Long-Bell Second Unit Starts

The Long-Bell Lumber Company on l\{ay 3 placed in operation the second unit of its plants at Longview, Wash. It has now without question the largest lumber manufacturing mill in the world, the two plants covering 73.3 acres under roof, and has a designed capacity of 700,000 feet per eight-hour shift.

Previous to opening the new unit the company employed a total of 2100 men, and the adrlitional unit accounted for 600 more. With consequent expansion the company is expected to have riearly 3000 men in its operations, including mill, docks and logging. The new unit will operate one sbift now.

The Long-Bell plants lie on the Washington shore of the Columbia River, 5O miles from the Pacific ocean. The-r are operated by an electrical power plant developing 18,000 kilowatts with waste as fuel, which is ample to drive not only the mill, but the logging operations 3O miles away, to light the town of Ryderwood, center of logging operations, and the city of Longview.

The new unit was designed to cut both fir and hemlock. Its capacity is 300,000 feet per eight-hour shift. The first unit was designed for 400,000 feet per eight-hour shift, but has so far exceeded that output that it has been producing approximately 1.000,000 feet on two eight-hour shifts.

The two plants lie roughly in the shape of a capital letter U with the power plant at the closed end. Only the timber docks and the ship docks are between it and the historic Columbia. All the buildings are painted gray outside and white inside. More than l00O barrels of fire resistant paint were used on the new unit.

The newly opened plant has l4-inch diameter shotgun feeds, Martin air dogs, and a huge deck saw 1O8 inches in diameter. Other equipment in the head mill includes: four 9-foot band mills, one 8-foot band resaw, one 48-inch gang, five edgers, three trimmers, one slasher and two lath machines. Equipment on the timber dock includes; two butting saws, one 24 by 3O-inch sizer and one 6 by ZGinch surfacer. All this equioment has individual motor controls. All live rolls, transfer ihains and lifts have remote controls. There are complete arrangements for separating stock going to timber dock. green chains and stackers.

The timber dock is located between the sawmill and the ship dock. Immediately adjoining the timber dock is a bridge craneway which joins, and is part of the craneway for the west fir unit. This craneway has been extended ll0O feet, and is used for loading lumber directly from the

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