36 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



NeWWUtch Lifter 



Nowadays it is rare indeed to find any 

 distinct improvement in sawmill appliances. 

 The skUl and inventive genius of machinery 

 manufacturers apparently has well-nigh ex- 

 hausted itself in making improved tools to 

 better the quality and reduce the cost of 

 manufacturing logs into lumber. However, 

 at the big double band and two-resaw mill of 

 the Lamb-Fish Lumber Company at Charles- 

 ton, Miss., is installed a new adjunct that 

 effects a manifest economy in the handling 

 of flitches to a band mill resaw. This is a 

 new type of flitch transfer, lifter and feed- 

 ing apparatus which was invented by 

 W. B. Burke, general manager of the Lamb- 

 Fish Lumber Company. In the details and 

 mechanical execution Mr. Burke was assisted 

 by Ed. Gibson, and a patent on the machine 

 hab just been issued to them jointly. 



The accompanying detailed drawings, show- 

 ing side and end views of the machine, illus- 

 trate it admirably. This mill has two nine- 

 foot band .saws and located in the center of 

 the mill floor is an eight-foot McDonough re- 

 saw, carrying a twelve-inch blade. Endless 

 chains on the transfer skids deliver the 



flitches to the trips from both sides. The 

 sawyer, by a mere touch of the lever, with 

 the aid of the trips tips the cant on edge 

 on the endless chain, actuated by the eon- 

 cave live rolls. The use of this apparatus 

 avoids all the heavy lifting of cants so com- 

 monly seen in nearly all sawmills employing 

 band resaws. The saw is kept in the cut 

 practically all of the time. At this plant it 

 is estimated that this machine increases the 

 capacity of the mill fully 10,000 feet daily. 

 Undeniably one or more of the big sawmill 

 machinery builders will shortly arrange with 

 the patentees to build this equipment. It 

 works like a clock and it is certainly a won- 

 derful labor saver. 



Biltmore Doings for May 



The following communication from the camps 

 of the Biltmore Forest School tells of the work 

 accomplished during May : 



The two weelis spent in the Adirondacks were 

 found to Ire so profitable to the students that 

 arrangements have been made whereby next year 

 the scliool can remain a month in that region. 



We arrived in Asheville, N. C, on May 0. 

 Several days were spent visiting woodworking 

 establishments, forest plantations and other 



points of interest. During a short stay at 

 Waynesville, where our camping outfit was se- 

 cured, some of the nearby lumber industries and 

 the operations of the Champion EMber Company 

 were seen. 



Sunburst, our summer camp and our present 

 point of headquarters, is situated almost sixteen 

 miles to the southeast of Waynesville, and at a 

 point where the west fork of the Pigeon river 

 receives from the primeval woods Its three main 

 tributaries. Our opportunities here are almost 

 ideal ; the forests are well stocked with all klnd» 

 of hardwoods (five oaks, two magnolias, two 

 hickories, two birches, two maples, .yellow pop- 

 lar, chestnut, beech, buckeye, ash, basswood, 

 locust, cherry, dogwood, walnut, butternut, serv- 

 ice tree, sourwood, silver-bell, sycamore, horn- 

 beam, etc.), and hemlock. The higher ridges are 

 covered with spruce and fir. In the next valley 

 to the west are the operations of the Champion 

 Fiber Company. Here everything taken out Is 

 cordwood (pulp and tannic acid wood), which 

 supplies its gigantic plant at Canton. These 

 operations are being carried on by means of 

 rhutes, flumes, splashdams and narrow gauge 

 railroads. Between Sunburst and Waynesville 

 the road leaus through cut-over lands, abandoned 

 fields or small farms. 



Our field work has been varied, consisting of 

 cruising and timber estimating, using the strip 

 method, and also estimating the- contents of In- 

 dividual trees : surveying, including the laying 

 out of roads, use of the plane table and all the 

 instruments necessary in this kind of work ; 

 stem analysis: form heights for spruce and fir; 

 study in the field of various insect and fungus 

 diseases : the growth in cut-over woodlands and 

 on abandoned fields. 



We are more than comfortably situated here, 

 living in the bouses of the Champion Fiber Com- 

 pany and eating more or less in groups. In about 

 the same manner as was usual at the "Pink 

 Beds." For these exceptional opportunities and 

 accommodations we are indebted to the Cham- 

 pion Fiber Company. 



During May, Dr. Schenck has been lecturing 

 on forest production and Dr. House on plant 

 physiology. 



