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The
Barker Saw and Its Inventor, Albert Smith
by Kenneth Brown
and Paul Barker
(Please see
editor's notes and acknowledgments
below.)
Introduction
Best
anyone can figure out, about 3,000 of Al Smith's
one-man circular rim saws were made from 1947 until
the early 1950s. The first saws were made in Ava by
Mr. Smith and his business partner, William I.
Barker. During this period, the saws were
appropriately labeled the "Ava Saw." Then, in 1950,
the business was moved to Springfield by its new
owner, Noble A. Barker, after which the saw was
labeled the "Barker Saw." Several of these saws are
still around, mostly as antiques; but reportedly,
the saws are still being used up in Alaska.
Mr.
Smith's saws were the forerunner of today's one-man
chain saws. McCullough introduced the first of the
one-man chain saws in the 1950s, and only then did
Smith's saw become obsolete and go out of
production. This article provides a chronology of
the saw's commercial life as well as a look into
the man who had the brilliant idea of this saw,
Albert Smith. The information used for this article
was provided by:
· Paul Barker,
co-author of this article, and whose father,
William I. Barker, teamed with Mr. Smith to
bring the first saw into production;
· Clovis Smith, son of Albert Smith, the
inventor;
· Noble G. Barker, whose father purchased
Smith's share of the Ava Saw Company in 1950,
and moved the company to Springfield as the
Barker Saw Company; and
· Elmo Hartley, who provided the sales end
of the business from start to finish.
All of these individuals
provided considerable insight into the saw and its
inventor.
Albert Smith, the
Inventor
Albert
P. Smith (b. 8 Aug 1893 - d. 11 Jan 1974) only had
a fourth grade education-but he was a mechanical
genius. Always the inventor in the little shop up
the hill from his house in Vanzant, Albert Smith.
had numerous ideas for invention during his life.
In the 1940s, he knew the need for a product that
didn't exist at that time anywhere a portable
one-man power saw that could fell trees. Granted,
there were two-man chain saws (manufactured by the
Mall Bros.) at the time, but they were heavy and
difficult to handle not to mention dangerous. So,
Smith spent quite a bit of time working on a saw
that was light and mobile enough to be handled by
one person.
Besides
the saw, Smith was particularly gifted making lathe
accessories that would let a person lathe out a
piece of wood into a shape such as something easy
like a baseball bat or very difficult odd-shaped
objects like an ax handle. According to Al's son,
Clovis, three or four of Smith's handle machines
were made, and ". . .a guy in West Plains used them
for years down there."
Like
many inventors of his time, Al worked on the U.S.
Government's challenge for someone to invent a
'perpetual motion machine.' According to his son,
Clovis, his dad gave that project a lot of thought
and effort. In addition, Paul Barker recalls his
dad, W.I. Barker, telling him in the late 1940's,
"Now son, Al is working on perpetual motion, and
you have to be ready to drive to Washington, D.C.
to the Patent Office. They've got so many patent
applications (for perpetual motion) that they've
said you have to bring them a working
model!"
The Rim Circle
Saw
The
original rim circle saw manufactured by Smith and
Barker had a 30-inch saw blade. The blade was
fashioned out of a regular blade used in sawmills
around the county. Smith's saw blade was held in a
cast aluminum frame with steel bearings. The
bearings rotated when powered by a flexible shaft
between the bearings and a 4-cycle engine like one
might find on a lawn mower. The rotating bearings
caused the blade to turn at a high rate of speed.
The engine was set on the ground so that the saw
operator only had to support the weight of the
frame and blade when felling a tree. This made the
saw manageable, something that hadn't been possible
before Al's invention.
According
to Clovis, his dad had the basic idea of the saw in
his mind for quite a period of time. Then, one day
he was over at Short's garage that was located
across from the current high school. He was playing
with a piston ring and had it resting on three of
his fingers all spread out. Suddenly, he envisioned
that piston ring as a saw blade and he noticed how
his three fingers were supporting the ring. Out
loud, he said "Now I know how I'm going to make my
saw!"
What
he envisioned was a saw blade, hollowed out like
the piston ring and mounted to a frame at three
strategically selected places by bearings. Then he
set out to make a working prototype with the
assistance of his son, Ivil Smith, an excellent
mechanic by his own right.
Production in 1946 -
Sales in 1947
Sometime
in 1945, Al had his prototype saw finished and
operating. But like lots of inventors, Al needed
help with creating a business organization to
manufacture his saw. Generally, inventors are
creators, not producers. He came into Ava and was
talking to Willis Mitchell about his need to
partner with someone. According to Al's son,
Clovis, Mitchell said to his dad, "I know exactly
the person you need-it's 'Willie' Barker. He's
honest and fair, and he can help you get the saw
manufactured." Well, Al went to W.I. Barker, showed
him the saw, and they made a deal to form a 50-50
partnership with Al providing the idea and W.I.
providing the capital.
