I remember the
Excelsior Mill. I toured the mill about 1971 or so. We were ice boaters.. on an OFF day..so one of our senior members suggested we go check out the excelsior mill at Wolfeboro Falls.
First Off:
Excelsior was a shaved wood product that has since been replaced by Styrofoam peanuts, and then bubble wrap.
The mill had guillotine type machines that vertically shaved slices of wood off logs that were much like the split logs you buy for your fireplace. At that time there were four employees. Three guys out in the shop (unheated) and one lady in the office (heated). The oldest guy in the shop was ..It's been awhile..I think he was about 90. He had been there since he was a young man. Their job was to manually feed logs into the guillotines as required.
The plant was powered by water (Hydro) from runoff from Lake Wentworth upstream...OR.. Steam from a steam engine in the plant when the water from Wentworth was not sufficient to power the machines.
Not much left today. I feel very lucky that I got a chance to see the mill. The site is directly across the road from the Wright Museum.
NB