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-Sy Handling and Assort ing Logs at Mill -^^ 



Lumber manufacturers, notably those handling a variety of 

 liartlnood timber, know the essential value of being abh; to saw 

 one kind of logs at a time and not being obliged to produce 

 Jumber iiuliscriminately from a half dozen or more varieties. In 

 sawing timber the expert knows that to obtain the best results 

 oach kind of wood requires a slightly diflferent hook of the saw 

 teeth, and perhaps a little diflferent swage and set, and that, to 

 accomplish the best results, one kind of wood should be manu- 

 factured at a time. 



It is impractical to assort logs in the woods, and equally so 

 ■when loading onto ears or barges, or in rafting. Hence the only 

 logical place to assort logs is at the mill. On the front cover of 

 this issue of Hakdwood Kecoed is illustrated the Fitzgibbons & 

 Krebs patent traveling derrick, which is a self-contained elevated 

 derrick traveling on its own track and propelled by its own 

 power. The gauge of the track, twenty-eight feet, is wide enough 

 so that a boom pole up to seventy feet in length may be used. No 

 guide wires are necessary. The hoisting engine which the machine 

 contains transmits the power to the rear sets of trucks, which 

 propels the machine backwards or forwards. The derrick track 

 lies parallel with the railroad log switch so that the machine can 

 travel quickly from one car to another while unloading, instead 

 of dropping every car of logs to the machine, as is necessary 

 when using a stationary derrick. The track is also parallel with 

 the log haul-up to the mill. The derrick tracks are usually placed 

 half way between the log switch and the log haul-up, and a log 

 yard one hundred feet wide and as long as conditions wiU permit 

 may be employed. The derrick track may be made to span the 

 log haul-up with log car tracks on each side if desired, or the 

 derrick track may straddle the jack-slip from a log pond. 



By ilie use of this apparatus, it is not only easy to assort logs 

 and pile them up in skidways for convenient use, but also to turn 

 the logs so that the top end may first enter the mill. Every prac- 

 tical sawyer knows that a saw will stand better feed and do better 

 work when entering the log at the top, or small end, than it will 

 if entering at the butt, or tough end. WTien the log goes into the 

 mill with the small end to the saw, the boards go to the edger with 

 the narrow end to the edger sa-ns. With this advantage, the 

 <-dgernian can place his saws exactly right and can edge a board 

 to its extreme width without waste. It is practical for the edger- 

 nian to make the saw strike exactly on the bark line, or both 

 edges, at the narrow end on plain sawed stock, or on the bark and 

 the beveled edges on the quarter-sawed stock. This method of 

 always delivering the small end of the log to the saw effects a 

 considerable saving each day, as one inch, or even a fraction of 

 an inch, loss on one good, plain board may mean the loss of five 

 cents, and on a quarter-sawed oak board may mean from seven to 

 ten cents. So the use of this log derrick will effect a minimum 

 saving on this one feature alone to more than pay the cost of its 

 <peration. 



By the use of the apparatus, logs may be sorted in the log 

 yard, keeping diflferent kinds of timber separated or assorted for 

 grade of logs. The resulting system in lumber manufacture is 

 also a great advantage on the lumber sorting slip, as lumber of 

 one kind can be sorted more accurately for thickness, length and 

 grade with fewer men than when a half dozen or more kinds of 

 lumber are coming through the mill at one time. It also simpli- 

 fies the trucking of lumber to the yard. This machine has un- 

 loaded and stacked thirty-si.x cars of hardwood logs, 160,000 feet, 

 in ten hours and at the same time supplied the mill with 40,000 

 feet of logs, making a total handling of 200,000 feet in ten hours. 

