Hi all! Long time no see... I live just south of Victoria BC, but are a pure bred Swede with long history in Swedish logging. I am now working on mapping the history of the Scandinavian logging machines. A lot of todays modern harvester heads were developed in Sweden around 1980. They were developed from the bigger processors that came for CTL logging in the midst of the 1960'ies. In Sweden a stroke delimber named Logma was developed around 1965. At the same time we could see the presence of the Beloit Tree Harvester that delimbed standing tree, clipped the top and then cut by the stump end bunched the trees on the ground. Now i wonder if there was any "Logma-like" delimbers in North America prior to the time Logma was developed in Sweden. I do claim the hypothesis that the Beloit can be part of what inspired engineer KG Jörgensen to design Logma, but I think there is more North American influence behind Logma. Thats why I need your help with some history knowledge. Thanks all Per Agesson Port Angeles WA USA [video=youtube;scyyalF9JWI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scyyalF9JWI[/video]
First time I saw a “delimber” was 1974 I was chasing on a Skylok and we had Drott 40 Cruz-Aire for a shovel. We were logging an alder patch with alder, hemlock and a bit of fir. Both the second loader and I kept our saws running all day trying to keep up with knot bumping. One day Dickie Rhodes, took his shovel, stood a fir on end and ran his grapples down the stem breaking off all limbs. Process of course did not work on alder and the hemlock was too springy. But with him stripping the fir that came in we got a bit of a breather once in a while. I wore out two new 041 Stihls that summer. Now that was not an official delimber, but it worked for us. That was Snoqualmie Weyerhaeuser up on the lower Tolt.
Follow the patent history it might provide some clues. If the prototypes did not work they probably did not patent them. http://www.google.com/patents/US3443611 Robert L Propst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Propst_(inventor)
Plebeian, Great Thanks for the leads! I like the patent link for the Logma. I also really appreciate the link to inventor Robert L Propst ( http://www.google.com/patents/US3140736 ), which obviously, 1962, was the one inventing the predecessor to the Beloit Tree Harvester. (Moore Lawrence A 1963) http://www.google.com/patents/US3269436 I actually saw the Beloit in real action around 1965-66 in Sweden. The Swedish forestry industry brought a couple of them over for testing....