saw it in The California scheduled by the one at the Saint October 25.

Lumber Merchant)

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