Donkey engine and loggers with contemporary and vintage clothing and equipment — 5/26/1982 — #67734_1
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Photograph Copyright Anderson & Middleton Company
United States — Washington (State)
Rayonier Inc.
The original negative envelope described the subject as "safety pants for loggers."
Thanks to Wayne Sutton who adds: "The history of chainsaws is for the most part unexplored. They were conceived many years ago and there are accounts of one-off machines that were built by industrious inventors around 1900. Patents for part or entire saws were granted all through the late 1800's and early 1900's. Several patents were granted to Charles Wolf of Vancouver, Washington; he actually had some success marketing his Link Saw design beginning in about 1920. In 1926, Andreas STIHL in Germany developed and began selling his machines. Then things began to move much more rapidly and as the Second World War approached there were a number of folks testing the waters. Many of them, like Seattle's Mill and Mine, had been distributors for STIHL and since they were finding it difficult to get the German-built machines as the war approached, they went into production for themselves. This is one of the reasons you might hear Andreas STIHL said to be the father of the modern chainsaw, since most of the machines and companies have some traceable ancestry back to STIHL.”
Thanks to Sam Talley who notes: "In all the photos you see of people working in the woods prior to the late 1940's, few if any of the people will be wearing hard hats or 'skull buckets' even though hard hats were invented in 1898. In 1938 aluminum hats were invented but they had a big drawback. Aluminum is a good conductor of electricity so these 'tin hats' did not catch on with loggers until the late 1940's or early 1950's. It was at that time that the loggers learned a good hard hat could protect them from 'widow makers' or branches falling from high up in trees. During this time plastic ones were invented and made in different colors. Traditionally, white was for supervisors, blue for technicians, red for safety personnel, and yellow for laborers. Many loggers in Grays Harbor continue to prefer the metal hats which are still available for about $75.00 each, considerably more than the plastic ones. This writer started bringing home hard hats found in the woods, at garbage dumps, along roads, on fence posts etc. about 40 years ago and I now have about 200 of them in all different colors and styles. The aluminum ones are my favorites."
