The Future of Arboriculture - steam powered chainsaw and other contraptions

[William]

I found an old forestry/arb book at a second hand book shop a while ago and finally got round to taking a good look at it this weekend. The book is called The Forester by James Brown and is a fifth edition dated 1882. There are loads of references to arb, and a section called 'The future of arboriculture'. I've added a few scanned images - my favourite is the steam powered chainsaw (first pic) known as the 'tree-feller'. There's also a horse drawn hedge trimmer (second pic) and horse drawn tree transplanting machine (third pic)

 

Has anyone seen this book before?

[Ian Clarke]

wow thats cool i may have to have a look in my local charity shop

[PeteB]

Intriguing find, have a good read and post the best bits. Well Done.

[John Russell]

I found an old forestry/arb book at a second hand book shop a while ago and finally got round to taking a good look at it this weekend. The book is called The Forester by James Brown and is a fifth edition dated 1882. There are loads of references to arb, and a section called 'The future of arboriculture'. I've added a few scanned images - my favourite is the steam powered chainsaw (first pic) known as the 'tree-feller'. There's also a horse drawn hedge trimmer (second pic) and horse drawn tree transplanting machine (third pic)

 

Has anyone seen this book before?

 

I love the bit, " the 'tree-feller' can be slung on poles and carried about by four men...".

 

What's interesting is when predicting the future, invariably people can only think that we'll just have better/bigger/faster/more advanced versions of the same things as exist now; whereas the reality is that 9 times out of 10 something completely unexpected always comes along to change things in ways we cannot imagine.

 

Best wishes,

 

John Russell

[Craig Johnson]

i think that kew still have one of those tree moving carts