Lost Art Press

I have previously referred to the aptitude displayed by the early settlers for all kinds of bush work, such as felling trees and sawing timber, if located near a bush, and as there were several fine patches of bush in the valley at the time of its being first settled, no time was lost in turning the timber to account for house building, etc.

One middle-aged man, head of a large family, who had probably never seen a pit saw before he came to New Zealand, had with his sons’ assistance dug saw pits, and while his two eldest sons were sawing at one pit, as if they had been accustomed to the work for a number of years, the old man might have been seen at another pit, sawing away on the top of a huge log, with a younger son, aged about 14, in the pit, actually standing upon a stool to enable him to swing the long pit saw the necessary length of stroke.

I heard of one amateur pitman whose ignorance nearly resulted in a serious accident; the log while being sawn rests upon movable cross-pieces called transoms, and it is the duty of the man in the pit to give the signal to halt when it is necessary to shift the transom.

Upon the occasion referred to, the log being large, the top-sawyer could not tell exactly when to stop, but was momentarily expecting the signal to do so from his mate in the pit; at last he inquired if he had not reached the transom. “Yes!” replied his mate, “and nearly through it;” it may be guessed it did not take that man many seconds to descend from his perilous position, and thrust a spare transom beneath the log.

W. T. Pratt

Colonial Experiences; Or, Incidents and Reminiscences
of Thirty-four Years in New Zealand – 1877

—Jeff Burks

Shortly after my arrival I met a gentleman by the name of Post, who had been to San Francisco in ’47 and was a confidential clerk of General Williams, who was keeping a wholesale dry-goods store. I told him I had something over eight thousand dollars which I should like to invest in dry-goods. He informed me that they were over-stocked in clothing, and that if I wished to lay out my money in that way, I could get goods at very low prices. I purchased of them to the amount of over eight thousand dollars, and took passage in a Spanish bark, the owner of which was named Luca, and arrived in San Francisco on the second day of January, 1848.

On my arrival Robert A Parker looked at my invoices and made me an offer of one hundred per cent on first cost, he also agreed to pay all duties and freight charges. I took up with his offer. This transaction was the starting point of the building of the Parker House, where now stands the Old City Hall. After my return from the Islands, Captain Leidsoff sent for me and made me a very liberal proposition. He wanted me to take a lease of the City Hotel. When I asked Parker what he thought about taking the hotel, he said he did not wish me to have anything more to do with it, and if I was willing to put in what money I had, he would find the balance, and we would build a large hotel, in partnership.

Parker had a piece of land and the balance of a fifty vara lot, which we leased from Southard and James Gleason. A short time afterwards we purchased the whole of the land. We then got Stephen Harris, a carpenter, to make out a bill of lumber, and to take charge of the building. In those days it was not such an easy thing to get lumber, although, prior to the interest in the mines, it was cheaper than it is now.

Lumber was got out by what they called pit sawing, and we had about ten pits at work getting lumber out for this house. We first commenced in February, 1848. Most of the lumber was got out on the Widow Reed’s place. She was a sister of Francisco Sanchez. Mrs. Reed’s second husband was a man known throughout the country as “Three fingered Jack, the desperado.”…
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Lest you think that the Indian square dug up by Suzanne Ellison this week (see it here) is an anomaly, check out this excellent illustration dug up by Jeff Burks. Yes, we now have dueling researchers (cue the harpsichord rendition of the soundtrack to “Deliverance”).

This gorgeous image is from the British Library and circa 1825. In addition to the square, which appears to be a hybrid form of a miter square and a Melencholia-type square, we also have a curious image of his saw.

The saw looks much like an Egyptian saw that is on its way to Japan to become a backless Kataba. Or perhaps it is Dutch-ish? If you zoom in you can see clearly that the saw is designed to cut on the pull stroke, like an Egyptian saw.

— Christopher Schwarz

After growing up in the Presbyterian church, I became fascinated in college by the Gnostic Gospels – a collection of writings from the 2nd to 4th centuries about aspects of Jesus’ life that aren’t included in Bible we used in Sunday school.

So I was particularly intrigued when Jeff Burks passed me this passage from The Infancy Gospel of Thomas. (Read the full text here.) It was one I hadn’t read in college. This one was translated by M.R. James and appears in the popular “The Apocryphal New Testament” (Clarendon Press, 1924).

It is, quite frankly, the earliest account we have of the mythical board stretcher. Here’s the text:

XIII. 1 Now his father was a carpenter and made at that time ploughs and yokes. And there was required of him a bed by a certain rich man, that he should make it for him. And whereas one beam, that which is called the shifting one was too short and Joseph knew not what to do, the young child Jesus said to his father Joseph: Lay down the two pieces of wood and make them even at the end next unto thee (MSS. at the middle part). And Joseph did as the young child said unto him. And Jesus stood at the other end and took hold upon the shorter beam and stretched it and made it equal with the other. And his father Joseph saw it and marvelled: and he embraced the young child and kissed him, saying: Happy am I for that God hath given me this young child.

The image is from “Canonical histories and apocryphal legends relating to the New Testament represented in drawings with a Latin text.” Edited by Antonio Maria Ceriani, 1873.

— Christopher Schwarz