Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 01.pdf/16

 dustry depends on three factors: first, getting the fallen tree to the mill at the lowest possible cost; second, with speed that will increase volume, and, third, with least possible damage to standing growth and young timber. The first two have been supplied by the new mechanical devices. The third is being materially helped by the elimination of large numbers of men working in gangs, the removal of long teams of mules or oxen, and the complete stoppage of sparks and other fire hazards by the use of oil and gasoline engines and electric motors.



But these mechanical devices have not taken all the adventure out of the life of the lumberjack. Half a million feet of logs recently escaped from a main boom at Merced Falls, Calif., during a sudden rise in the river and jammed against an irrigation dam three miles down the stream. There was no way to get these logs back by ordinary methods, since the stream was too swift for navigation. There was danger of damage to the irrigation dam, and for this reason the time-worn use of dynamite to break the jam was impossible. A tractor, with winch and steel cable, was called in, the logs snaked out one at a time, and then picked up by high-wheelers and carried back to the mill at comparatively small cost. Three men rescued all the logs, a job 100 men working under old-time methods of logging could not have accomplished.

 

Clinkers are easily removed from the furnace, without useless shaking of the grates and breaking up of the fire, with a special pair of tongs now on the market. Sharp prongs and a powerful gripper, operated by a lever, afford a convenient and efficient tool for getting hold of the most stubborn piece.

