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At this time the author wishes to thank Professor Allen of the Civil Engineering School at Eichigan State College for his hearty co-operation and guidance in writing this the- sis, and also the different manufacturers of Artificial Lumber who have kindly offered their assistance. Each chapter in this thesis was written with a def- inite view in mind; Chapter One was written so that the reader might see the topic of timber in a new light in order to prove the necessity for lumber conservation. Chapter Two gives the process of manufacture of the diff- erent artificial lumbers. Chapter Three points out the many uses to which the lumber may be applied so as to aid in the conservation of natural lumber. Chapters Four and Five show the merits of each different artificial lumber in order to aid in choosing the one best suited for a particular use.\ All information and research in this thesis on arti- ficial lumbers were obtained by the author in the Spring of 1931, and are thus considered correct and adequate at the date just mentioned. East Lansing, Michigan June,1931 1019‘: I} V/ CAD \!v I rpm, 40%.: (C ml: I 111] . Q t r ’ . .3. M 'H‘ I I"-*C 0" a“ D. t- I I 1 ~ -— --—.__—_-_ __‘ _"‘ CONTENTS History of Natural Lumber CWERI 00......OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO00.... Page Process of Manufacture of Artificial Lumbers CMP'I‘ER II 0.0.0.0....0.00000000000000000000000. Page Uses of Artificial Lumber CHAPTER III O...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0000...... Page Testing Artificial Lumber CHAPTER IV ..................................... Page 1. Insulation ..................... Page 61 2. Absorbtion ..................... Page 66 a. Weights ........................ Page 7o 4. Compression .................... Page 71 5. Tension ........................ Page 73 6. Deflection ..................... Page 76 7. Average Shear and Bending Strength .............. Page 80 8. Edge Strength .................. Page 181 9. Nail Bond ...................... Page 84 10. Inflammability ................. Page 86 Conclusion GIMPTERV O...0......OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...COO... Page 37 58 60 88 g 4- . C - O I». e a n - a Q ~ . , a s a A p 1| O O 4 9 e 1 . O I u s o - a 4 v 6 O t O I N CHAPTER ONE History of Natural Lumber The topic of timber is one of vital importance today. With the constant demand for lumber comes the question of from where is it all going to come. Lumber is and has been Since the beginning of mankind one of the most important necessities of man. Lumber has been used for practically everything until a better substitute was found. Never before recent years has lumber conservation been an item of such great consideration. But now, after hundreds of years of use of what seemed an endless supply, the world is beginning to realize how rapidly the great forests are being denuded, and how great is the need for conserving them. From the paragraphs which follow one can readily see why artificial lumber is a boon to the world in the conser- vation of its forests. The following history of natural lum- ber will give the reader an idea of how the forests, eSpec- ially those of the United States, have been so rapidly di- minished since the landing of the Pilgrims, and how great to- day is the need for a substitute for wood. Our earliest plants were Club Mosses and ferns, and to- day these same ferns give us coal. Conifers were the next vegetation to be develOped, for at this time there were no mountains, and the Arctic regions were warm and dotted with palm trees. Then climatic changes took place--the Ice Age forced the conifers back to poorer soil. The famous Red- woods, which were once found in the Arctic lands, are now confined to southern Oregon and northern California. Very little is known about our country before the Glacier swept over the land and changed everything from its original appearance to something entirely different. Those which are called or original forests are dated back only to the time Just following the Ice Age. These original forests of the U- nited States covered not less than 850,000,000 acres, and contained about 5,200,000,000,000 board feet of timber. The united States was blessed in the beginning with forests in extent and value unequaled by those possessed by any other civilized country. The forest area of the United States equaled one-fourth the area of the entire country, exclusive of Alaska. There are three great forest areas in this coun- try; the eastern, the western, and that around the Great Lakes. The western parts of Washington and Oregon and the northwestern part of California are covered with the most dense forest in the United States. Here are found the Doug- las fir, the sugar pine, and the California Redwood, all growing to an enormous size. This region is the chief center of the lumber industry today. Canada was almost as fortunate in size of forested area, though not so fortunate, perhaps, in the variety of trees. From the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from.Georgia almost up to the Hudson Bay stretched an enormous forest of white pine, spruce, hemlock, cedar, balsam fir, birch, cherry, maple and other hardwood trees. The part owned by the United States is estimated to have contained originally 