ctb:

The Cayuga Lumber mill couldn't have been run via water power as there is no
head available and the flow is pretty low much of the time.  Even upstream
at the flood control dam there is only about 3 feet of head (if that--barely
enough to run a small mill) as I recollect.  The flood control project
wouldn't have changed things as it didn't affect the level of the lake as
far as I know (the water level at Cayuga Lumber woud've been pretty close to
that of the lake).

My first job out of college involved working with small hydro in New England
and the first job site I worked had a belt-driven mill that could be driven
by either a Leffel turbine (about 6-8 feet of head) or an immense (to me)
steam engine (it took up about a fifteen by thrity foot room, had about an
eight foot diameter flywheel).  The company I worked for provided a new
hydro-electric turbine and made the belt system obsolete (Leffel was rude to
the owner when he visited their plant so he decided to not replace the
original mechanical turbine).  The owner sold the shafts and belts but the
steam engine remained (the boiler for it was about as big as the engine room
as I recall but I think firing it up would be too dangerous).

Some of my fondest recollections of the west end of Ithaca (I grew up, until
age 11, opposite Washington Park, about six blocks east) involved visiting
the other lumber yard (Robinson's?) that was a little downstream of Cayuga
Lumber.  Their mill building always seemed to be in danger of falling into
the creek.  We would go here on Saturdays to pick up wood that my folks had
planed there and I can still remember a short slender guy, dressed in kakhi
work clothes, with thin, slicked back hair and glasses who always seemed to
wait on us.

Other memories involved hitching rides on the switching locomotives as they
worked rail cars around the west end.  This probably only happened once or
twice but it certainly was a high point of hanging around that area.  (And,
of course, putting pennies and pieces of ballast on the rails to see what
was left after the train passed.)  Later in life I sometimes had the
pleasure of refueling the engines when I worked for Agway Petroleum one
winter (dropping 500 or so gallons once or twice a week just a mile or so
from our depot was considered a plum job, one the regular drivers didn't
like to give up).

Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: vgernet.net [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 4:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Eve & Festus

 Speaking
of Festus, I remember working with him for his dad unloading bagged cement
at Cayuga Lumber. Part of that facility was an immense woodworking mill,
complete with planers, gang saws, band saws, ect , all operated by complex
leather belt and pulley system. I don't remember the power plant , but it
could have been water at one time. All gone when flood control project came
through.ctb
-----

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