VOLUME 1
More than one year ago--in the June 1964 issue—CHAIN SAW AGE commented editorially that the chain saw manufacturing industry in North America was 25 years old.
So far as portable gasoline-powered chain saws used in tree harvesting are concerned that statement was correct. That it did not correctly apply, however, to chain saws generally, is indicated in an historical article published in 1949 and by the memories of two Pacific North-westerners.
In a “History of Chain Saws” by Charles I. Miller, Department of Forestry and Conservation, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, which appeared in the Southern Lumberman of April, 15, 1949, it is revealed that as early as 1905 the Ashland Iron Works of Ashland, Oregon began manufacture of an air operated chain saw. Although this saw was used by a California firm, it was not a success and its manufacture was abandoned. The development, nevertheless, was significant.
In 1906, Miller notes, the Potlatch Lumber Co. of Potlatch, Idaho started to use a crude log deck chain saw in its sawmill. Several persons worked out this machine which though the company used it for several years, was never patented.
What made this machine important was that it sparked the imagination of a young engineer and inventor named Charles Wolf when he saw it in 1908.
In recent interviews with Jerome L. Wolf of Vancouver, Washington, son of Charles Wolf and an inventor in his own right , and Frank M. Redman, in ex-engineer who has represented the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States in Portland since 1929, CHAIN SAW AGE learned more about the 60-year-old North American chain saw manufacturing industry. For both of these men were participants in its beginnings—Redman being the earlier participant.
A 1907 graduate of Stanford University, where he majored in electrical engineering, Frank Redman went from Stanford to the General Electric Co., at Schenectady, N.Y., where he worked for two years. Charles Steinmetz, the electrical wizard, was with G.E. at the time. Steinmetz had his laboratory at his home, but Redman saw the genius during his frequent visits to the plant—and recalls that he was a chain cigar smoker.
From the General Electric Co. and Schenectady, Redman come to the Pacific Northwest where he went to work for the Washington Water Power Co. at Spokane.
A year later he became associated with Charles Wolf, chief engineer for the Blackwell interests. F.A. Blackwell owned and operated the Panhandle Lumber Co. of Spirit Lake, Idaho; Blackwell Lumber Co. of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and two railroads, one of which was in interurban electric line operating between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.
Charles Wolf needed this young engineer to help him design and install for the Panhandle Lumber Co., an electrically operated sawmill at Ione, Washington. The two men completed this history-making project—for this was the first electric sawmill in the world—in 1911.
Wolf, meanwhile, still thinking about that crude log deck saw he had seen at the Potlatch sawmill, began to work on an improvement on this machine to fill a need. The Blackwell Lumber Co. sawmill at Coeur d’Alene on the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene, had a problem, handling the 40 foot (12 m) logs stored or boomed in the lake. Circular saws were used by other sawmills to cut logs at the deck into suitable lengths for the head-rig to handle, but the circular saws was difficult to use on these large, long logs. A chain saw, Wolf reasoned, would be the answer, and the secret of the chain saw machine, of course, was the saw chain.
Again the Wolf-Redman team went into action and came up with the “Brute” chain illustrated in the accompanying picture of Redman’s drawing.
The improved deck machine went into operation at the Blackwell Lumber Co. sawmill in 1911. It was a success, but Charles Wolf did not have the machine nor the saw chain patented because for him it represented only an explorative application of an idea. He thought the need for such a machine was too limited to warrant the manufacture and sale on a large scale. The machine was later manufactured in limited quantities by the Union Iron Works of Spokane, Washington. It is interesting to note that the “Brute” chain with little or no change, is still in use for the purpose for which it was created.
Redman recalls that long before he came to Portland in December 1917 to work as a sales engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Co., Charles Wolf was working on plans for a portable chain saw.
In 1920 under his patents, production of what is believed to be the world’s first commercially successful portable chain saw was started at the Peninsula Iron Works, Portland, Oregon. The “Wolf Electric Drive Link Saw.” as it was called, was made in three models. Model A had a two-foot (60 cm) cutting capacity and weight of 70 pounds (31.7 kg). Model B a three-foot (91 cm) cutting capacity and weight of 80 pounds (36 kg) and Model C a four-foot (122 cm) cutting capacity and a weight of 90 pounds (40.8 kg). All models were powered by a 1.5 h.p. electric motor.
The design and construction of the entire machine was based on scientific principles and sound engineering practice. This was especially true of the saw chain and was the foundation of its enduring success over the ensuing years.
The saw teeth were of the traditional crosscut configuration used in manual felling and bucking saws. In fact they were arranged longitudinally of the chain so that their appearance and action was similar to that of a two-cutter-tooth crosscut saw. Cutters and rakers acted in opposition to each other which offset the buckling tendency common with a saw chain. In other words, the chain was longitudinally stable and therefore, acted like a rigid saw when cutting.
A special feature of the saw chain was that it was reversible. That is, it operated in either direction so that when the cutters and rakers were dulled on one side the chain could be reversed to bring the opposite cutting edges into action. Thus, the life of the saw chain was substantially prolonged and the amount of filing was correspondingly reduced.
The saw chain cut a kerf that did not exceed 5/16 of an inch (8 mm). With 1.5 h.p. applied and a chain travel approximating 1200 feet-per-minute (365meters-per-minute), it cut bone dry fir timber at the rate of 10 square inches-per-second (64.5 square cm-per-second).