Al
and W.I. proceeded to get engineering done for the
various components of the saw, and then get
subcontractors who would produce each component.
WI. 's son, Paul Barker, indicated that all
engineering work was completed by Lee Cruse of
Springfield. The major components that had to have
engineering specifications and then outsourced to
suppliers were the saw blade, a cast aluminum frame
for the blade, a flexible drive shaft, and an
engine.
The
custom saw blade needed for Al's saw was fashioned
out of a regular sawmill blade by Doc Sallee in an
Ava machine shop. The cast aluminum frames were
made in a Springfield Foundry. According to Elmo
Hartley, the engines were regular 4-cycle engines
built by Clinton, Clipper, or Kohler (yes, the same
company that currently produces bathroom fixture).
No one is quite sure where the flexible shafts were
manufactured.
Al
Smith set up the equipment that Doc Sallee needed
to make the saw blades like Al required. First the
center part of a 30" sawmill blade was cut out to
within three inches of the edge of the blade. After
that, the blade was still way too thick for Al's
purposes, so Doc Sallee had to hone out the
thickness of the blade's metal until it fit Al's
specifications. According to Paul Barker, Sallee' s
machine shop was a noisy and dusty place as he
carried out this process.
With
the contract-built components in hand, Al and W.I.
set up their first assembly plant right in W.I. '5
basement about three blocks straight south of the
courthouse. According to Paul Barker, his dad and
Al were already producing saws when Paul came home
from the Navy in 1946. Reportedly, saws began
selling in 1947. That was when W.I. tapped lifelong
Douglas Countian, Elmo Hartley, to sell the
saws.
According
to Elmo, "Yeah, they wanted me to sell saws, and I
said well I can't sell saws-never sold anything in
my life!" Well, that didn't deter W.I. and Al; Elmo
started selling saws-first to individuals in
Douglas County and surrounding counties-then to
distributorships mostly in Missouri and Arkansas.
Once the distributorships were set up, Larkin
Barnes became the distributor for the Douglas
County area. (As will be described later, Elmo
stayed with the Ava SawCo. and its predecessors
until his retirement in 1973-a period of 27 years.
Just about everyone who lived in Ava up until Elmo'
s retirement probably remembers his driving around
town in his car with the Barker Saw decal on
it).
Elmo's Sale to the Man
from Hartville
According
to Elmo, the saw weighed about 70 pounds-30 pounds
for the saw end and 40 pounds for the end with the
engine. Here's Elmo' s story as he related it to
Paul Barker:
"You
know what Paul, I was never so tickled at a guy. He
lived up north of here-toward Hartville. He wrote
down here (to Ava) and said 'Bring a saw up here to
demonstrate it to me and I probably would buy it.'
So, one day I took a saw up there-I drove up to his
house-he come out-was a good sized guy. And I got
out and set the saw up and he looked it all over.
He said 'Are you ready?' I said 'where's the timber
you want me to saw?' He took the lead and I
followed him with the saw-had to go up one draw and
then up another draw. You know that saw was kind of
hard to carry through briars or little bushes-the
shaft curved around and it would jerk the life out
of you. I carried it over there and I got to the
first tree and set it down, and I got down working
on the engine-tried to catch my breath. Then I
cranked up the saw and cut down a tree he wanted
cut. Then he sawed off one or two limbs. I said
'How do you like it?' He said "Well, I'd like to
buy it-let's go back to the house."
He
started off ahead of me again-I grabbed the saw and
made it to the gate of the house. He went in the
house and wrote me a check-he never did pick it
(the saw) up except the saw end. Then later, I was
up in Springfield demonstrating and a pretty good
crowd was around-he came walking through the
crowd-he took a hold of my arms and shoulders-he
said 'I want to know what the heck you're made out
of.' He said 'I'll never buy another thing without
lifting it first!'
He
said 'I like the saw fine-but you know the first
time I went to carry it over there-I went a little
ways and had to set it down-I wouldn't have
believed that you carried that saw all the ways
over there if I hadn't seen it myself!"'
None
of four people interviewed had complete sales
records to indicate the number of saws that Elmo
helped sell each year and in total. A little
Springfield weekly called Bias ran an article on
the saw company in 1952. In it, the article states
that the first saw came off the Ava production line
on July 16. 1947. During the remainder of that
year, 33 saws were sold. In 1948, 122 were sold,
followed by 137 saws in 1949.
Tragedy Hits the Young
Ava Saw Company
After
returning from the Navy, Paul Barker helped his
father with the insurance agency while W.I. spent
more time on the Ava Saw Company affairs. But, on
Labor Day, 1948, W.I. died of a heart attack at the
untimely age of 63. But, with W.I. gone, 24-year
old Paul Barker joined in with Al, his son, Ivil,
and Elmo to keep the company going.