850,000,000 acres. Toward the south was another vast forest stretching from.New Jersey along the coast to Mexico, and covering large parts of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and other southern states. This, too, was coniferous, yellow pine predominating, but it also included cypress, magnolia, poplar, oak and other hardwoods. Between the northern and southern, merging into them on either side, was a great hard- wood forest containing walnut, elm, oak, maple, cottonwood, hickory, basswood, chestnut, ash and sycamore. The lepes of the hocky Mountains, to an area of at least 110,000,000 acres, were covered with conifers, including fir, yellow pine, red cedar, and other valuable soft woods. But it was on the Pacific slape that nature elected to plant forests the equal of which are not to be found else- where in the world. These great timber tracts extending from.Alaska to San Francisco and covering the entire country from.the sea to the snow line, must be seen to be appreciated. In British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon they consist mostly of Douglas fir, with cedar, spruce and some hardwood trees, all of them of great size compared to those of the same kind elsewhere.‘ The Douglas fir frequently grows to a height of 300 feet or more, and a diameter of 10 to 12 feet is not uncommon. In all the forests of the lower Pacific slope the trees are close together, and there is a profusion of smaller growth, shrubs and ferns, almost trOpical in ap- pearance. On the upper lepes of the Sierra Nevada and Cas- cade mountains grow large and valuable pines, and, at an el- evation of 5000 to 7000 feet, in California are found the largest trees in the world; the Sequoia gigantea, allied to the Redwoods, but much larger. They occur in groves, none of I -A - ~ . $ . l . . , _ . , , . .- . p r ' 1 , I K . . i ‘. . , - , O . ‘uu - o r '» . - t . o . , . u- which numbers more than a few hundred trees, practically all are preserved by the government for national parks. Here are trees over 300 feet high and 110 feet in circumference. These patriarchs of the forest are the oldest things living, some of them being at least 5000 years old. Into this vast inheritance of woodland came the settler with his ax. It was necessary to clear the forests away to make room for permanent homes and fields. When homes and barns were built, the settler did not hesitate to destroy by fire what his ax had spared. In an incredibly short time great areas of the eastern slope were cleared of trees. It is not difficult to explain the unprecedented destruction of our timber resources. In colonial days the forest was the enemy of the settler. It retarded his agriculture, and in it lurked wild animals and hostile savages. Wood was then a superfluous commodity; cleared land was rare. The woodsman could not fail to sink his ax into the tree with a feeling of malicious satisfaction. 'As the country filled up, as cities started, and trade and manufacturing develOped, the settler was Joined in the work of denuding the land of trees by the commercial lum— berman. vast areas, fit only for forest growth, have been despoiled by the senseless and wasteful methods, still in full swing in this country. American lumbering began in Maine. Before the pilgrims set foot at Plymouth the tall white pines on the islands and coast of Maine were in demand for masts. The early colonists of the Atlantic coast from.Massachusetts to Georgia became experts in the use of the ax, in felling trees, and in build- ing homes. The methods of lumbering develOped in the forests of Maine may be said to have extended throughout the white pine and winter snow region from the north Atlantic coast to Minnesota. As early as autumn as the swamps were frozen over, and without waiting for snow, logging began in earnest. When the breakup came in the spring, men and horses hurried out into the woods before the swamp roads became impassable. The camp was abandoned except for a care-taker. Meanwhile the logs on the banks of the rivers were rolled into the swollen streams to float down to the crude mills then in existance. The land and the river-beds were cleared in order to offer the least resistance to the logs. As more settlers came into the country they moved west- ward. They finally came to the middlewest area around the state of Michigan. Most of the state was then forest land. South of a line from Muskegan to Bay City was hardwood; north of this line was pine and conifers, with hardwood up Lake Michigan side. There were less than 32,000 people in the Lake states as late as 1830. The opening of the Erie Canal 'brought many more, and the railroads, which were owned and run by the state, were soon started. In 1840 the settlers spread out over the hardwood area. The first sawmill in the pine region was located at Flint, the next in the Saginaw valley. water transportation brought about timber cutting as did settling the prairie regions, also the invention of the circular saw and the introduction of steam. Topography of the regions was one cause which brought many settlers to the hardwood area. Stumpage land could be bought for very little. The first railroad for log- ging only was built in Michigan in 1877, and the first pines to be out were along the rivers. The Upper Peninsula cutting was ten years slower