US Patent: 327,574
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| Band-saw mill
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Patentee:
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| James S. Miller (exact or similar names) - Erie, PA |
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Patent Dates:
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| Applied: |
Jul. 27, 1885 |
| Granted: |
Oct. 06, 1885 |
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Jeff Joslin
Vintage Machinery entry for Stearns Mfg. Co.
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Description: |
| D. C. Prescott's 1910 monograph, "The Evolution of Modern Band Saw Mills for Sawing Logs", says, "...The operation of all these mills did not escape the careful attention of the men who were builders of the machinery found in the great lumber mills, realizing that they did that the right kind of a Band Mill for sawing logs was yet to be created, and they went at it."And to the Stearns Mfg. Co., of Erie, Pa., must the credit be given for the first vigorous measures taken to introduce the band saw into the large mills of the country, and for their efforts to convince lumbermen of their usefulness and value. To that end they built a mill having wheels nine feet diameter for saws eight inches wide. The rims were of wood with rubber faces, and the spokes were of wrought pipe. It was their belief that a band saw would be less liable to crack if run on large wheels."In combination with this mill they mounted on the same frame a large circular arbor so that a lumberman could use either a Band or a Circular should he so desire."Mr. Wellington Cummer, of Cadillac, Mich., was the first to install one of them in his mill; and no lumberman in this country has been more ready to adopt improved methods than he. Mill men generally do not wish to try machines they look upon as experimental in any respect, no matter how good they may appear; usually they want somebody else to try them first, overlooking the fact that an inventor must find some one broad enough to permit their mills to be used, or one who is willing perhaps to invest in a machine that apparently is a good thing. Mr. Cummer was just the man for Mr. Stearns to apply to in the effort to in the effort to introduce his new Band Mill..."Other mills of the Stearns Company were put in at Pequaming and Menominee, Mich., and also at Minneapolis, Minn. But these mills were not a complete success. They did serve, however, to open wide the eyes of the lumber world generally and set the pace for other machinery builders to follow."The Stearns Company finally abandoned this construction and adopted a plan modeled on the Hoffman mill (see patent 192,917), which they advertised in the Northwestern Lumberman, January 29, 1887. Their first mill, however, was the better of the two." |
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