Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1894 — STEAM TREE-FELLING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STEAM TREE-FELLING.

Machine Recently Designed in England to Do the Work. Tree-felling by means other than manual labor has been an engaging subject to many Inventors, and for some time past a more or less Interesting array of appliances designed

to accomplish it has been paraded be* fore the readers of mechanical journals, says Cassell s Magazine. One of the more recent of these machines, brought out in England by Allen Ransome, of Chelsea, reminds one very much in appearance of the now so familiar rock drill —the drill proper, of course, beiDg supplanted by a reciprocating saw blade, substantially in the manner shown in the accompanying sketch. The piston to which the saw blade is attached works in a cylinder of small diameter but rather long stroke, pivotally supported on a pair of wheels, so that the whole arrangement is readily portable. Steam is intended to be supplied to the machine from a portable boiler through a long steam hose, so that the boiler can remain in one place until the machine has felled all the trees within a considerable circle arouDd it, the space cleared, of course, depending upon the length of the hose. Cutting down a tree, however, is not the only function to which the machine is limited. By partially rotating it on Its axis the saw can be set to cut in a vertical direction, or at any angle between the horizontal and vertical positions, so that after having been felled a tree may be quickly cut up into desired lengths. It generally happens that when a large tree falls It does not lie flat, as its branches hold the upper part of its trunk from the ground, and in order to sauarely cross-cut trees lying in such a position it is necessary to incline the saw somewhat lrom a vertical line. This is readily done by the adjusting capacity just mentioned.

TREE-FELLING MACHINE.