There was a day, however, previous to the dates above mentioned, when the average per carpenter per day reached as high as 280 board feet.

Another instance of remarkably speedy construction was the erection of a two-story block apartment building in twenty-nine and one half hours, and a six-room bungalow in nine hours, both complete and ready for occupancy. The apartment building consisted of six apartments of six room each, lined on the inside with wall board and covered on the outside with Cronolite, and each apartment was equipped with up-to-date plumbing and fixtures, as well as with electric lights. The excavation for the foundation was started on September 4, at 7:30 in the morning. At 9:30 the same morning the first floor was framed and the concrete work for the chimney foundations was begun. At 11:00 that same morning the concrete foundations for the chimneys were finished and in the meantime the framing for the second story was completed. At 6:00 that evening the rafters were in place, ready for the sheeting, and the walls had been boxed half way up. In the second day at 8:30 in the morning the brick work for the six chimneys was begun and completed by 11:30 the same morning, and the whole structure was ready for occupancy, including the installation of plumbing fixtures, electrical fixtures and painting and screening throughout, in just twenty-nine and one half hours. This building required 105,974 board feet of lumber and 11,666 bricks for the chimneys. Ninety doors and 88 windows were hung and necessary frames made.

The six-room bungalow was completed in just nine hours on September 6, including the installation of plumbing and electrical fixtures and painting and screening throughout. This building consisted of six rooms, all of which were lined with wallboard, while the sides and the roof were covered with Cronolite. The bathroom and kitchen were equipped with modern fixtures for hot and clod water. For this house, 22,450 board feet of lumber were required, while eight doors and thirteen windows were hung and the necessary frames were made.

The work on these two houses did not in the least interfere with the work the house building department in the village where about 5,000 men were then at work erecting an average of 270 board feet per carpenter per day, and even more. During this period the men were allowed to leave their work in groups of from ten to fifteen to register under the Selective Service Law.

The adaptability as well as the flexibility of the house building department was demonstrated, for, in the erection of these two houses, the cooperation of the other unit superintendents was presses into the service in the matter of furnishing materials and labor.

In order to erect quickly the great number of houses needed, a working organization was effected by dividing the camp and village area into units, each of which was headed by a unit superintendent with the necessary number of assistants, such as boss carpenters, carpenters, foremen, carpenters' clerks, saw filers, laborers, depending upon the number and character of buildings composing the unit. The normal unit was of about 200 men.

One of the knottiest problems in the construction of a city in so short a time was encountered in keeping the supply of raw materials moving in as rapidly as they were needed. A transportation department was organized with the duty of unloading cars as they came in and of distributing the material by means of trucks and teams to the places where it was to be used.

The first unloading of materials from cars was done on February 11, at Hermitage Station on the Tennessee Central Railroad. The next was at the same station but from a siding on the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. When something over four miles of the first line of railroad was completed, an unloading track was laid at that point and materials unloaded there in order to shorten the haul. When the first line of railroad reached the plant reservation, a centrally located warehouse was built. As construction in the village progressed over a wider area other unloading tracks were laid. The lumber was unloaded from cars in three separate yards from which it was distributed as called for.

Superintendents of distribution were provided with complete bills for material required for each structure to have all necessary materials on hand when needed. To avoid delay and keep in advance of construction, the distribution of materials began as soon as the location of a structure was indicated by stakes in the ground. At the central warehouse were stored materials other than lumber, such as nails, hardware, cement and tools, while paints, plumbing, heating materials and the like were distributed from other warehouses. During the early stages of the work all door and window frames and mill-work generally were turned out by mills in Nashville. Later, as a measure of both speed and economy, a complete planing mill plant was purchased and installed on the reservation. There was installed also a complete sheet metal mill for making the great quantity of tinwork required.

The following list of the number and character of carloads handled by the Mason & Hanger Company's transportation department constitutes another index to the proportions of the work:

lumber, 3,973 stone, 2,402 sand, 1,182 slag and gravel, 2,616 contractor's outfit, 261 equipment, 196 sewer pipe, 402 ice, 558 brick, 383 coal, 311 cement, 290 ties, 210

merchandise in less than car load lots, 217 iron pipe and plumbing material, 183 wall board, 140 rails, 163 roofing, 151 nails, 30 galvanized iron culvert pipe, 31 hay, 45 sash and doors, 138 plumbing fixtures, 106 lime, 21 total, 13,509