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HARDWOOD RECORD 



ated the office, the hospital and several bush 

 houses for the accommodation of the staff. 

 At the foot are located the machine shop, 

 blacksmith shop, commissary, carpenter's 

 shop, sawmill, engine shed, water distilling 

 plant and store rooms. All these depart- 

 ments are thoroughly equipped with mod- 

 ern apparatus and are under the manage- 

 ment of men of long experience in their 

 several lines. The machine shop is an espe- 

 cially interesting place, being fitted out with 

 a complete and up-to-date line of machinery, 

 and it is said that anything that can be 

 made in a machine shop anywhere can be 

 made in this shop of Mengel's in the heart 

 of the tropical woods. 



The company operates three powerful loco- 

 motives at Camp Mengel, especially designed 

 for hauling great weights on steep grades. 

 These are used to carry supplies and water 

 to the various camps and tanks along the 

 line and on the return journey draw trucks 

 loaded with logs. The railroad is of most 

 substantial construction and in certain sec- 

 tions is laid with fifty pound steel rails and 

 well bedded down. New extensions of the 

 line are being built into the forests to be 

 cut during 1910, 1911 and 1912. The road- 

 bed for the branch is built for about five 

 miles and the rails laid over perhaps half 

 of this distance. It is expected that the 

 remainder will bo laid soon after the first 

 of the year. It is the intention of the com- 

 pany to carry the line seven miles beyond 

 the point now completed, making twelve 

 miles in all, and spurs will be built where 

 necessary. On this new extension heavy 

 steel rails are used and the road will be of 

 very durable construction. While there are 

 no expensive bridges built the line has had 

 to make some steep grades and frequently 

 long stretches of swampy ground, requiring 

 considerable filling in, have been encoun- 

 tered, so that railroad building here is no 

 simple matter. The cost of building the 

 road is about $4,000 per mile. 



As might be expected in an operation of 

 such extent as this one, the Mengel com- 

 pany has besides the camp headquarters 

 various branches at different points. On 

 the site of the original camp Ko. 1, which 

 was in a valley, low and not nearly so 

 pleasant as the present location on the 

 ridge, there are a number of bush houses 

 for the laborers, a large garden and a plot 

 of land used to graze sick animals. About 

 twenty miles from headquarters is Little 

 Yankee camp, which is the point for mak- 

 ing up the trains of logs. At another point 

 are the teamsters' quarters and the sheds 

 for the oxen. Here also is a large black- 

 smith shop, kept constantly busy with re- 

 pair work, a large number of cattle sheds 

 and a group of houses. All these camps 

 are well kept, of good construction and dis- 

 play not a few features which the com- 

 pany has installed for the comfort of its 

 employees. 



At all points of their operations the 

 Mengels have the most modern equipment 



for handling their timber, and by means of 

 skidders and loaders and various minor ap- 

 pliances the work is done with all possible 

 dispatch. Perhaps the most disagreeable 

 and ditiicult part of mahogany logging is 

 getting the trees from the dense thickets 

 where they grow to the railroad lines. Oxen 

 are used, and owing to the wet and muddy 

 condition of the roads at this season this is 

 a very laborious process. The beasts be- 

 come literally covered with mud, likewise 

 the teamsters, as the trees are often brought 

 great distances through almost impassable 

 thickets and over roads thick with soft 

 mud. In the dry months of course the work 

 is accomplished much more quickly and is 

 less arduous. Most of the logs are brought 

 in steel cones, whien is an especially ad- 

 v.'i.nfageous method in wet weather as the 

 iiuid in the roads allows the logs to slip 

 along readily and the cone protects the 

 ends. 



Although operating over a vast area of 

 country in British Honduras, the Mengel 

 company knows to within perhaps a hun- 

 dred how many trees are to be found on its 

 property, not only how many in all but 

 the number in certain specified small areas. 

 This information is carefully tabulated on 

 a large scale map of the company's hold- 

 ings, on which the unworked territory is 

 laid off into half sections and the number of 

 trees in each of these divisions noted. 



Thoroughness in every detail seems to be 

 the motto of this great mahogany concern, 

 and it has not attained its present enviable 

 position in the mahogany industry of the 

 world without being entirely worthy of it. 



New Pittsburg Concern 



A notable addition to Pittsburs's lumber films 

 on January 1, 1910, will be the Palmer & Seman? 

