MILLING & CONSTRUCTION BEFORE ELECTRICITY

Our bungalows are products of old technology. All the wood in our framing, our siding, our shingles, treasured built-ins, a main feature of the character of our homes, our wainscoting was milled by machines, likely powered by steam or coal or sweat. The oldest electric mill that I can find in my research, was in Elk River, Idaho, back in 1912.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The Arts & Crafts Movement of the 19th Century was born as a reaction to the more mechanized world of the Industrial Revolution. This revolution increased production capacity by 1,000 fold in every industry. Instead of the artisan’s handcrafting of a beautiful chair, a factory churned out hundreds of chairs & fitted them with fancy gee-gaws. This had a major impact on people’s daily lives. Instead of working in a craft studio, or on the family farm, people swarmed to the cities where they went to work in a factory tending huge, whirring machines & earned the where-with-all to purchase these items- at least some of them did. Thanks to Charles Dickens we know that many remained ill-fed, unhoused & impoverished, orphaned & barefoot while some thrived, amassing great fortunes.

The grandfather of the Arts & Crafts Movement, John Ruskin had much to say on the matter. His statement, “Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness,” eloquently summarized the philosophy of the Movement.

(Looking at these images of children slaving to help feed their families makes me very weary. Oh, yeah. If they had families)

THE ENERGY THAT SUPPORTED CONSTRUCTION PRIOR TO ELECTRICITY

The key driver of the Industrial Revolution was the harnessing of energy. With this ability to control power, our old growth forests could be razed & milled. The logs could be turned into lumber for homes, furniture & indeed, into the factory buildings that held the mills, some of these being thousands of square feet in size.

However, even prior to the coal powered steam engine was the invention of the line shaft which allowed many machines to be operated from one energy source, be it steam, water, wind or even animal.

AN OSHA NIGHTMARE

A line shaft is a power-driven rotating shaft for power transmission that distributed power from a large central power source to individual pieces of machinery throughout a workshop or an industrial complex. The central power source could be a water wheel, windmill, animal power or a steam engine. Originally, most had probably been powered by steam but in later years they were powered by a huge electric motor. In many cases, the individual machines were still set up for and connected to the line shaft system, so rather than replacing the machines, they just updated the power supplier.

These machines were an OSHA nightmare. Loud and dangerous with no safety features, they exemplified Industrial Age technology during which time thousands of people left their farms & surged into cities to work in the factories & loose fingers, limbs & lives to these behemoths.

These machines factored largely in the building of our bungalows. I do not believe that construction prior to electricity would have existed on any scale without the use of line shaft.

LINE SHAFT CONSTRUCTION

Here’s how it was constructed:
On the floor, or on the ceiling, was the power source, attached to the main shaft which it propelled by a belt attached to a pulley.

Hanging from the wood ceiling beams was the counter (or intermediate) shaft , a long, thick heavy, (often hundreds of pounds) metal rod. This shaft was attached to the high ceiling beams by heavy metal hangers.

Attached to this counter shaft were round metal pulleys, ranging in size from around 6″ in diameter to 36.” Long belts made of leather or fabric (usually leather) ran across these pulleys, to pulleys on the individual machines giving each  individual machine its power.  This was all suspended over a great expanse, as high as 15 feet it the air.

There were no safety features, nor procedures. The belts, spinning rapidly, could pull a worker by a limb, by a garment or by the hair into the machine, spinning him round & round before throwing him into the air & into yet another belt, a machine, or onto the hard concrete floor.

THE LINE SHAFT & YOUR BUNGALOW

When you next admire the beautiful features of your house, consider the part that line shafts & the hard-working people who operated them played. Observe a moment of silence in honor of those who toiled for so little in this cacophony, losing limbs & lives to mill the materials that make your house so beautiful.

When I see an old house being destroyed, I am saddened by the lost of beauty, but my heart breaks for those who toiled to create them, logging in the harsh conditions of the forest, or risking their lives to build our houses.

This is why I urge you all to take a stand for our built heritage. It’s more than just the houses.

STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!

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