Dear Sir:—The North Wisconsin Lumber Company made the following
cut: August 22, 1893, with two Prescott Band Mills only, 609
selected logs, scaled full. Average 1.97 to 1,000 feet, 309,400
feet.
Lumber scale, 1 inch, 45,236
1¼ and 2 inch, 294,077
-------
339,313 feet
The cut of August 22nd shows what can be done with large logs,
and the cutting was as perfectly done as any day’s cut we ever
made. W. H. Elliott, Superintendent of Valley Lumber Co., Eau
Claire, and A. L. Ulrich, of Rice Lake Lumber Co., will vouch
for the cut of August 22nd, as well as Captain Rogers, our
Superintendent, and myself.
Yours truly,
R. L. McCORMICK,
Secretary N. W. L. Co.
It is of interest to note the gain of about 30,000 feet by sawing the
logs with a Band Mill instead of a Circular Mill.
This record, widely published at the time, coupled with the fact that
nearly three hundred Prescott mills were then in successful service,
is evidence enough to show that all other Band Mills as herein shown
had become obsolete and were back numbers, and were abandoned for the
later constructions all are now familiar with.
But before any of them, or any of the others that have appeared on the
market since then, can boast of big cuts or a superior grade of mills,
it is up to them to show a better record than the one above given; a
record that will be vouched for by Mr. McCormick who is still alive.
[Illustration: R. L. McCormick in 1893]
There are also two of this same type of Band Mills now running
in the saw mill of the Fosburgh Lumber Co. at Norfolk, Va., and
notwithstanding they are nearly twenty years old, there are no Bands
on the Atlantic seaboard anywhere that equal them today, either in the
quality or extent of daily output.
The short, compact mill with the base above the overlays of the saw
floor, originated with Prescott. Wood rims with rubber faces on the
wheels were speedily abandoned by him, and wheels all of metal were
brought into use, so that a filer in rolling tension into the saw had
a clean wheel free from bunches of pitch and sawdust which stuck to
the rubber faces and produced unbalanced wheels; but then everybody
supposed that rubber faces were a necessity. Mr. Prescott demonstrated
that the mill was vastly better without them.
The late improvements made in frame constructions merely add stability
without increasing the quality or extent of the output, this being
entirely dependent upon a light weight of the top wheel with its
shaft and boxing in combination with a straining lever system made
as frictionless and sensitive as possible; for without these good
conditions no band mill will render duty of the highest grade.
Logically, then, the same principles and elements of construction have
been embodied in all the splendid Band Saw Mills now built by The
Prescott Company herein shown.
[Illustration: STANDARD HEAVY BAND MILL