Lost Art Press

Author: fitz

Woodworker, writer, editor, teacher, ailurophile, Shakespearean. Will write for air-dried walnut.

Beware of the Saw

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henshaw_saw

A hoosier, on a visit to Cincinnati, a few days ago, called on a business at a planing machine establishment in the Third Ward. The planing department had not yet been started but a small circular saw, which was set nearly at the edge of the bench, and projected a scant inch above its surface, was in full blast. Mr. Green, as the hoosier may be called, looked around, but finding nobody visible, concluded to seat himself on the bench while awaiting somebody’s appearance. Neither noticing nor mistrusting anything, he squatted plumb upon the saw—one spring nearly to the ceiling, and a pitch forward to the floor, indicated his astonishment at finding an incision of six inches in the length of his seat. His cries brought assistance. Dr. Eaton closed the flesh wound, and a skilful tailor that in the pantaloons.

Scientific American – November 25, 1848

—Jeff Burks

The Harmonic Scarecrow

Posted on by fitz
Saw Setter or Harmonic Scarecrow Music hath charms to sett the teeth on edge.
Saw Setter or Harmonic Scarecrow
Music hath charms to sett the teeth on edge.

SAW, an instrument which serves to cut into pieces several solid matters, as wood, stone, ivory, &c. The best saws are of tempered steel ground bright and smooth: those of iron are only hammer-hardened: hence, the first, besides their being stiffer, are likewise found smoother than the last.

They are known to be well hammered by the stiff bending of the blade; and to be well and evenly ground, by their bending equally in a bow. The edge in which are the teeth is always thicker than the back, because the back is to follow the edge.

The teeth are cut and sharpened with a triangular file, the blade of the saw being first fixed in a whetting block. After they have been filed the teeth are set, that is, turned out of the right line, that they may make the fissure the wider, that the back may follow the better. The teeth are always set ranker for coarse cheap stuff than for hard and fine, because the ranker the teeth are set the more stuff is lost in the kerf.
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Evil Effects of The Division of Labor

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st_giles_slum

In attempting to prove that the minute subdivision of labor has an evil tendency, I am aware that I shall meet with few who will admit the evil to be so extensive as I shall endeavor to point out; and it is very probable I shall be written down by some of the many able correspondents of the Mechanics’ Magazine.

But as the following facts are the results of long observation and experience among the working classes, I have resolved to publish them anonymously, in the hope that they will meet the eye of some who may be benefited by them; and should they be the means of convincing even one, I shall consider myself happy in having brought the subject into notice. I have myself served an apprenticeship to a mechanical profession, and had then ample opportunities of observing the causes that tend to bring about the moral degradation of some of the working classes.

That the division of labor produces a cheaper article, and is a great source of national wealth, I readily admit. I believe were it not for this very cause, Britain would ere this have lost her political status among the nations. Groaning under a load of taxation, which no other nation on earth could have borne, we have been driven into an artificial state of society, and the division of labor with all its attendant evils is one of the results.

This is illustrated by the fact that we export machinery to countries where workers are obtained at half the price: and yet these countries are unsuccessful competitors in the same market with the poor tax-eaten British. Our national vanity whispers that this is owing to our superior genius; but I contend that it is our artificial mind-degrading system of dividing labor, which by making individuals do only one part of a thing; with mechanical, or rather slight-of-hand, rapidity, enables us to produce a whole as cheap as our foreign brethren.
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Fast and Slow Moulding

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moulders

The moulder that produces the most work is not always the one that makes the most motions. The contrary is generally true. The man who does a large day’s work, if observed, will be seen to be attentive, calm, and thoughtful, but never, apparently, in a hurry. You will never see him excited, or making a false move.

If he steps across the shop to find some tool, you will generally see him bring back more than he went for. On his way he sees something that he will want further on in his job. His thoughts are on his work, and he sees ahead of what he is doing, and does not have to wait until he comes to the different parts of his job to know what he wants.

Materials and tools are always waiting for him, not he for them. When he has a new job he sees its requirements before he begins it. He thinks before he acts. His brains are always ahead of his muscle, and he never makes two motions where one will do. This requires thought and study. All men are not capable of this, but many that are do not practice it. They would sooner be in a sweat than bother their brains with thought, or study how to accomplish the most work with the least labor.
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Six Days’ Sawing

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six_days_sawing

Instance of Human Effort.—Six Days’ Sawing

A Pair of sawyers, in the yard of Messrs. Paul, and Co., timber-merchants, Broad-street, Golden-square, executed the following quantity of labour in sixty working-hours, in six days, beginning about eight, a.m., on Monday, the 25th, and ending about four, p.m., on the following Saturday, the 30th of January, in the present year.

They sawed through an area of 3068 square feet of American Pine, along a line whose total length was 1726 feet. In doing this, they raised the saw 124,272 times, and as this tool weighed 30 lbs., they lifted an actual weight of 3,728,160 lbs. But this amount of labour was not more than one-third the actual exertion expended; for to overcome the friction, in pulling up the saw through the kerf, and forcing it down again through the wood, at least two thirds more was necessary; the total labour, therefore, was equal to lifting 11,184,480 lbs. to the height of the stroke, and as this was four feet, there was 44,737,020 lbs.= 19,958 tons. 18 cwt. raised one foot high, in 60 hours, which is 12,427 lbs. = 5 tons, 11 cwt. raised one foot high, per minute, by the two men, and 2 tons, 15½ cwt, per man, 1 foot high per minute.
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