than that of the Lower Peninsula. The utilization of the forest was important economically providing that the area was left productive. The settlers in the southern part of the state used to use all the lumber possible and then burn the rest in order to clear the land for farming purposes. Lumbering in the Upper Peninsula was done to get the lumber only, and not for the purpose of clearing the lands for farming. The settlers did not go north out of the hardwood regions until after the hardwiod was gone. Settlement was slow in the north. Many small towns sprang up due to logging, first along streams and rivers, and next to the camps. Cutting of timber around the towns decreased the pOpulation of them, which caused what is known as the' roving migratory industry. This started first in Maine, and then went into Pennsylvania, the Lake States, the Yellow pine region, and then west. The people first settled in the sandy soil because it was easier to till and more level. Hardwood grows in hilly country and in better soil. The settlers moved to Michigan after is was found there was sand there, and they were still looking for ease in tilling their soil. They worked in the logging camps in the winter and sold their products to the camps, and in the summer they worked on their farms. When logging camps diminished, the farmers had to send their pro- ducts out on the uncertain railroads. The pOpulation de- creased ten percent and the farms decreased five percent in the northeast counties, between 1910 and 1920. From.the financial standpoint the logging companies did not want heavy settlement. Today one-third of all of Michi- gan's lands cannot support themselves, but depend on the rest of the state. Logging was brought to a close in 1910. Only six counties showed any increase in population from 1910 to 1920 out of thirty-one counties. The Upper Peninsula has gone through the same proces as the Lower Peninsula, only not quite so far. The Upper Peninsula advantages are the mines and logging, and it will always be a liability to the Lower. _ In 1920 Michigan grew one—half of all the timber used. In 1925 Michigan produced one-half as much pine as Massachu- setts, yet they have only one-sixth the area and have been lumbering 200 years. Some idea of the extent of lumbering industry may be had from the statement that between the landing of the pilgrims and the close of the 19th century, one trillion feet of lum~ her was sawed in the United States and Canada. Prior to 1850 the northeastern part of the United States led in the produc- tion of lumber. About this time the lumbermen attacked the white and Norway pine forests of the Great Lakes in earnest. During the period of 1850 to 1897 the pine cut of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota was not less than 286,000,000,000 feet, or, if we add 75,000,000,000 feet of hardwood, the three states named contributed not less than 363,000,000,000 feet of lumber to build farmsteads, t0wns, roads and bridges. The original forests of the Great Lakes region are about gone. According to a report of the United States authorities in 1905, the lumbering states ranked in magnitude of cut as fol- lows: Washington, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ar- kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Minnesota, and on down to lastly Kentucky, Ohio, Vermont, and then Indiana. Forests constitute one of the chief sources of a na- tion's wealth. Forests prevent rapid evaporation of soil wa- ter, and so tend to equalize the flow of springs and streams. Forests prevent erosion, the wearing away of soil by water. Streams whose head waters are in deforested regions are char- acterized by high waters during a period of rainfall, and dry channels when the rainfall is light. Trees also afford pro- tecting shade and shelter from.the wind. 9 Early forest movement started in Germany and France for the protection of game. Our forefather's ideas of forests were that they were a hindrance of settlement, a harbor for animals and Indians, and inexhausted and valuable lands for agriculture. Germany leads the world in the care and devel- Opment of forests, whether under public or private ownership. Every forest in Germany is under the control of the state and a governmental forester designates what tree may be During the period of 1830 to 1897 the pine cut of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota was not less than 286,000,000,000 feet, or, if we add 75,000,000,000 feet of hardwood, the three states named contributed not less than 363,000,000,000 feet of lumber to build farmsteads, t0wns, roads and bridges. The original forests of the Great Lakes region are about gone. According to a report of the United States authorities in 1905, the lumbering states ranked in magnitude of cut as fol- lows: Washington, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ar- kansas, Iichigan, Mississippi, Minnesota, and on down to lastly Kentucky, Ohio, Vermont, and then Indiana. Forests constitute one of the chief sources of a na- tion's wealth. Forests prevent rapid evaporation of soil wa- ter, and so tend to equalize the flow of springs and streams. Forests prevent erosion, the wearing away of soil by water. Streams whose head waters are in deforested regions are char- acterized by high waters during a period of rainfall, and