Next in this mill a spring was employed to maintain a sensitive automatic strain on the saw; and this, like the other special features of the mill, proved worthless, and the mill, like the Allington, went out of use and is unknown to the art now. Now in all the preceding it is shown that Saw Mill Machinery Builders were studiously striving during all the years between 1880 and 1887, and some of them to a much later date, to produce a Band Mill for sawing logs that would do good work and as much of it as lumbermen would be satisfied with, and that, too, without so much cracking and breaking of saws. The simple fact that they were continually devising new constructions with a statement each time that now they had struck it, and the further fact that without an exception all of these were entirely abandoned and fundamentally new machines brought out at a later date, prove indubitably that all of their former efforts had failed to meet the full requirements which lumbermen expected and demanded. The question then naturally arises, how did it come about that successful cutting band mills of a wholly different type are now universally in use? Who is the man who originated the strictly modern band mill that served as a pattern for all to follow? The following will explain it: Aug. 23 and Sept. 13, 1887, patents were issued to D. C. Prescott, then of Marinette, Wis., for improvements in Band Saw Mills, and other patents followed shortly thereafter on further improvements. [Illustration: D. C. Prescott in 1887] The creation of these mills was purely upon the principle previously described by Mr. Esplin who so signally failed in its application. Plainly it was evident that to secure a nervous, sensitive and constant strain on a band saw, it was imperative to reduce the weight upon the straining levers to the least possible quantity consistent with strength, and to make all the pivotal points as near frictionless as possible by the intervention of knife edges or ball bearings; and while it was impossible to reduce the weight to a point so as to accomplish an automatic adjustment as quick as a flash, it is a fact, nevertheless, that in the Prescott mills of that date a strain was automatically maintained sufficient to successfully accomplish the work of sawing lumber accurately and in acceptable quantities. And these were the mills that set the pace for all other builders and revolutionized saw mill constructions. [Illustration: PRESCOTT BAND SAW MILL Patented September 13, 1887; over 150 built and most of them are in service at the present time, 1910] [Illustration: PRESCOTT BAND SAW MILL Patented November 26, 1889, with set-off for increased space from saw line to column. 8 foot wheels, 12 inch saws]