And yet, with all the splendid service he rendered the lumbermen of this country, he was allowed to go down to his death with not enough to pay his funeral expenses, and few to do him honor. The men with whom he dealt are now mostly dead, but the living successors should remember that to him they are largely indebted for the full measure of prosperity they now enjoy. [Illustration: Mr. E. H. Stearns in 1885] [Illustration: BAND SAW MILL OF E. P. ALLIS & CO. Described as the latest candidate in the NORTHWESTERN LUMBERMAN of January 9, 1886] In 1885 E. P. Allis & Co. of Milwaukee, Wis., actively began operations with Band Mills for sawing logs. In principle their constructions were similar to all the others heretofore named, but for nearly four years they persistently adhered to a mill having at least one glaring defect, namely, overhanging wheels; that is, there was no supporting boxes outside of them. In 1889 they corrected this defect. But the amusing feature in the mill of E. P. Allis & Co. is shown in the effort to keep the slack slide of the saw on the back side of the mill where it belongs, and thus prevent making snakey or dishy lumber. The overhanging wheels, nine feet in diameter for eight-inch saws, are shown. The top wheel was almost entirely of wood, and the spokes were flat and wide, the object being to obtain an atmospheric resistance continually as a pull back on the cutting side of the saw. A tightener pulley was also applied to the saw on the rear side. This sounded good and they sold a lot of mills on the strength of it; but the wind that came from them would blow the sawyer out of the mill unless the wheel was boxed in, and finally it happened that a saw came off and the wheel did not meet with resistance enough to stop itself, but kept on going, and that burst the bubble. Attention is also directed to the fact that the combination of a circular saw with a band saw, as in the Stearns’ mill, was adopted by the Allis Company. [Illustration: Second Band Saw Mill of E. P. Allis & Co.] Improved Reliance Band Saw Mill of E. P. Allis & Co. Advertised in the Southern Lumberman, January 1, 1889, as the “best on earth.” This mill they continued to build until 1892. It shows metallic wheels and supporting arms outside of them as in the Stearns mills. [Illustration: Band Saw Mill of Benjamin & Fischer] Feby. 14, 1885, The Northwestern Lumberman caused a shiver to run through the mechanical world by publishing an account of “A New Entry,” and showing two illustrations of a Band Mill for sawing logs invented by Mr. Benjamin of the firm of Benjamin & Fischer of Chicago, Ill. It was extensively advertised, and really was an ingenious mill. It was intended to correct the defects existing in other mills which had made such crooked lumber, cracked saws, and performed all sorts of mischief, which they really had, and there was no doubt about it.