MOTOR CAR HOUSE BUILT OF ONE PIECE OF REDWOOD 



529 



the hills and deserts he wears the moccasins of the 

 Indians. By intimate study of the birds he has been able 

 to reproduce their notes perfectly. He can sing in the 

 highest pitch ever attained by a human being, and his 

 voice has a range of eight octaves. He can put out the 

 flame of a candle with the rapid vibrations of his voice 

 at an extremely high pitch. 



Down on the Mexican border last year Mr. Kellogg 

 was lying on top of a hill in front of his camp, watching 

 the American troops transporting their supplies over- 

 land. Wagonload after wagonload drawn by mules went 

 to the mudhole at the foot of the hill and were stuck 

 there in the mire and with great difficulty pulled out. 

 Finally a light truck came along and went through the 

 hole without 

 any trouble. 



Here was 

 Mr. Kellogg's 

 tip : He would 

 build a house 

 on one of these 

 trucks and 

 travel through 

 the country in 

 it, for this 

 would enable 

 him to con- 

 tinue his habit 

 of living out of 

 doors. The re- 

 sult was that 

 he bought a 

 truck and took 

 it into the 

 heart of the 

 Redwood 

 Country of 

 California in 

 search of a 

 suitable body. 

 He r e m e in- 

 hered the hol- 

 low redwood 

 tree in which 

 he had played 

 in his boyhood 

 and decided 

 that such a 

 piece of wood was the ideal material. After a time 

 Mr. Kellog found his tree, a fallen redwood 360 feet 

 long and 1 1 feet in diameter. From this he cut a 22-foot 

 section, and after seven months of arduous toil fashioned 

 the huge piece of timber into an automobile body that 

 is a work of art. 



The tree from which the body was made was a fallen 

 giant that had been lying on the ground for perhaps 

 a hundred years without any sign of decay. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, it was found that the wood was full of sap 

 notwithstanding that it had been uprooted for a cen- 

 tury. The 22-foot section when first cut, a 14-foot 



TAKING THE LOG FROM ITS FOREST HOME 



The first step was the removal of the bark. Then the task of hollowing out the trunk was begun, and 

 it proved to be most difficult, two expert axemen giving up the job of chopping it out after a trial of 

 three days which wore them out. 



saw being used for the purpose, weighed over 40 tons. 

 The first step after the section had been cut was to 

 remove the bark. Then the task of hollowing out the 

 trunk was begun. This was found to be a most diffi- 

 cult task. A couple of expert axemen first tried to chop 

 out the center, but at the end of three days were worn 

 out and gave up the job. Oxy-Acetylene was then tried, 

 but this also failed, as the redwood proved impervious 

 to the flame, the wood carbonizing in a wall. 



Mr. Kellogg then put some of his own ideas into 

 operation. He first drove a gas-pipe through the heart 

 of the log by using the truck as a hammer. This small 

 aperture was enlarged by a pepper wood chisel, which 

 was fastened to the truck with chains. Then the 



hollowing out 

 process was 

 completed with 

 a 22 - f o o t 

 chisel. This 

 left a shell 1 

 foot thick and 

 M r. Kellogg 

 trusted to his 

 eye alone in 

 smoothing out 

 the log and 

 modeling it as 

 a sculptor 

 would into a 

 bea u t i f u 1 1 y 

 shaped body 

 for the truck. 

 It was esti- 

 mated that the 

 shell in its un- 

 finished state 

 weighed in the 

 neighbor- 

 hood of 6,000 

 pounds. T o 

 mount it on 

 the truck ap- 

 peared to be 

 almost a hope- 

 less task. But 

 the problem 

 was solved by 

 cribbing the 

 corners with slabs and digging a passageway beneath 

 in the soft forest floor. The truck was then driven 

 under the great log and the latter slowly lowered into 

 place. 



Next came the task of drying out the great piece of 

 timber without "checking" to get rid of the surplus 

 weight. It was thought at first that it might be placed 

 in a big kiln at Scotia and dried with steam, but the 

 master mechanic finally decided that the temperature 

 could not be properly regulated and refused to take the 

 risk. Finally Mr. Kellogg solved the problem by cover- 

 ing the outside with a mixture of oil and distillate and 



