The Evolution of Modern Band Saw Mills for Sawing Logs

PRESENTED BY THE PRESCOTT COMPANY MENOMINEE, MICHIGAN
COPYRIGHTED 1910 D. CLINT PRESCOTT
The history herein given and the facts stated are taken from authentic records and also are the result of the personal experiences and observations of the author. It is intended to show the efforts made by the Saw Mill Machinery Builders of this country from about the year 1880 and thenceforward, to produce a Band Saw Mill that would render acceptable service to large saw mill operators.
No attempt is made to display all of the productions of later days, the main object being to show the transition logically from earlier types to the splendid machines now built by THE PRESCOTT COMPANY of Menominee, Mich., under whose auspices this work has been published and is now presented to the Saw Mill world.
By the author, D. CLINT PRESCOTT.
It is not the purpose to begin this narrative with a history of the crude methods employed by our ancestors to obtain lumber for building purposes; it is enough to know that they were able to obtain the necessary material with which to provide homes for themselves, as well as establishments in which to carry on business, to say nothing of schools and houses of worship; and some lumber for these purposes they certainly did have, and it was not cut by anything like a modern saw mill, either.
It is sufficient to state that we have advanced from the early Hand Whip Saw to machines in order about as follows: The Sash Saw, the Mulay Saw, the Round or Live Gang, the Slabbing Gang and its partner the Flat or Stock Gang; then the Circular or Rotary Mill, and lastly the Band Saw Mill, and one generation of men, some of whom are now alive, has seen all of these machines at regular work in saw mills sawing logs.
In passing it may be of interest to state that the old Sash Saw was usually run by undershot water wheels, and a man would start a cut in the morning and then, go to plowing out in his field. By noon, that cut being finished, he would set over the log for another board, go home to dinner, after which he would resume his plowing, and by evening the second cut would be completed; so that by close attention to business a man could get two boards a day.