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Description
Photo--black and white: Sturgeon's Sawmill early 1940's at Green Hill, Sebastopol, CA. Caption by Ralph S. Sturgeon on verso: " Sturgeon's Mill--all steam, "Oh" the glory of the days of steam. May she stand forever but note a fire is our enemy. Early 1940's. The man piling lumber--either Burt Feige or James Ejnar Henningsen. Notice logs on landing decked high. Only when the 11 3/8" x 16" Atlas steam engine was running did Bull wheel run. Used the single drum, line ½" or 9/16" useable with some 8 ft. of chain & a special shaped bucket hook. Dragging or rolling logs on to Joshawa Hendy carriage & all turning done with bull wheel, unless a real small log or light cant, then pevee or cant hook was used. Anyway one would get quite clever--get log up to main pile heading and throw chain around log, slack enough to hook up on pile so said log would drop in a saddle. Took some experience to know center and allow for taper, as log would gain on one end as rolled. Hook man always on end log, one end or other, helping a bit & signaling Bull wheel operator to go, stop or hold. If chain, or hook tore lose (if chain broke) hook or landing man damn well better be off to the side. It really didn't take more than an hour or so a stack as seen. Any logs, usually over 24 ft had to be bucked way out, so one could cut logs around & role (sic) in to lined up pile. We had a 4" x 5" Gurdner Denver steam pump, 1 ½" outlet, 50 fire hose & muzzle, washed all logs & picked out rocks if noted with a special light tool with 16 5/8" handle. Sawyer had it hanging handy by lever. I took this snap shot with Ruth's box camera. Later when James Ejnar Henningsen & I had this sawmill, I devised a brake on Bull wheel (tapered paper friction to drive & reverse against umbrella. Wheel brake I made came up against edge of umbrella flange or edge. Worked 100%. "
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