In
November, 1949, the assembly line left the Barker
basement and moved to a small tin building that was
located just across Prairie Creek from the old
Ozark Hotel on Washington Ave. At about that same
time, Noble A. Barker, W.I.' s cousin, took an
interest in the company and offered Al Smith
$20,000 for his 50% share of the company.
In 1950, the Ava Saw
Company Becomes the Barker Saw Company and Moves to
Springfield
After
Noble A. Barker offered to buy his share, Al Smith
went to his son, Clovis, to ask his advice. Well,
Clovis was in favor of Al selling his share. Clovis
said, "You know Dad, you've spent all these years
inventing things and you've never really got any
good money out of any of them-here's your
chance."
So
Noble A. Barker moved the Saw Company to
Springfield in March 1950. As Paul Barker recalled,
"George Olds got fired by the (Springfield)
News-Leader, so he started up a little weekly
called Bias." In a 1952 Bias article about Noble's
then thriving Barker Saw Company, Paul is quoted as
saying "My first cousin, once removed, Noble
Barker, was an old saw miller. Any way, he lived in
Springfield, and he bought out Al Smith and moved
the saw company to Springfield." Noble G. Barker
recalls that his dad bought out Al Smith in
February, 1950. Noble promptly moved the company to
Springfield, and set up his assembly line in a
small building on Washington Ave., just north of
Commercial Street, with Everett Estes, first cousin
of Noble A., as foreman.
The
Barker Saw itself remained much like the Ava Saw
but was made lighter as new materials and smaller
engines were used. Also, Noble A. Barker introduced
a saw with a 20-inch blade as well as the original
30-inch model. The two models sold for $215 and
$295 respectively. According to the 1952 Bias
article, 460 saws were sold during the 1950-51
fiscal year, and sales of 1,000 saws were
anticipated for the 195 1-52 fiscal year.
In
1953, the Barker Saw Company started mounting a
much lighter engine directly on the saw and
eliminating the need for the cumbersome flexible
shaft. At some time during the 1950s, Barker came
up with a one-man chain saw to compete with the new
McCullough chain saw that was making Al Smith's rim
circle saw obsolete.
Then,
in 1954, W.I. Barker's heirs (his widow, Anna, and
their children, Paul, Delta, and David) sold out
their share of the company to Noble A. Barker. At
the same time, Paul ceased to work with the
company, and after three years he began to work, in
earnest, on an insurance career that led to his
co-founding of the present-day Springfield
insurance firm of Barker-Phillips-Jackson.
Not
long after Paul's departure from the Barker Saw
Company, Noble G. Barker also left the company and
started engineering school at the University of
Missouri at Rolla. He followed up his education
with a career with Caterpillar in Illinois. After
Paul and Noble G., left, Noble A. sold the saw
company to the Jackie Weiser family.
Elmo Hartley-from
Beginning to End
As
the company went through its many transitions, one
aspect remained stable from beginning to end-its
sales representative-Elmo Hartley. According to
Elmo, he once had as many as 300 dealers in
Missouri and Arkansas. As well, Elmo recalls that
the Barker Saw Company was eventually acquired by a
firm called American Lincoln. That company, in turn
was acquired by Homelite, a brand that makes lawn
and garden power tools to this day.
After
all the company's Ava owners were gone, Elmo stayed
on all the way to his retirement in 1973. Elmo
enjoyed reminiscing with the authors about the old
Ava Saw from his living room recliner earlier this
year. One can easily envision Elmo going through
his Ava Saw and Barker Saw demonstrations at county
fairs and other gatherings. Blessed with an
Ozarker's easy gift of gab, Elmo, no doubt, helped
the fledgling company get its product to
customers.
Have an Ava Saw or a
Barker Saw?
While
collecting information for this article, the
authors heard from people who have one or more of
the saws. Most of the saws, like the two housed in
the Douglas County Museum, are the Springfield-made
Barker Saw. If you have a saw, look on the cast
aluminum frame to see if it says "Ava Saw Co." or
"Barker Saw Co." This will tell you where it was
made, Ava or Springfield. And of course, the Ava
Saws were made first.
Look
carefully below the name on the frame for a serial
number that was hand-stamped into each frame. When
the saws were first produced in Ava, Smith and
Barker stamped the first saw with a number "1", and
sequentially thereafter. Once Noble A. Barker
bought the company and moved it to Springfield, he
started the numbering over at "1".
No
one knows how many of each saw (Ava or Barker) was
made; but the best estimates are that less than
1,000 Ava Saws and at least 2,000 Barker Saws were
made.
Conclusion
This
story of Al Smith's saw provides a vivid example of
Ozarks ingenuity and resourcefulness. Al Smith
didn't have a degree in engineering, and William I.
Barker didn't have a background in manufacturing;
but they collaborated to perfect and manufacture
the nation's first one-man portable saw that could
fell a large tree in a short time and with a
fraction of the human effort required by their
ancestors.
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