Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1883 — SHINGLES. [ARTICLE]

SHINGLES.

How They Are MairalSactared. [Letter from East Saginaw, Mich.] The oldest, brashest logs are selected for shingles, provided always they are not sound. If they are sound they will make lumber; if they are doty, wormeaten, fire-burnt and disreputable generally, they are worked up into shingles. The prime consideration in shingle timber is to get wood that is sound and brash. It must be sound to make a tight roof, and it must be old and brash to prevent warping. A log may be doty in places, and even hollow, and yet have considerable good timber in it suitable for shingles. The logs selected, they are “run in” and sawed into “bolts” sixteen inches long by a cross-cut saw worked by steam power. These bolts are then placed on end and pushed against a large circular saw in motion, and the good parts cut out in the most-economical shape, as the operator judges of it by looking at the end. The refuse goes to the furnaceroom, and the select blocks are carried to the shingle-machines at the other end of the room, where they are set on end in a sort of vise, and giggle rapidly back and forth against a circular saw, the block being thrown out at the top and bottom, alternately, by an eccentric movement, for the butt and top of the shingle, at the same time it is moved back to the saw, each movement making a shingle. Of course, these shingles are of all widths, and some taper in width; some have knots and shakes and doty strips through them, and sometimes these defects run parallel with the sides of the shingle, and sometimes they do not. Sitting near the man who operates the block from which the shingles are made is the “joiner,” a man who picks up the shingles nimbly and holds their edges an instant against a planer that runs so rapidly it appears to be standing still, and then tosses them where they belong. All perfect shingles—that is, shingles of sound, unblemished wood, and with parallel edges and square ends, no difference whether they are wide or narrow, are pitched into one hopper and go below to the “binder.” These are “A*l.” Shingles tljat are perfect in every respect except that they have small soundknots in the upper half, are pitched into another hopper or chute and go below to another “binder.” These are “A*.” Shingles that are pei-fect in every respect except that the butt is hot on a right angle with the sides, are pitched into another* chute and go below to .'a boy them on a gauge anti pushes. Xllem- against a saw, by which they axe squared; afjer which they are thrown oh a* ‘conveyer and go to the binder of “X*l” shingles. Shingles that have a doty streak or crack or knot thp middle, are jointed and pitched over the planer to a man who holds them against a circular saw until they ard ripped up and these defects , cut out. Then, if this operation leaves , the sides and butts at right angles, they are sent below to, the binder, but if these defects run at an angle, the butts must be squared, and they are sent down for that purpose first. Shingles that are “feather edged,” knotty, doty, shaky and incapable of being made over into anything good, are sent down a chute and come out in bundles, by a strange travesty on language marked “No. 1.”