DCHP-1 Online
apron Lumbering 
n. a platform, usually of heavy timbers, at the bottom of a log chute, used to break the fall of the logs as they enter the water.
- 1864 (1955) At the bottom of each separate "shute" there is a wooden platform or "apron" upon which the rafters are precipitated, and so preserved from diving down under the surface by the impetus of their fall.
- 1942 (1946) Generally an apron of piles slopes down from it [the log dump] and the logs roll down this when they are dumped from the cars.
- 1864 (1955) At the bottom of each separate "shute" there is a wooden platform or "apron" upon which the rafters are precipitated, and so preserved from diving down under the surface by the impetus of their fall.