In the preceding chapters of work, reference has frequently been made to booms, and presuming that most of my readers understand the meaning of the term, as used here in contradistinction to it nautical definition, as the main-, jib-, and studding-sail-boom, no explanation has been deemed necessary in regard to its signification; but the different methods of construction, using and fastening, together with improvements added by inventors in the structure and arrangement of certain kinds of booms, or booms for certain localities, as also a succinct account of a patent obtained for the same, will constitute the principle topic of this chapter. In construction, the booms on this river are of two kinds, stiff and thorough-shot, and are adapted to two principle purposes, and designated a jam-boom and a shear-boom. The former, as its name indicates, is a fixed obstruction placed in the river, or across some part or channel of the river, so as to effectively stop the logs, and retain them there until wanted for the mill, or to form into rafts, and is usually thorough-shot boom, and is formed of very strong timbers, coupled at the ends with six-inch bolts, or thorough-shots, the ends of the two timbers with one long one between them; they are usually hewn on two sides, and the sections constructed are fastened to the piers planted in the bed of the river at suitable distances to afford support, either by driving piles, if the bottom is sand or gravel, or, if rock, by filling cribs with immense piles of stones; ponderous chains being used for the purpose. Many such piers are erected at various points on this river, extending down from the foot of some island, so as to increase the storage capacity of a boom to which the island affords the starting point. But the boom that guides, or 'shears' the logs out of the main channel of the river into those side receptacles, is a thing of very different construction, and to so construct and arrange a boom of this kind in a navigable river, where steam boats and rafts are frequently passing, that no delay or interruption shall occur, and at the same time direct all the logs floating in a swollen river, out of the rapids current into the side boom has taxed the ingenuity and resources of some of the first inventors of the age, and best business men in the Northwest. It will readily be supposed that such a boom must present a straight, smooth surface to the logs that float against it; that very strong supports of some kind must sustain it at different points against the powerful current, or it would trail with it; that it must be stiff, and of great strength; and, finally that it must be flat, and wide enough for a man to walk and work upon, to facilitate the forwarding of logs, lest they accumulate by the pressure of the current. It must also be apparent to the reader that such a boom or at least the lower portion, must have some contrivance by which it can be swung, or closed and opened readily; and this was the great difficulty, the grand problem to be solved - the opening and shutting of the gate so rapidly and securely that no detention should be caused to boats or rafts, and yet save all the logs. Long and sorely was this difficulty felt by those mill men on this river, who erected steam mills and side booms or reservoirs for logs below the Falls, with a view to shear their logs into such receptacles, before any successful process was presented by which it could be overcome. But genius and persistent effort have accomplished the desired end, and it will be the object of the chapter to set forth the wonderful invention to which it is due. It was not a new want, for on many other rivers it had been found desirable to arrest logs floating on their surface, and shear them into places of safety; and great losses had been experienced on the Mississippi River and streams for want of such a gate. It has been previously stated the Daniel Shaw, in 1856, selected the Half Moon Lake as a safety reservoir for logs; that he and other parties associated connect the lake with the Chippewa River by a canal and established a shear-boom to guide their logs into said lake through the canal; but the manner in which this undertaking was first attempted was far from satisfactory. At a projecting point of rocks about one hundred rods above the canal, on the opposite bank of the river, a stiff boom formed by fastening together three or more pieces of heavy square timber in consecutive lengths, was made fast to the rock and extended nearly down to the canal, where piers and sorting works were erected to facilitate the separation from theirs of such logs as were required to pass on. Chains attached to anchors supported this boom at sort intervals, and at the lower end a windlass and chain forced it up so near to the shore where the artificial channel was opened as to guide most of the logs therein; but great difficulty attended the opening and closing of this swing gate by such an apparatus, to pass rafts and steamboats, and many logs went by before it could be closed by such clumsy machinery; moreover, when the water was high and logs running plentifully, the anchor chains were found insufficient and the windlass powerless to force the boom up against the strong current, so as to switch them out the channel into the sage receptacle provided for them. Adin Randall, one of the company, contracted with the association to perform the labor and secure all the logs for a consideration, and for two years struggled hard to comply with his agreement; but owning to the inefficiency of his machinery and arrangements, many logs were lost and Half Moon Lake, as a depository for logs bad fair to become a failure, owing to the difficulty to getting them in there. But in 1859 a contract was made with James Allen and Levi W. Pond, in which those gentlemen bound themselves to perform what Mr. Randall had failed in a measure to do; care being taken, it seems, from the tenor of the agreement, to stipulate that the same machinery should be used, and by the same process as that employed by Mr. Randall. This contract was for a term of five years; but these men were not only skilful and practical operators in such matters, but scientific inventors, and by long and careful experimentation were enabled to work out the details of a boom moved and operated on very different principles, and to compel the very element against which they contended to serve them - a boom that would open and shut across the river independent of chains, anchors or windlasses, and without any external aid. Grand and seemingly inconceivable as the idea must appear to the reader, that pieces of timber fastened together so as to form a slender raft several hundred feet in length might float the river, securely fastened at the up-stream end to the shore, and that it would swing by itself up stream, and stretch itself obliquely across the river, holding itself against the head long torrent and crushing masses of floating logs and driftwood as if firmly anchored to a rock-bound shore; yet the inventive genius of these poor, hard-working, but practical men not only conceived of the thing, but reduced it to a positive demonstration. Mr. Pond informs me that, like many other inventions, the incipient idea was derived from a very commonplace circumstance; that in operation the windlass it was found convenient to us a scow at the lower end, and place on the lower side of the boom as at first arranged, and that at one time a heavy strain was brought to bear upon the end up the stream, which forced the stern or lower end out from the boom at an angle of thirty degrees or more; and by careful observation it was ascertained that the current set with such force against the side of the scow, held thus obliquely to it, in opposition to its force on the other side of the boom, as to very perceptibly move it up against the current. And right there was evolved the principle which required development to produce a machine of immense value to the world; and in 1862, Mr. Pond and Mr. Allen actually applied this principle in the management of their boom, by attaching wings or rudders at intervals along the lower edge of the boom, in such a manner that they would lie close by its side when necessary to open it for rafts or boats to pass, or could be expanded by a rope attached to the other ends, and extending the upper end of the boom, where a windlass was employed to force the rudder out against the current, which, reacting against the pressure on the opposite side, held the boom and all the logs that came against it across this powerful current, and glanced or steered them with wonderful facility into the desired haven. An invention involving so many nice adjustments, which could only be made when the water was high and logs running, required much time to perfect all its arrangements, so as to adapt it to all the varied circumstances and conditions of low water and flood; and as there ere only a few weeks or months in the year in which experiments could be made, and as all these were necessarily open to the public, other parties copied it, and commenced using it before it wsa so far complete in all its parts as to warrant applicaton for a patent. Want of means to prosecute it also deterred Mr. Pond from obtaining a patent on his invention; and with the aid of the Eau Claire Lumber Company, such application was made, with modes all complete, so much time elapsed that a special act of Congress was necessary to relieve the applicant from the disability of not having applied soon enough, as, by the patent law, prior use of the invention for more than two years by other parties rendered it liable to objection; but, under the peculiar circumstances, Congress thought the two year privilege enjoyed by all inventors out in this instance be enlarged, and, therefore, passed the act for Mr. Pond's relief. This, however, was in 1870, two years after the granting of the patent. The association owning the boom upon which those experiments were made gave Mr. Pond and his associates two thousand dollars for the privilege of using his invention at that point, and certified to it practical worth and utility saying 'It has stood the test of the highest freshets is easily and cheaply constructed,' and recommending it to all who have occasion for such an invention.

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