344 THE AMERICAN FOREST ENGINEERS IN FRANCE 



The Heavy Sawmill. — Three types of American sawmills were 

 employed in France and they proved to be well adapted to the varying 

 size of her forests and the different grades of timber. The first was a 

 well-powered permanent steam plant, rated to cut 20,000 feet of lumber 

 in 10 hours. It carried a circular head-saw with a 3-saw edger and two 

 cut-offs. It required a substantial installation, with a dutch oven for 

 the best steaming and cement mounting for the engine, but could be 

 set up so as to begin cutting lumber, under the pressure of war-time 

 urgency, in 12 or 14 days. Its ample power and weight and the sub- 

 stantial character of its parts permitted continuous hard driving at high 

 speed, the key to production. Operated for two shifts daily, these mills 

 turned out from 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 board feet per month. Some of 

 them exceeded 2,000,000 feet in their best months' runs. These sawmills 

 were utihzed for all of the larger timber purchases, which in France 

 meant areas of from 10 to 30 million feet. They were also much more 

 satisfactory for the larger and heavier timber. In fact, for military re- 

 quirements, in which dollars and cents cut no figure, the "large" mill 

 was regarded generally as the most effective for compact sets containing 

 4,000,000 feet or more of timber. 



The Light Sawmill. — The second type was a much more portable mill, 

 adapted to the innumerable small woodlots and chateau forests of France. 

 It carried a 30-horsepower over-mounted engine and was rated to cut 

 10,000 board feet of lumber in 10 hours. It could be put up on tim- 

 ber foundations in 4 days. One of these mills, in fact, was moved 35 

 kilometers in the Landes, was reset, and began cutting its first log 47 

 hours after sawing the last log at the old site. These plants manu- 

 factured the same class and variety of products as the larger mill but 

 could not withstand the same degree of driving. Many of them, how- 

 ever, cut steadily 600,000 board feet per month; and one of them made a 

 month's record of a million feet of hardwood lumber and ties. 



The Flying Sawmill. — The third plant was the last word in portable 

 sawmills — a little bolter rig running a single 36-inch saw and weighing 

 but 3 tons with all of its equipment. It was rated to cut 5,000 board 

 feet in 10 hours but could turn out much more than that. Its best work 

 was done on logs 16 feet and under in diameter and 10 feet or less in 

 length. It proved an excellent little machine for slabbing railroad ties 

 or sawing unedged plank such as were used extensively in field fortifi- 

 cations. This diminutive sawmill could be operated by a 25-horse- 

 power steam or gas engine of any type but was most effective in com- 

 bination with a 10-ton caterpillar tractor, both for operation and for its 

 own transportation. The rig can be taken down in 4 or 5 hours, loaded on 

 a couple of log wagons, moved by its own power to a new site, and reset 

 in a similar length of time. The bolter mill and caterpillar made ideal 



