Technological Changes. The Circular Saw, The Yankee Gang Gate, 1872.
Introduced after 1840, the circular saw was normally used for edging and butting the planks as they came from the gang saw.
A description of the Operation of the Yankee Gang Gate is found in The Lumber Trade of the Ottawa Valley, 1871..."The slabbergate, which contains from 18 to 20 saws, cuts the outside of the log into boards 1 inch thick, leaving the bulk in a slab of 14 inches in thickness, and of different width according to the size of the log, 37 inches, being the largest. As the saw gets through the end of the log, these outside pieces are taken away and trimmed to the required size of the cutter and edger. The large slab is then turned over on the flat side and run through the stockgang, which contains from 30 to 40 saws placed about 1 inch apart and sawing the slab into 1 inch boards. These saws can be changed at will to saw 2 inch or 3 inch boards. It takes these saws about 8 minutes each to get through a log of the ordinary size. The Yankee-gate is a combination of the slabber and stock-gate, and contains about 32 saws. This gang saws both ways, the teeth of the slabber facing one way and those of the stock the other. By this means the log is sawn by the slabber as described above and the slab turned over and sent back through the stock gate, so that while the slabber gang is dividing one log the stock is finishing off another. The single saw is used for sawing the logs into pieces of about 3 inches square, the gate acting in the same way as the other gangs, but with only one saw which performs the whole work. These gangs are all worked on upright pivots, the machinery underneath forcing the gate up and down at a considerable rate on the principle as the old saw-pit fashion where one man works on top of the log and another underneath...."
Gang saws were introduced in saw mills about 1835 and reached their zenith of perfection about 1870.
Courtesy: Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum, Montreal
