THE USES OF WOOD 



THE SAWING AND TRANSPORTATION OF LUMBER 



BY HU MAXWELL 



Editor's Note: This is the second story in a series of important and very valuable articles, by Mr. Maxwell, on wood and its 

 uses. The series will thoroughly cover the various phases of the subject, from the beginnings in the forest through the processes 

 of logging, lumbering, transportation and milling, considering in detail the whole field of the utilization and manufacture of wood. 



THE cutting and hauling of sawlogs is only the first 

 step in converting the raw material of the forest 

 into finished products ready for use. The next 

 step is the conversion of the logs into lumber and the 

 transportation of the lumber to the places where it is 

 to be still further manufactured or employed without 

 further manufacture. The sawmill is the largest wood- 

 using machine that man has yet used, and there are in- 

 numerable other and smaller machines employed in 

 working the wood after it has been reduced to the form 

 of lumber. The great sawmills of America have come 



and the first step is the sawing. This history of the 

 development of the sawmill is interesting and instructive, 

 but it must here be passed over with the merest 

 mention. 



The pitsawyer, a hand workman, was the forerunner 

 of the sawmill, but even the pitsawyer was not the most 

 ancient lumber maker, if we can credit old Egyptian 

 pictures. The man who hewed out boards with an adz 

 that had a blade only an inch wide, was earlier than the 

 earliest manipulator of the pitsaw, but primitive lumber- 

 ing was a very small business, and, though interesting 



THE SAWLOGS LAST JOURNEY 

 The logs are going up the logway into the mill. They have reached the end of their journey as logs, and will soon be lumber, ready to enter 

 upon a career of usefulness. The water in the log pond washes them clean of gravel and floats them to the carrier which delivers them to the saw. 



up from very small and insignificant beginnings. They 

 are the product of evolution in plan and of develop- 

 ment in method. 



The cutting of logs in the forest and their transporta- 

 tion to mills at central points for sawing are the two 

 major operations in logging. The two major proposi- 

 tions in lumbering are the sawing and the distribution. 

 After logs are cut in the woods they are brought to- 

 gether and after lumber is sawed at the mill it is distrib- 

 uted. Where the log's career ends, lumber's commences, 



as a step in the growth of human ingenuity, it contains 

 little of practical importance -for us. 



The immense timber wealth of America tempted the 

 first settlers to make lumber. The reports written by 

 early explorers, and by the governors of colonies, 

 are filled with references to the fine timber, the 

 numerous water power sites, and the prospects of 

 trade in lumber both at home and for export. They 

 were thinking as much of export as of home needs at the 

 time of the earliest mention of sawmills and lumber 



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