Manufacture of the Wolf chain and machine presented, however, certain production problems which, at that time, the Peninsula Iron Works were not equipped to handle. As a result Charles Wolf subsequently licensed the Reed-Prentice Corp. of Worcester Massachusetts, to manufacture and sell under his patents.
Although originally powered only by an electric motor, the Wolf machine was made available with a pneumatic motor in 1927 and in 1931 with a gas engine.
As early as 1920, Charles Wolf realized that introduction of a chain saw in the logging industry was going to be a formidable and expensive task. Therefore, he created and cultivated a special market for his invention—the construction trade. This trade consisted of contractors, armies, navies, ship yards, mining operators, public utilities, timber treating plants and others.
The saw chain used with the Wolf machine made an absolutely accurate, smmoth, clean line cut at any angle. This feature enabled the construction users to frame single large timbers or a whole pile of such small timbers as flooring, stair stringers, rafters and so on. Among other uses the pneumatic machine had wide spread application in cutting piling and other timbers under water to any depth at which divers could operate.
Jerome Wolf who was associated with his father, in chain saw development, said that there was more than one reason why they concentrated on the construction market instead of logging in the twenties and thirties.
The fallers and buckers of that period were only accustomed to the “misery whip” as they called the manual crosscut saw. They were neither psychologically prepared nor mechanically trained to operate and maintain a machine. Furthermore, we felt that an electric machine, requiring a portable generator to furnish power in the woods, would not be economically feasible in the majority of logging operations. Nevertheless, the Wolf electric machine was introduced in the logging field. In 1929, for example, the Maine Logging Co. of Belfair, Washington, used the machine and reported substantial savings over the hand method. Similar savings were achieved in 1930 at Weyerhaeuser Camp 2, Klamath Falls, Oregon, and at the Booth-Kelly logging operation near Eugene, Oregon. Despite these and other early successes, we felt that a gas engine machine was needed to achieve wide-spread acceptance in the logging field.
“Accordingly, in 1931, our manufacturer, the Reed-Prentice Corporation, produced a Wolf saw powered by a 2 cycle, 4 h.p., air cooled gas engine. The engine, like others of the period, was not entirely satisfactory. For one thing, it weighed 80 pounds (36 kg) which was excessive, especially, in comparison with present day engine weight standards in relation to the horse-power obtained. It was my father’s opinion, and still is mine, that Andreas Stihl of Germany, made the most significant contribution, in the development of the small gas engine for chain saw purposes.”
Charles Miller, in his article, gives great credit to the Wolf saw for the part it played in the industry. “As one would expect,” he wrote in his article, “competition began as soon as the success of the Wolf saw was seen. In the twenties and thirties most of this competition came from Europe…. Several of those European saws were obvious copies of the Wolf saw even down to such items as chain rivet dimensions….At that time the Europeans excelled in production of small gas engines, and as one might expect, these foreign saws were all powered by that type of motor.”
In 1936, Miller recalls, the Andreas Stihl Company of Hamburg, Germany, began to export a 46-pound (20.8 kg) gas-engine-driven chain saw which had been originally designed for the German Army. It was in the late 1930’s that this saw arrived in North America.
The Wolf machine and saw chain were on the market for 22 years, from 1920 to 1942 when the patents expired. According to Jerome Wolf, the sale of the saw chain, sprocket and bar, at least could have continued, without patent protection, for some time after 1942 except for circumstances brought about by World War II.
“Our license agreement with the manufacturer terminated with the expiration of the Wolf patents during the war.” Wolf said. “We did not have manufacturing facilities of our own, consequently in order to continue we arranged for the saw chain and sprocket to be produced by a Portland, Oregon, firm. We began to develop a nice business supplying the Wolf machines already in the field and with others. However, the Portland manufacturing firm’s war business increased to the point where we could no longer be accommodated. As a result, we were forced to abandon operation. After the war was another matter. We recognized that, as good as the Wolf saw chain was, there were technical, dimensional and economical reasons why it would not survive in the post-war chain saw industry except perhaps, in a limited and unprofitable way.”
More than 60 years of failure elapsed between the first United States chain saw patent issued in 1858 and the success of the Wolf saw beginning in 1920. Jerome Wolf explains some of the reasons involved.
“An examination of patent and other records between 1858 and 1920 indicates that most people interested in chain saw development were not qualified. During this period no doubt, there were those who were but they apparently were not interested in such development. My father was both interested and qualified. His mechanical and electrical engineering experience was unusually comprehensive and varied.
“For instance, in the 1890’s, he was associated with John Holland in the development and construction of the first American submarine. Later, in association with Henry Huntington, he was involved in the consolidation and modification of the electric street railway and interurban systems in and around Los Angeles, California. Subsequently he built other electric railways, dams, bridges, tunnels, lights and water systems and whole town-sites. And, eventually he designed and constructed the world’s first all electric sawmill.”
The passing of Charles Wolf in 1952, at the age of 81, marked the end of a colorful and dramatic chapter in the history of the chain saw industry. But significantly it does not necessarily mean the end of the Wolf name in the book. Recently, his son, Jerome Wolf, disclosed to CHAIN SAW AGE that he has developed and patented a new reversible saw chain that performs both precision and non precision work, and which he is now ready to offer to manufacturers. An important feature of the new Wolf Reversible Saw Chain is that it will cost the user, he asserted, at least 50% less than the conventional chain now in universal use. |