Boy Cuyler, Now your making my feet itchy, I'd love to see that mill. I've
never been to that end of Canada, but a young guy who works for me is from
Nelson, BC and keeps teasing me with pictures from his cabin. Can you tell
me why the old guys would flip one end of the belts between machines and
form an x instead of just running flat? Where are you located? ctb
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cuyler Page" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 6:12 AM
Subject: Re: Ithaca Lumber Yards


> Bruce,
> What a delight to put the lumber yard memories back in order.   Many many
> thanks.  The images come back clearly now.   The "Tuning Fork" screwed up
> memories as well as city planning.
>
> Driscoll Brothers was indeed east of Aurora St., right beside the creek
> You turned in beside the big Mayflower warehouse and the place was down
> behind the ESSO gas station that has become a pizza place (gas of another
> kind).   The outdoor sheds of the lumber yard were behind the warehouse
> before the printing company building was built, and the millwork shop was
> south and east of the gas station.   The wood shop was long and narrow,
> right beside the creek, and had two levels.   There was a main line shaft
> and belt drives, and there was a turbine below the building.   As a little
> kid, I recall stepping over a scary opening in the floor that looked down
to
> the turbine rumbling away below, and if you stood on a little porch at the
> east end of the shop, you could see where the water rushed out and back
into
> the creek.   All the shop guys were showing me how it worked because my
dad
> took me in there and he was a nice friendly guy that a lot of them knew.
> That workshop atmosphere was a joy of competence and a decent pace of
life.
>
> For many years I have been restoring and running an historic grist mill
with
> belt and pulley drive all the way from the water wheel.   Not a gear in
the
> place.   10 rpm to 20 rpm to 40 rpm to 200 rpm to 400 rpm to 700 rpm.
The
> belt drive systems are very low maintenance due to the slow speeds they
work
> at compared to (good?) direct drive electric motors.   While doing milling
> demonstrations, I have talked with many old timers who confirmed how easy
> and pleasant it was to work with line shafts and belt drives.   One
> especially nice feature is the low pitched quiet sounds generated by low
> speeds.  It is easy to talk while machines are working at 400 rpm instead
of
> 3000+.   If you are musical, you will recognize that the common machine
> speeds are those of the human voice pitches.  Working in the old mill is
> also like having a massage, with vibes at 20 cycles and 40 cycles per
minute
> moving through the floor and up your legs.   You feel relaxed all day as
> opposed to working around high speed electric or gas motors that need to
be
> geared down to working tool speeds, and whose high speed gearing adds
> another aggressive noise.   The high pitched whine makes you tense and you
> weary sooner.   With the advent of electric motors, the most usual refit
was
> to just install a single large multiphase motor to power the entire
existing
> lineshaft system, simply replacing the water power gismos that were a lot
> harder to service.   In my experience, the inner mill power train is a
piece
> of cake that requires only regular lubrication and minor adjustments from
> time to time to account for shifts in the weather, while the water works
> requires frequent maintenance, patching and occasional rebuilding.   The
> belts become friends, each with personalities.   Old time sawmill workers
> have told me the large main drive belt in a mill usually had a personal
name
> and was treated like a living thing.   Direct drive motors on shop tools
> more often showed up in newly built shops, easy to plug in and get going
> quickly, "plug & play" style.   They went along nicely with the new style
of
> ugly bland post-war commercial buildings like the places built at the east
> end of town.
>
> cp in bc
>
> Subject: Ithaca Lumber Yards
> >the mill and building supply store located on Six Mile Creek was
> > Driscoll Brothers, a large operation in a brick building that may've
> fronted
> > on State Street.  It apparently shut down between 1956 and 1960 (judging
> by
> > business directories from those years), part of the business being sold
to
> > become Baker Lumber or possibly (Bob?) Baker Kitchens (a WoodMode rep)
and
> > later forming the partnership called Baker-Miller Lumber of Groton.
It's
> a
> > little hard for me to picture exactly where it was located but it sounds
> as
> > though it was east of Aurora Street in the area where Green Street
(which
> > didn't used to come that far east) forms the south side of "The Tuning
> > Fork."
> >
> > The bus station was located behind the Ithaca Hotel (west of Aurora
> Street)
> > but I'm told there wasn't room for much else before the creek.
> >
> > As to hydro powering the Driscoll Brothers mill I haven't learned
anything
> > on that yet.  In general one whould think that the use of belt drives
> > would've gone out when centralized power sources  or "prime movers" in
> > factories (hydro, large steam or gas engines) were replaced by small
> > electric motors, one for each piece of equipment.  That some mills kept
> them
> > in use for a long period after the advent of good electric motors (I
would
> > think shortly after WWII) suggests they didn't want to make the
investment
> > or had a decent central power source they didn't want to give up.  I
would
> > think that the losses and maintenance associated with spinning all those
> > long shafts and belts had to be pretty high.
> >
> > I hope to have more on Stoddord's Tannery in the next few days.
> >
> > Bruce
> >
> > --
> > To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> > uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> > <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>