HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 22 - Inventions
Continued


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Transcribed and contributed to the USGenWeb Archives by Timm
Severud Ondamitag@aol.com

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

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Faithful Record of all Important Events, Incidents, and
Circumstances that have Transpired in the Valley of the
Chippewa from its Earliest Settlement by White People,
Indian Treaties, Organization of the Territory and State;
Also of the Counties Embracing the Valley, Senatorial,
Assembly and Congressional Districts, and a Brief
Biographical Sketch of the Most Prominent Persons in the
Settlement of the Valley. BY Thomas E. Randall 1875.  Free
Press Print.  Eau Claire, Wisconsin

CHAPTER 22 - Inventions Continued

In the preceding chapters of work, reference has frequently
been made to booms, and presuming that most of my readers
understand the meaning of the term, as used here in
contradistinction to it nautical definition, as the main-,
jib-, and studding-sail-boom, no explanation has been deemed
necessary in regard to its signification; but the different
methods of construction, using and fastening, together with
improvements added by inventors in the structure and
arrangement of certain kinds of booms, or booms for certain
localities, as also a succinct account of a patent obtained
for the same, will constitute the principle topic of this
chapter.

In construction, the booms on this river are of two kinds,
stiff and thorough-shot, and are adapted to two principle
purposes, and designated a jam-boom and a shear-boom. The
former, as its name indicates, is a fixed obstruction placed
in the river, or across some part or channel of the river,
so as to effectively stop the logs, and retain them there
until wanted for the mill, or to form into rafts, and is
usually thorough-shot boom, and is formed of very strong
timbers, coupled at the ends with six-inch bolts, or
thorough-shots, the ends of the two timbers with one long
one between them; they are usually hewn on two sides, and
the sections constructed are fastened to the piers planted
in the bed of the river at suitable distances to afford
support, either by driving piles, if the bottom is sand or
gravel, or, if rock, by filling cribs with immense piles of
stones; ponderous chains being used for the purpose. Many
such piers are erected at various points on this river,
extending down from the foot of some island, so as to
increase the storage capacity of a boom to which the island
affords the starting point.

But the boom that guides, or 'shears' the logs out of the
main channel of the river into those side receptacles, is a
thing of very different construction, and to so construct
and arrange a boom of this kind in a navigable river, where
steam boats and rafts are frequently passing, that no delay
or interruption shall occur, and at the same time direct all
the logs floating in a swollen river, out of the rapids
current into the side boom has taxed the ingenuity and
resources of some of the first inventors of the age, and
best business men in the Northwest. It will readily be
supposed that such a boom must present a straight, smooth
surface to the logs that float against it; that very strong
supports of some kind must sustain it at different points
against the powerful current, or it would trail with it;
that it must be stiff, and of great strength; and, finally
that it must be flat, and wide enough for a man to walk and
work upon, to facilitate the forwarding of logs, lest they
accumulate by the pressure of the current. It must also be
apparent to the reader that such a boom or at least the
lower portion, must have some contrivance by which it can be
swung, or closed and opened readily; and this was the great
difficulty, the grand problem to be solved - the opening and
shutting of the gate so rapidly and securely that no
detention should be caused to boats or rafts, and yet save
all the logs. Long and sorely was this difficulty felt by
those mill men on this river, who erected steam mills and
side booms or reservoirs for logs below the Falls, with a
view to shear their logs into such receptacles, before any
successful process was presented by which it could be
overcome. But genius and persistent effort have accomplished
the desired end, and it will be the object of the chapter to
set forth the wonderful invention to which it is due. It was
not a new want, for on many other rivers it had been found
desirable to arrest logs floating on their surface, and
shear them into places of safety; and great losses had been
experienced on the Mississippi River and streams for want of
such a gate. It has been previously stated the Daniel Shaw,
in 1856, selected the Half Moon Lake as a safety reservoir
for logs; that he and other parties associated connect the
lake with the Chippewa River by a canal and established a
shear-boom to guide their logs into said lake through the
canal; but the manner in which this undertaking was first
attempted was far from satisfactory. At a projecting point
of rocks about one hundred rods above the canal, on the
opposite bank of the river, a stiff boom formed by fastening
together three or more pieces of heavy square timber in
consecutive lengths, was made fast to the rock and extended
nearly down to the canal, where piers and sorting works were
erected to facilitate the separation from theirs of such
logs as were required to pass on. Chains attached to anchors
supported this boom at sort intervals, and at the lower end
a windlass and chain forced it up so near to the shore where
the artificial channel was opened as to guide most of the
logs therein; but great difficulty attended the opening and
closing of this swing gate by such an apparatus, to pass
rafts and steamboats, and many logs went by before it could
be closed by such clumsy machinery; moreover, when the water
was high and logs running plentifully, the anchor chains
were found insufficient and the windlass powerless to force
the boom up against the strong current, so as to switch them
out the channel into the sage receptacle provided for them.

