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The Lausmann Burner Patented in 1970, Jerry Lausmann�s burner effectively eliminated smoke and particle pollution from lumber mills. Sunday Jan 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM Jan 15, 2012 at 2:40 AM Who remembers those wonderful mornings, waking up to the sweet fragrance of a rotten egg? By BILL MILLER Who remembers those wonderful mornings, waking up to the sweet fragrance of a rotten egg? The black ash fell from the sky, blotting the sun and turning that new-car shine into a shallow imitation of a dirty sandbox. Was the Rogue Valley becoming a Southern California clone, bathed daily in a swirl of thick, sulfuric clouds, the same kind of clouds that in 1962 London killed nearly 70 people? If you were lucky enough to live in the Rogue Valley during the middle of the last century, you know what we're talking about. Days filled with eye-irritating smoke that rivaled, and sometimes outdid, a smoggy commute on a Los Angeles freeway. There were farmers burning fields and smoking orchards as automobiles belched lethal fumes, but the culprits catching the blame in Oregon were the wigwams. Wigwams, or teepees, burned wood waste, what was left over when lumber was cut — the chips, bark and slivers of trees that once seemed to have no practical use. As early as 1963, the State Sanitary Authority, forerunner of the DEQ, had called for a phase-out of wigwams. By 1967, accused of foot-dragging its enforcement, the agency began to get tough. New wigwams would require its approval, staff would target the most serious wigwam pollution, and intermittent burning in wigwams, the kind that produced the worst smoke and unburned particles, was banned. If mill operators didn't clean up their smoke-belching wigwams voluntarily, the authority warned they would be subject to a mandatory shutdown in December 1968. "There is intensive pressure on burner operators," said Jerry Lausmann, "demanding that they eliminate pollution, but no one has told the operators how this can be done in any practical sense." Lausmann was part owner with his father of the KOGAP Lumber Industries mill in Medford. "I have studied the burning processes in teepee burners for some time," Lausmann said. "I discovered a phenomena." In a 14-page patent filing, filled with details of his scientific experimentation, Lausmann presented his solution — a system that eliminated smoke and particle fallout from lumber-mill wigwams. He built a prototype of his invention and used it to test his theories at the Medford mill. After three years, he could show that his system eliminated all visible smoke and fallout as it burned seven tons of mill waste per hour. "We've even spread clean white sheets on the ground downwind from our burner to see if any fallout shows up," he said. "And they stayed clean every time." Lausmann said the equipment could be installed in most existing wigwam burners for a cost between $20,000 and $23,500. Ironically, the first of the Lausmann Burners weren't installed in Oregon. Two months after Lausmann's patent was approved in November 1970, the Plum Creek Lumber Co., in Columbia, Mont., installed one burner and placed an order for three more. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality approved Lausmann's pollution-control component for the Spaulding and Son Lumber Mill in Grants Pass a year later. Former Medford Mayor Jerry Lausmann was remembered for many things when he passed away Friday, Jan. 6, but no one should forget what the man did to give the town a breath of fresh air. Writer Bill Miller lives in Shady Cove. Reach him at [email protected].