A Circular Saw, a Jammed Board, and a Mill Hand's Narrow Escape
L. C. Grimmel lost a finger and nearly his whole hand at Johnson & Co.'s mill when a stuck board freed the saw without warning.
Last Friday afternoon L. C. Grimmel met with a painful accident at Johnson & Co.'s door and blind mill. He was cutting out material on the circular saw when a piece of the board became jammed between the saw and frame, stopping the saw and causing the belts to slip on the wheels. Mr. Grimmel stepped forward to detach the belts, but his attention was called elsewhere, and when he came back to the table he attempted to remove the piece of wood. The moment it was loosened the saw started and Grimmel's hand was drawn forward. The little finger was cut smooth off at the hand, and had not the saw immediately become jammed again every finger would have been amputated. Morgan dressed the wounded hand, and the unlucky individual is as well as could be expected.
“The little finger was cut smooth off at the hand, and had not the saw immediately become jammed again every finger would have been amputated.”
Mill and saw accidents were routine hazards in Spokane's early industrial economy, before workers' compensation or modern machine guarding. The story is a reminder that the city's lumber-fed boom was built on bodily risk.
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