Adin Randall, one of the company, contracted with the
association to perform the labor and secure all the logs for
a consideration, and for two years struggled hard to comply
with his agreement; but owning to the inefficiency of his
machinery and arrangements, many logs were lost and Half
Moon Lake, as a depository for logs bad fair to become a
failure, owing to the difficulty to getting them in there.

But in 1859 a contract was made with James Allen and Levi W.
Pond, in which those gentlemen bound themselves to perform
what Mr. Randall had failed in a measure to do; care being
taken, it seems, from the tenor of the agreement, to
stipulate that the same machinery should be used, and by the
same process as that employed by Mr. Randall. This contract
was for a term of five years; but these men were not only
skilful and practical operators in such matters, but
scientific inventors, and by long and careful
experimentation were enabled to work out the details of a
boom moved and operated on very different principles, and to
compel the very element against which they contended to
serve them - a boom that would open and shut across the
river independent of chains, anchors or windlasses, and
without any external aid.

Grand and seemingly inconceivable as the idea must appear to
the reader, that pieces of timber fastened together so as to
form a slender raft several hundred feet in length might
float the river, securely fastened at the up-stream end to
the shore, and that it would swing by itself up stream, and
stretch itself obliquely across the river, holding itself
against the head long torrent and crushing masses of
floating logs and driftwood as if firmly anchored to a rock-
bound shore; yet the inventive genius of these poor, hard-
working, but practical men not only conceived of the thing,
but reduced it to a positive demonstration. Mr. Pond informs
me that, like many other inventions, the incipient idea was
derived from a very commonplace circumstance; that in
operation the windlass it was found convenient to us a scow
at the lower end, and place on the lower side of the boom as
at first arranged, and that at one time a heavy strain was
brought to bear upon the end up the stream, which forced the
stern or lower end out from the boom at an angle of thirty
degrees or more; and by careful observation it was
ascertained that the current set with such force against the
side of the scow, held thus obliquely to it, in opposition
to its force on the other side of the boom, as to very
perceptibly move it up against the current. And right there
was evolved the principle which required development to
produce a machine of immense value to the world; and in
1862, Mr. Pond and Mr. Allen actually applied this principle
in the management of their boom, by attaching wings or
rudders at intervals along the lower edge of the boom, in
such a manner that they would lie close by its side when
necessary to open it for rafts or boats to pass, or could be
expanded by a rope attached to the other ends, and extending
the upper end of the boom, where a windlass was employed to
force the rudder out against the current, which, reacting
against the pressure on the opposite side, held the boom and
all the logs that came against it across this powerful
current, and glanced or steered them with wonderful facility
into the desired haven.

An invention involving so many nice adjustments, which could
only be made when the water was high and logs running,
required much time to perfect all its arrangements, so as to
adapt it to all the varied circumstances and conditions of
low water and flood; and as there ere only a few weeks or
months in the year in which experiments could be made, and
as all these were necessarily open to the public, other
parties copied it, and commenced using it before it wsa so
far complete in all its parts as to warrant applicaton for a
patent. Want of means to prosecute it also deterred Mr. Pond
from obtaining a patent on his invention; and with the aid
of the Eau Claire Lumber Company, such application was made,
with modes all complete, so much time elapsed that a special
act of Congress was necessary to relieve the applicant from
the disability of not having applied soon enough, as, by the
patent law, prior use of the invention for more than two
years by other parties rendered it liable to objection; but,
under the peculiar circumstances, Congress thought the two
year privilege enjoyed by all inventors out in this instance
be enlarged, and, therefore, passed the act for Mr. Pond's
relief. This, however, was in 1870, two years after the
granting of the patent.

The association owning the boom upon which those experiments
were made gave Mr. Pond and his associates two thousand
dollars for the privilege of using his invention at that
point, and certified to it practical worth and utility
saying 'It has stood the test of the highest freshets is
easily and cheaply constructed,' and recommending it to all
who have occasion for such an invention.