What powered our mills?

I marvel at how much information good authors and good historians can fit into a few pages. One of the most authoritative historians on geography, forestry, and the lumber industry aka an environmental historian, was Michael Williams. Professor Williams among other things was a professor of geography at Oxford.  This is a summary of pages 232-235 in his book, Deforesting the Earth, published by the University of Chicago Press.

                These pages simply answered what powered the sawmills of America? At the museum, the mills we interpret mostly utilized steam but we have a few examples of water wheels as well. Our actual sawmill uses diesel, as it is a 1920’s sawmill. For the pivotal year of 1870, the year the Mississippi River Logging Company was created, there were 16,562 water wheels producing 327,000 hp in lumber mills while only 11,204 steam engines were powering mills (Williams, 232). Just another light bulb for why Clinton, Weyerhaeuser, and the area  mills were able to build such a business.

                Michael also lays out the change in productivity of saws. The most rudimentary form of sawing logs into lumber was pit-sawing. This hand powered operation could cut 100-200 board feet a day. In 1621, water powered single blade and single sash blades came into vogue. The single blade saws  only cut 500-3,000 board feet a day. The water powered muley saw (still up and down blades but much lighter and quicker) could cut 5,000-8,000 board feet a day. In 177, the water powered circular saw was used but it wasn’t until the early 1800’s that they became prevalent. The circular saw, when water powered, cut a little slower at 500-1,200 board feet a day. The problem, as we see evident even in our circular saw, was the waste a circular saw created. While improvements were made, for example, a steam powered gang saw and/or circular saw could produce 40,000 plus board feet, it was the steam-powered band saw in the late 1870’s that revolutionized the sawmill industry.

                Michael Williams continues to show how the mills in America drove more than just changes in saw technology. Pressure was put on all lines of production to produce technological changes tthat resulted in increased productivity. The carriages that move the logs into the blades were always being tinkered with to increase the “speed at which the logs were transported past the saws.” Like our Struve mill, the carriages in the mid-1800’s became equipped with automatic log rotators. To get the logs out of the milling pond/holding pong, in 1863, a Wisconsin lumberman (WHO) invented the “endless chain method of moving logs.”

                Michael in his book Deforesting the Earth, shows the real effect of all the increases in productivity. It was another example of the change to the craft economy, the stresses on other related businesses, the stresses on the forests, and the stresses on socioeconomic makeups of logging/lumber towns—not to mention the complete disappearance of most of these towns.

                He has two great books that are filled with more information than you will have need to know about the historic changes of our forests.  

https://books.google.com/books?id=_Oog9pdiDkMC&pg=PA232&dq=gang+saw+bandsaw+circular+saw+sawmill&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_Q1zVea8HMeKyASMp4DADg&ved=0CFwQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=gang%20saw%20bandsaw%20circular%20saw%20sawmill&f=false