by By Dale Butterworth and Tom Whalen
Agicook Press, 2007
Tom Whalen, of Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts, and Whitefield, New Hampshire, and his mentor of 25 years, Dale Butterworth of Cumberland, Maine, have parlayed their long-time interest in collecting tools into a wonderfully readable book that looks at a facet of the logging industry that may not be well known to those outside the field. From Logs to Lumber: A History of People & Rule Making in New England is an in-depth look at log rules and calipers – tools that are used to measure the amount of wood in a log.
Whalen and Butterworth have put together an outstanding history of these early logging tools, which includes information on the well known rule makers, as well as those less famous. The book is chockfull of photos of old tools, many of which bear their maker’s mark, along with a nice selection of vintage photos of the men who used the tools. The anecdotes the authors collected and the old timers they were able to interview are what make the book truly appealing, even to someone not affiliated with the wood industry.
Whalen and Butterworth have documented 42 New England log-rule makers, who plied their trade – some full-time, some only in the off seasons – in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
The log rule makers were a varied bunch that included carpenters, cabinetmakers, farmers, log scalers and even a woman violinist. Through constant trial and error, they perfected these tools that served as the early computers of their day.
Bangor, Maine, carpenter Asa Norton introduced the first commercial log rule in the 1840s. By 1861, the Asa Norton Log Rule had been approved by the state legislature to be used throughout the Penosbscot River Region. As the thirst for wood from the huge forests of northern New England continued, peaking from 1865 to 1910, many more men turned their hands to developing better methods of measuring the amount of lumber that a log would yield.
The craft of making log rules and calipers continued well into the second half of the 20th century, but the use of these tools has declined of late. Dave Thompson, of Lincoln, New Hampshire, continues to make log rules and calipers but suggests that most of their days are now behind us. “With more saw mills closing every day, and with the forest industry’s measuring methods changing to laser scaling and buying logs by weight, the days of the log scaler are surely numbered,” he says.
As such, the book is both an important historical reference and a valuable resource for anyone who is interested in tools or logging.