The Industrial Revolution of the Puget Sound Frontier
Two local inventors debut a massive, horse-powered stump-pulling machine, promising to clear vast swaths of Washington timberland for a fraction of the cost.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Messrs. E. S. Whittier and A. C. Marston have now in operation on Judge Eldridge's land a machine capable of pulling up, in a few minutes’ time, the roots of the stoutest tree. It has a lifting capacity of 60 tons, and consists of a screw about five inches in diameter suspended from a triangular frame about 20 feet high. The tree must be cut off at about six feet from the ground, the roots excavated so as to admit a strong chain which is fastened overhead to the screwing apparatus. A horse is hitched to the lever attached to a nut on top of the screw which, as he walks or trots in a circle outside the triangular frame, furnishes the power to work upward the machine, snapping the roots with ease. This invention is of the simplest construction, and really may be operated by one man, if necessary, a slight push of the hand being sufficient to lift the stoutest stump. Its use will effect a great revolution in the old-fashioned manner of clearing a ranch. The original cost, freight, and expense of putting it in operation will scarcely exceed $250. A half-dozen settlers might club together and get one and in a few years they could have their land cleared at comparatively little expense. For instance, Whittier and Marston have taken the contract of clearing that 40-acre lot on Eldridge's land, near Bennett's, of about 60 stumps for $150, to remove some of which by the ordinary process of digging and blasting would cost $25 a piece. We believe this is the only machine of the kind on the Sound, and Messrs. Whittier and Marston deserve great credit for introducing so useful an invention among us.
“This invention is of the simplest construction, and really may be operated by one man, if necessary, a slight push of the hand being sufficient to lift the stoutest stump.”
The labor-intensive clearing of dense Pacific Northwest forests was the precursor to the region's massive timber economy. Today, the challenge of 'clearing' has shifted from stumps to high-density urban infill, yet the same entrepreneurial spirit—and the need to make development cost-effective—remains a defining feature of Seattle’s growth.
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