64 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Plant of the Cummer fllanufacturing Company at Cadillac. 



loiuli'il ;u-o yiailniilly (Iruiipcil :iii(l kept in 

 line with the truck lomls of kimbor cominy 

 from the yards. 



The dry kilns of this company have been 

 a special care of the management; they are 

 the most modern to be had and accomplish 

 the very acme of good drying. After the 

 lumber is thoroughly dried, it is removed 

 from the delivery end of the kiln and al- 

 lowed to cool. Another elevator lifts the 

 truck loads of kiln dried stock to the level 

 of the transfer tables, which convey it to 

 the various band-edgers and gang-rip saws 

 that reduce it to strips, and joint it with 

 accuracy. 



The chief machines employed for manu- 

 facturing flooring were built by the Amer- 

 ican Woodworking Machinery Company and 

 are eight in number. They are the largest 

 and strongest ever made for this purpose. 

 They not only surface the face of the floor- 

 ing but hollow-back it and tongue and 

 groove it. A boring machine is attached 

 to each one of these flooring machines, which 

 drives a hole for Ijlind nailing every four 

 inches, the length of the piece. As the 

 strips of flooring are delivered from these 

 machines, they pass across saw-tables where 

 defects are cut out, and the flooring is cross- 

 cut in lengths from two feet up. The pieces 



of flooring drii[i upon endless chains and arc 

 carried to the Whitney scraping machine. 

 This machine removes a. thin shaving from 

 the surface of the flooring by means of a 

 fixed knife, eliminates the marks of the ro- 

 tary-cutters, and leaves the surface abso- 

 lutely smooth and perfect. The next and 

 last process consists in end-matching, a 

 tongue being put on one end and a groove 

 on the opposite end of each piece. This proc- 

 ess enables the user to employ miscellaneous 

 lengths of flooring and even make a floor I'n 

 tirely of short pieces equal t" one made ex 

 clusivelj' of long ones. 



Several views are herewith given, showing 

 the racks where the various grades and 

 widths of flooring are assorted before bun- 

 dling, into packages consisting of six pieces 

 each. Other pictures show the great ware- 

 liiuisea which will accommodate nearly o,- 

 001), 000 feet of the finished product at one 

 time. Great care is exercised in loading the 

 flooring into cars without exposing it to 

 dampness. Thus the possibility of any bad 

 atmospheric conditions affecting in any way 

 the quality of the product is precluded. 



CUMMER-DIGGINS COMPANY. 

 One of the foremost lumber and flooring 

 manufacturing houses of Cadillac is that of 

 Cummer-Diggins Company. The history of 

 this house dates back to the very beginning 

 of lumber operations in the district. It 

 was founded bv the late .Jacob Cummev and 



liis sun, W. \V. (Aimmer. and has passeil 

 through various changes of name, being- 

 known from time to time as the Cummer 

 Lumber Company; Blodgett, Cummer & Dig- 

 gins; Cummer, Diggins & Co., and now as 

 the Cummer-Diggins Company. Of this 

 company the late D. F. Diggins was presi- 

 dent; W. L. Saunders is vice jjresident and 

 general manager; W. W. Cummer, treasurer, 

 and F. A. Diggins, secretary and assistant 

 treasurer. 



For many years this house was interested 

 exclusively in the manufacture of white and 

 Norway pine, but before their pine holdings 

 were exhausteil they secured a large area 

 of hardwood and hemlock timber lands ly- 

 ing northwest of the city, largely in Wex- 

 ford county. This timber possesses prime 

 physical characteristics, as the several spec- 

 imen pictures of timber growth will amply 

 testify. The company has some forty miles 

 of main line and branch railroad from Cad- 

 illac into its timber jjroperties to transport 

 logs to its Cadillac mills. The woods oper- 

 ations are models of their kind, and every 

 detail of the work is carried on with sys- 

 tematic accuracy and economy. Cummer- 

 Diggins Company also transports the logs of 



FOLDING FRUIT AND VEGETABLE 

 CRATE MADE BY CUMMER MANU- 

 FACTURING COMPANY. 



S.\JIK CKATE COLLAI'SKl) I'UK SHII'.MENT 

 OU STORAGE. 



FAMOUS ■IIUMPTY-DUMrTi' FULLII.NG 

 EGG CHATE MADE HY CUMMER MANU- 

 FACTURING CO.MrANY. 