dry channels when the rainfall is light. Trees also afford pro- tecting shade and shelter from.the wind. Early forest movement started in Germany and France for the protection of game. Our forefather's ideas of forests were that they were a hindrance of settlement, a harbor for animals and Indians, and inexhausted and valuable lands for agriculture. Germany leads the world in the care and devel- cpment of forests, whether under public or private ownership. Every forest in Germany is under the control of the state and a governmental forester designates what tree may be During the period of 1850 to 1897 the pine cut of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota was not less than 286,000,000,000 feet, or, if we add 75,000,000,000 feet of hardwood, the three states named contributed not less than 363,000,000,000 feet of lumber to build farmsteads, towns, roads and bridges. The original forests of the Great Lakes region are about gone. According to a report of the United States authorities in 1905, the lumbering states ranked in magnitude of cut as fol- lows: Washington, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ar- kansas, lfichigan, Mississippi, Minnesota, and on down to lastly Kentucky, Ohio, Vermont, and then Indiana. Forests constitute one of the chief sources of a na- tion's wealth. Forests prevent rapid evaporation of soil wa- ter, andso tend to equalize the flow of springs and streams. Forests prevent erosion, the wearing away of soil by water. Streams whose head waters are in deforested regions are char- acterized by high waters during a period of rainfall, and dry channels when the rainfall is light. Trees also afford pro- tecting shade and shelter from the wind. ‘ Early forest movement started in Germany and France for the protection of game. Our forefather's ideas of forests were that they were a hindrance of settlement, a harbor for animals and Indians, and inexhausted and valuable lands for agriculture. Germany leads the world in the care and devel- opment of forests, whether under public or private ownership. Every forest in Germany is under the control of the state and a governmental forester designates what tree may be _felled, or how large a tract may be cleared, with the under- standing that it immediately be replanted with tree seeds or seedlings. German forestry dates from the time of Frederic the Great, and German forests are in an excellent state of preservation, although during all these years they have sup- plied the people's needs and been a constant source of rev- enue. Other European countries have similar plans for preser- ving their forests, and wherever an American tourist goes he finds in the "Great Woods" pleasure and surprise. But now ninety-five percent of the forests in Great Britain have been . destroyed. Sweden and Finland have fifty percent of their original forests left. Forests cover about one-fifth of the earth's surface, which averages up to be a little more than three acres per person. The different countries rate as to thier amount of forest land as follows: Russia and Siberia, Great Britain, Brazil and the United States. These four countries have forest area equal to two-thirds of the forests of the world. North America supplies twenty percent of the world timber, while Africa and CurOpe each supply ten percent. Only about one-sixth of our original forest lands has virgin timber today. We are pointed out by EurOpeans as a careless and ir- responsible people for permitting such conditions of our for- ests to exist. The loss per capita in America is ten times as*much as in Europe, and $4.00 to $5.00 per year can be lO safely figured for every man, wdman, and child, as against 40¢ to 50¢ on the other side of the Atlantic. One reason for this difference is in the fact that in EurOpean countries there is a large use of noncombustible building materials, due to the high cost of labor; but another and more vital reason is that their older civilization has made them.more cautious than we have yet become. The early settlers des- troyed forests from necessity; later generations destroyed them from habit, and this’wasteful practice continued with- out hindrance until the last decade of the 19th century. The nation was gradually brought to realize that the forests were rapidly diminishing, and that the time would come when the supply of forest product would not meet the demand of the country. In 1891 Congress authorized the president to set aside forest areas as "national reserve." There are now over 150 national forest reserves, besides a number of state reserves. These reserves are under control of national or state governments. Merchantable timber may by out under supervision of the forester in charge, but the old wasteful methods of lumbering are not allowed. Britain maintained the best white pine forest in the United States on the Atlantic coast for her navy. All of this has made the world great timber wasters. William Penn had in the charter of his colonies that for every five acres cleared one acre had to be left in forest. Heavy fire laws maintained. National defense kept livg oak forests for shipbuilding. The president was then given the power to set aside forests in public domain. The 11 Yellowstone National Park was included in the 1,000,000 acres set aside by President Harrison;before he left