 This work was done at a labor cost of seven dollars, or three and 

 a half cents per thousand feet, the crew consisting of one derrick 

 operator and three laborers. A log containing 1,000 feet or 2,000 

 feet is handled just as easily as the smallest log. By means of 

 this system and on account of the rapidity with which log cars can 

 be unloaded, the lumberman has no dread of a failure in car 



service. The railroad's equipment is quickly turned back to it 

 and a stock of logs can, at all times, be kept conveniently at 

 hand in surplus supply, and expensive shut-downs be avoided. " 



The cost of these machines is from $3,000 to $4,000. The ma- 

 chine itself is of home construction, made on the ground. The 

 patentees furnish complete plans and detail prints, so that any 

 millwright can erect the apparatus, the construction being prac- 

 tically all straight woodwork, and very simple. A fuU list of 

 timbers, bolts, washers, etc., is furnished, so that the actual cost 

 can be readily figured. At the present time this derrick is being 

 used by the Wood-Mosaic Company at its New Albany, Ind., 

 plant; by the Green Eiver Lumber Company, Memphis; Xickey 

 Brothers Hardwood Lumber Company, Memphis; Nickev & Sons 

 Company, Memphis; E. J. Darnell, Inc., Memphis; Memphis Veneer 

 & Lumber Company, Memphis; McLean Hardwood Lumber Company, 

 Memphis; Wisconsin MUl & Lumber Company, Huttig, Ark.; McLean 

 Lumber Company, Chattanooga, Tenn.; McLean Lumber Company, 

 Birmmgham, Ala.; J. F. Mclntyre & Sons, Inc., Pine Bluff, Ark.; 

 and (in course of construction) by the Saline Eiver Hardwood 

 Company, Pine Blufif, Ark. The first of these apparatus was built 

 nine years ago and is still giving as good service as when first in- 

 staUed. 



The cover illustration and this text is published in Hardwood 

 Eecord not as an advertisement but as an educational feature to 

 assist in the development of wliat is regarded as an excellent method 

 of log handling and assorting and one which spells higher efficiency 

 and lessening cost in log handUng. At the same time, in deference 

 to the owners of the patents of this apparatus, it is glad to advise 

 that further information on the subject can be obtained by ad- 

 dressing 0. M. Krebs, Memphis, Tenn., Mallory Branch. 



Lumbering in the Bahamas 



It does not take the British government a year or more as it 

 does the Bureau of the Census and the Forest Sen-ice in the United 

 States to make a census report on the lumber industry of the 

 Bahamas. In fact, it is a very short and painless operation both 

 to the government and to the producers since there is only one 

 operation which can be so dignified by the design.ition of operation. 

 On the little island of Abaco, one of the most northerly group of 

 the Bahamas, is a modern sawmill plant which, as might be guessed 

 is backed by American capital and in charge of lumbermen schooled 

 in the States. The mill cut during 1912 a total of 12,757,986 feet 

 of timber of which amount 11,491,131 feet was shipped from the 

 island to Cuba, 



The plant of the company is located at a town called Wilson, 

 on the east coast of Abaco Island, where a very fair harbor exists. 

 The population of the place is close to 500 and practically all the 

 business of the town is dependent upon the operation of the lumber 

 company. 



The timber of Abaco Island is reported to be largely Cuban pine 

 (Finns carihaea), and not long-leaf {Pinus palmtris). Cuban pine 

 also is known variously in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida 

 as slash pine, swamp pine, bastard pine, meadow pine, pitch pine, 

 she pitch pine, she pine and spruce pine. Its distribution is in the 

 coast region of South Carolina southward over the coast plain to 

 the Keys of southern Florida and along the Gulf coast to the 

 valley of the Pearl river, Louisiana; common on the Bahamas, on 

 the Isle of Pines, and on the highlands of Central America. The 

 wood is heavy, exceedingly hard, very strong, durable, coarse grained, 

 rich dark orange color, with thick nearly white sapwood. 



Not only does the Abaco Island operation turn out lumber but 

 an ice making plant is operated in conjunction. And as is the case 

 with the lumber produced, the company has an excellent market for 

 its ice. The plant supplies practically all of the ice used in the 

 Bahama Islands and the warm season is twelve months long. Ice 

 retails on the island for one cent a pound in contrast with thirty 

 cents a hundred pounds in Chicago. 



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