Do you know what a Forest Devil is? Clearing trees on rural land in the 1800s.

I was looking at an unusual original picture the other day.  It seems to be mainly watercolour, possibly with some pen an dink drawing.  A large picture, it's hard to capture properly in a photograph for here.  

It shows an archaic method of clearing trees.

I'll show you some close ups in a minute so you call better see what is going on.  The horse is harnessed to a long pole or log at one end.  The other end orf the pole is chained to the base of a tree.  A second much longer chain extends from part of the pole near the base of the tree up to a fixing point on the second tree about 6 or 7 metres above the ground.

As the horse is driven forward the mechanical advantage, or leverage pulls on the chain with the objective of pulling down the second tree.

A Forest Devil is a device to pull down a tree by mechanical advantage, sometimes with a winch, as a method of clearing trees from land.

There is very little information available about a forest devil, and the picture you see above may be the only one showing a forest devil at work in existence.

In the Channel Museum  located at Lower Snug in Tasmania there is a mechanical forest devil log winch, and you can see it here and a larger view here.  The one in Tasmania is described as a "large drum winch on a double hatchet and extended lever handles for operation of 2 to 6 men." Of course the word "hatchet" there should be "ratchet".  

Now, back to the picture above.

Here's a close up of the harnessed horse:

and here's the other end of the pole where it's chaned to the base of a tree:

You'll also see one worker quenching his thirst and another using a pick to hack into the base of another tree.

Here in the next closeup you can see the chain extending up to the tree which is to be pulled down:

To the right of the tree to be pulled down, we see another worker at the top of a high ladder readying another tree to be pulled down.

In the field being cleared we can see many tree stumps, some apparently clear-sawn, others jagged from the effect of being pulled down with the Forest Devil.

It is also apparent that the Forest Devil was not an entirely efficent means of felling the trees, as there is also evidence of parts of trees and branches which have been pulled off, yet without pulling down the whole tree.

It's unclear at the moment, but the picture is thought to date from around 1860.

Anyway, just a bit of Australian rural history for you.

Comments

[Morbane]

Hey,

Thanks for posting this clear and useful information. You'd be surprised but I actually had to find out what a "forest devil" was, as it was used in a 19th-century novel written by an Australian. ('The Bird of Paradise' by William Henry Dutton.) So I really appreciate it!

[Bob Meade]

I'm pleased this was of some help to you Morbane.

[CJ]

Very happy to see this posting, I have a Forest Devil which I still use on a regular basis. I have removed stumps and trees unable to be cleared with a dozer by myself and a few cables and pulleys. It gives great satisfaction to use one's own physical strength to achieve what a machine cannot. If anyone would like photographs just ask.

[Robert O'Neill]

CJ I would like to see picture of your forest devil and get some advice on how I could do the same.
Thanks!

[Joyce Varcin]

Dear CJ
AsI am detailing my fathers clearing of trees prior to the beginning of Injune town ship in 1920 using a forest devil, while recording a history for this town. I would be grateful to be able to purchase a photo of a forest devil to include for general knowledge.Gratefully with thanks,
Joyce Varcin, Unit 100, 61 Jubilee Drive, Palmwoods, Qld 4555

[Lindsay Mann]

Thanks,

I was reading an article in The Advertiser (a semi rural Victorian paper) dated 14 July 1839 about the shifting of an old wooden church that had to be taken to another site. This article, informed me that the building was: 'removed by means of forest devils.' Your article has proved a one stop information stop. I wonder how many other uses our innovative ancestors had for these little devils?