THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Sept. 1, 1864. 



72 DEVELOPMENT OP COLONIAL RESOURCES. 



of miles distant. It is all the more gratifying that this change has been 

 brought about, not by absurd protective duties, not by excluding by 

 legislative enactment the products of the industry and commerce of other 

 countries, but by colonial energy and capital acting in open competition 

 with the world ; and, for that very reason, certain to be the more per- 

 manent in its effects and successful in its operations. 



"We think it due to those to whom the colony is mainly indebted for 

 producing the beneficial change alluded to, that attention should be 

 drawn to their efforts ; and we feel sure that a notice of the machinery 

 used, and a description of the process by which a log of wood is changed 

 into doors, bedsteads, or packing cases, will be read with interest. 



There are several establishments in Sydney for machine-sawing and 

 the manufacture of woodwork, but by far the most extensive is that of 

 Messrs. Moon and Co., at the foot of Bathurst street, and to a descrip- 

 tion of this we shall at present confine ourselves. The premises occu- 

 pied in the operations of this firm covers several acres of ground, and 

 the number of persons in their employment is upwards of 150. Their 

 machinery is driven by three steam-engines, and all their engineering 

 work and machine making is done on the promises. Most of the ma- 

 chines used were not only made under the direction of Mr. Nicolls, their 

 engineer, but several of the most important are of his own invention. To 

 understand perfectly the operation of the various mechanical appliances, 

 it will be necessary to watch the progress of a log of wood — say of cedar 

 or pine, for nearly all the timber used is the produce of the country — 

 from the time it is drawn from the water at the foot of Liveipool street, 

 until it is changed into chairs, bedsteads, and tables, ready for the pur- 

 chaser. The log of timber is drawn from the water up an inclined plane 

 by machine^, and placed on the movable frame of an engine, called a 

 breaking-down machine. This is the invention of Mr. Nicolls, and is one 

 of the most powerful sawing-machines in the world. It is remarkable for 

 the simplicity of its construction, and works very much on the principle 

 of Nasinyth's steam hammer. The blade of the saw is a mere extension 

 of the piston-rod, so that its action is perfectly direct. It is capable of 

 sawing a log eight feet in diameter, with as much ease as a man would 

 cut with a handsaw through a plank of an inch in thickness. After 

 being broken down, as it is called, by this machine, the timber is sawn 

 into thinner portions by other more complicated ones. For this pur- 

 pose there are two perpendicular sawing machines, each capable of carry- 

 ing from eight to sixteen vertical saws, according to the required thick- 

 ness of the planks. The perfect truth and smoothness with which these 

 machines turn out their work is admirable. We may remark that it is 

 necessary that wood intended to be planed, grooved, tenoned, and mor- 

 ticed by machinery, should be perfectly square and true, and of a uni- 

 form thickness throughout. All these conditions, which could not be 

 obtained by hand sawing, are incidental to machine work. 



As soon as the log has been broken down, and cut into boards of the 