 Lumber Company, whose office will be in the new 

 Oliver skyscraper. I. F. Balsley, one of the best 

 known hardwood men in the country, will he 

 sales manager of the concern, which will have 

 ample financial backing. The members of the 

 company are T. B. Palmer, president of the 

 I'nited Fire Brick Company of Uniontown, Pa., 

 and Isaac W. Semans, a wealthy coal and coke 

 owner and operator, who also lives at Union- 

 town. As a basis for its business the new com- 

 pany will take the entire output of the United 

 Lumber Company, which has a big spruce mill 

 at Hazelwood, W. Va., and a hardwood mill at 

 Beckley, W. Va., and on the Tri State Lumber 

 Company, whose plants are located at Sutherland 

 and Lick Run. W. Va., Dunbar. Pa., Arzondale, 

 W. Va., and Nicholas county, West Virginia. 

 These two companies have a splendid lot ot 

 hardwood and hemlock timber and are constantly 

 buying more, which will give the Palmer & 

 Semans company a strong hold on the hardwood 

 business from the start. The home offices of the 

 company will be at Uniontown. Pa., but the sales 

 headquarters will be in Pittsburg, 



Mr. Balsley was for nine years with the Mead 

 & Spear Company ot I'iftsburg and was treasurer 

 and vice-president of that concern when ho sev- 

 eied connection with it. During the past four 

 years he has been hardwood manager for the 

 WlUson Brothers Lumber Company. His con- 

 nection with the various hardwood associations 

 and his Intimate knowledge of the hardwood 

 business mnke him a valuable force in the new 

 concern. 



A Unique Calculator 



The Dodge Maniifacturiu,:; Company of Misha- 

 waka, Ind., has had prepared a ready reckoner 

 calculator made of enameled celluloid enclosing 

 a slip ot cardboard showing diameters and faces 

 of pulleys, and on the reverse side showing 

 horsepower of both split and solid sizes of Dodge 

 clutches and diameters of line and main shafting. 

 By slipping the enclosed card upwards or down- 

 wards any calculation referring to drive prob- 

 lems can be noted at a glance. The celluloid 

 holder and card are enclosed in a leather pocket 

 case, which makes it readily adaptable for carry- 

 ing in the pocket. 



The unique little calculator will be found in- 

 valuable to everyone having anything to do with 

 machinery. While it costs much more than the 

 price at which it will be mailed — twenty-five 

 cents in stamps or coins — the Dodge Manufactur- 

 ing Company considers it a good enough adver- 

 tisement to sell it at this price where refer- 

 ence is made to Hardwood Record. 



A Curiosity in Cabinet Work 



The little wooden "T." some six inches in 

 extreme length, from which the attached engrav- 

 ing was made, is owned by C. L. Wiliey, the 

 well-known veneer and hardwood lumberman of 

 Chicago. The dark sections of the "T" are made 

 of vermilion and the light parts from Ameri- 

 can ash. The work was done by a cabinet- 



UNIQUE DOVETAILIM.i. 



maker employed by the Pullman Car Company 

 of this city and is surely exquisite handicraft. 

 'I'he maker presented it to Mr. Wiliey. It is an 

 exceedingly unique and ingenious specimen of 

 wood craftsmanship. 



The maker alleges that the specimen contains 

 only five pieces of solid wood. The mystery in- 

 volved is how it was possible for him to pro- 

 duce the dovetails which appear on the four 

 surfaces of the extreme ends of each section 

 and on the one face of the point w'here the "T" 

 joins and get the pieces together. As a matter 

 of fact, it is alleged that the maker offers a 

 reward of five hundred dollars to anyone who 

 will tell "how it is done." 



Mr. Wiliey keeps the ingenious little speci- 

 men on the center table of his living room in 

 his home on Grand boulevard in this city, and 

 it is the subject of much speculation on the 

 part of visitors. 



Additional Supplies for Garetson-Creason 



The Garetson-fi reason Lumber Company of St. 

 Louis, Mo., which operates several plants in Mis- 

 s<iuri and Arkansas, has added to its lumber 

 output by closing a contract with the Sidnell 

 Brothers Company of Campbell, Mo., for its out- 

 put. This concern has a modern Filer & Stowelt 

 band mill and the plant is new and up-to-date 

 in every respect. Its principal output is gum, 

 running largely to red. The company also has 

 on sticks several hundred thousand feet of other 

 lumber, which is included In the Garetson-Grea- 

 son Lumber Company's contract. 



W. W. Dings, secretary ot the Garetson-Greason 

 Lumber Company, whose sales quarters are now 

 in the Fisher building, Chicago, has Just returned 



