Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1881 — The Shingle Product. [ARTICLE]

The Shingle Product.

The Northwestern Lumbmim has given elaborate statistics of the shingle product of the Northwest, the amount of which is something stupendous, as will be seen in the following recapitulation of the output for eight years, allowing 5,000 shingles to each 1,000 feet of logs: 1873 2,277,433,650 1874 2,473,216,565 1875 2,515,838,240 1876 2,900,530,725 1877 2,668,856,755 1878 2,561,400,750 1879 2,859,112,750 1880 2,972,912,160 T0ta121,229,391,486 It is estimated that something between 800,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 feet of logs are yearly made into shingles in this country. Previous to 1845 the manufacture of shingles in the United States was almost, if not wholly, confined to the article of “ rived ” or “ breasted,” terms applied to shingles made by hand with a drawing-knife, involving a waste of fully three-quarters of all the timber which it was intended to convert to this use. The shingles were eighteen inches long, one-half inch at the butt, and oneeighth inch at the point, and were made only from the finest pine, cedar, or cypress, the latter being wholly manufactured in the swamps of Virginia and other Southern States. About that date steamed cut shingles had been introduced, but never attained a wide-spread reputation or market, because of imperfections in the manufacture. Not far from 1845 sawed shingles were introduced, and their claim upon public favor was based upon the fact that coarser timber could be utilized in their manufacture and the cost of the product cheapened. They were not at first received with favor, but have rapidly grown in public estimation until they have almost wholly superseded all others. With the cheapening of the manufacture and in the use of coarser timber, hemlock was utilized for some time in the East, but has in late years been but little used.

The shingle cut of the Eastern Micliigan and Huron shore is almost wholly confined to an 18-inch shingle, the product being shipped to the East and Southeast, where no smaller size is salable. A thousand feet of logs is calculated to yield from 4,000 to 5,000 marketable shingles, beside the coarser grades which have no market value to warrant their shipment. The cut of western Michigan, Wisconsin and the Mississippi district is wholly of 16-inch. for the demands of the Western market and the less-stringent inspection as to quality enable the manufacture of from 7,000 to 8,000 shingles from. 1,000 feet of logs.