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Bogalusa

"The Timberman", 1921

3rd Page

Index to story:

Bogalusa Start Page

Paper Plant to Rise

Civic Improvement a Source of Pride

The Great Sawmill at Bogalusa

The Logging Railroad System

Dipping Lumber to Prevent Stain

How Second Stream is Handled

The Power Plant

New Civic Enterprises Planned

Pulp Mill Supplants Waste Burner

Sulphate Process Used

Other Pulp Plants in South

Waste Paper Provides Tonnage

Links

Bogalusa, Washington Parish, Louisiana

Bogalusa Story by C. W. Goodyear

The Great Sawmill at Bogalusa.

Aside from a few novel features, the main interest in the sawmill plant is its magnitude. A mill that actually saws more than a million feet of lumber daily is sui generis. It spreads over 160 acres of ground, including the lumber yard. In 1917 it shipped 9148 cars of lumber, 329 cars of lath and 29 cars of shingles, being a daily average of 32 cars. The B and better grades shipped in that year amounted to 46.31 per cent of the total sales. In this were included timbers to the extent of 29 per cent. For transporting lumber in the plant there is a system of 50 miles of train track, in addition to which the trucks of lumber to be delivered to the drying yards are picked up and conveyed by a monorail system with an electric carriage, made by the Pawling & Harnischfeger Co., of Milwaukee, Wis., taking a load of 10,000 pounds. In the planing mill are 28 machines and five resaw machines. A box factory adjacent to the planing mill, utilizing exclusively waste material, turns out 50 carloads of shook per month. This factory is equipped with two resaws, three planers, six cut-off saws, eight ripsaws, one Ferris-wheel trimmer, two nailing machines, two splitting machines and one variety saw. The lath, shingle and stave mills are operated on waste material also. In spite of this extensive utilization of waste in making minor products, the only fuel employed for generating power at the plant comes from mill refuse. Considering that waste is used in the manufacture of paper pulp boxes, lath, shingles, staves and for developing power, it will be apparent that the waste burner is not a very active part of the Great Southern equipment. It is retained as an emergency relief in case some part of the waste-utilization system becomes temporarily embarrassed.

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The Logging Railroad System

The logging main line railroad delivers the logs to an unloading dock, where they are dumped into a log pond 27 acres in extent. No mechanical means for handling the logs to the log chain conveyor is so cheap, so flexible and so efficient as to float them in the old-fashioned way. The mill is provided with three of these conveyors, two of which deliver to the customary steam feed log carriage and single band saw. The third conveyor, however, brings the logs to a special twin band saw, the only one In the South, and designed exclusively for this mill, to take care of the small top logs, and made adjustable to cut the log into three-Inch, six-Inch or 12-Inch widths as desired. It is electrically driven, each saw of the pair being provided with an independent 50 horsepower motor. The band saws used by the Great Southern Lumber Co. come from F. C. Atkins & Company, of Indianapolis, Ind.; Henry Disston & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa., and from the Simonds Manufacturing Co., Fitchburg, Mass. The standard used here is 14 inches wide, of No. 14-gauge steel, with 1 3/4-inch tooth space, the total length of each saw being 14 feet. They are worked down to a minimum of 10 inches. The life of each saw in the grade of lumber cut at Bogalusa is four months, the driven speed being 9800 feet per minute.

In addition to the band saws, there are two gang saws, with 32 saws each, one made by the Diamond Iron Works, Minneapolis, Minn., and also three resaws. The usual system of conveyers is employed, the sorting being done at the end of the mill. When cutting 600,000 feet per day of 20 hours, as at present, five sorters are required on each 10-hour shift. Some of these are white and some colored. The accuracy of judgment, combined with the necessary prompt ness of decision to prevent being overwhelmed by the steady stream of lumber coming forward, was one of the most significant things in connection with the workmen to be seen at this plant.

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