office he had fifteen areas. President Cleveland set aside two more. Pin- chot was selected as head of the forests. Rooseveltvas pres- ident than and these two men originated conservation. Roos- evelt added 100,000,000 acres more. In 1907 an act was passed taking the power of choosing forest land away from the president. In 1891 Congress awoke to tie necessity of in- voking its legislative powers to prevent the rapid destruc- tion of the timber resources. In that year it was enacted that "the president of the United States may, from time to time, set apart and reserve, in any state or territory hav- ing public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations, and the president shall, by proclamation, declare the es- tablishment of such reservations and limits thereof." And in 1897 a Bureau of Forestry was established in the Depart- ment of Agriculture. ‘ Under the provisions of the law of 1891 lands esteemed more valuable for timber than for agriculture have been with- drawn from time to time; under Harrisons administration over 13,000,000 acres; under Cleveland's, 25,000,000; under Mc- Kinley's, 7,000,000; and under Roosevelt's, 145,000,000. When Roosevelt retired from office in 1909 the larger part of the forest areas in the public domain of the Pacific and the mountain states had thus come to be held by the govern- ment in the interests of the general public. Since then 12 boundaries have been increased as well as more carefully ad- justed, so that now there are over 175,000,000 acres within the national forest boundaries, over 150,000,000 of which are, in the narrower sense, "national forest land.“ All of our large western rivers have their origin within the national forests. Altogether these forests cover an area nearly as large as that of the thirteen original states and a fifth larger than the area of France. - Regarding the age of certain American trees, the United States Forest Service says, "It is safe to assert that some of the largest sequoias (Big Trees) in California are at least four thousand years old, while most of the average large trees now standing are about two thousand to twenty-five hundred years old." Sequoias have actually been measured to be three hundred feet high; Douglas fir, three hundred thirty feet; Redwood, three hundred forty feet (average tree measures a- bout one hundred ninety to two hundred eighty feet). These California Redwoods seem to have attained the maximum.height so far reported. The larger Redwoods have a diameter of from fifteen to twenty feet; some of the Big Trees, a diameter of thirty feet. The extreme limits of age calculated with fair accuracy for our common trees are chestnut, two thousand years; cypress, three thousand years; oak, two thousand years; spruce fir, twelve hundred years; beech, three hundred years; ash, two to three hundred years. These last figures should be taken with caution. Almost everyone takes notice of trees, because they play 13 such an important part in the lives of human beings as prom- inent features in the formation of human environment. In America there has unfortunately been much sentimen- tality in regard to the forest. But even regarded commerci- ally the beauty of the forest, at any season of the year, is a perfectly tangible asset. Man looks on the forest as hav- ing three principal uses; to supply wood and other products in various forms, to afford protection to the headwaters of streams, and as a place for recreation and enjoyment. The recreational value of our forests is coming daily to be bet- ter recognized, as is proved by increasing use of our nation- al parks and national forests as great public playgrounds. Whether one repairs to the forest to renew his vigor for the every-day struggle of life, to fish, or to hunt, to regain his health, or merely to enjoy the beauty of trees "en masse"; to each the forest has something to offer. To show that this asset has its practical as well as its purely aesthetic side, one need only recall the large amounts of money that are in- volved in the transportation, feeding, and housing of those who seek their recreation in this way. It is a good sign that the people are more and more returning to the forest. Apart altogether from the aesthetic value of trees as objects of beauty, their chief use in the world today is, of course, for the production of wood, their most valuable pro- ‘duct, and one that is becoming more and more valuable, large- ly on account of the careless way in which large tracts of country have been denuded of their trees without any attempt to get a new crop to replace them. The use of wood is con- 14 stantly on the increase. Indeed, it may be safely said that in the needs of man wood ranks next to food. The disappearance of our forests is marked in many pla- ces by the dismal ruins of what were once busy and populous mill towns,'and many large cities that were once supported by the lumber industry have decreased in size and wealth because of its decline. The many and increasing demands for wood have naturally developed a great industry, the principal one in some states and of high rank in importance in others. An idea of its pr0portions in the United States alone can be gained from.the Census Report for 1916, which gives the number of people em- ployed in logging camps and saw mills as about 695,000, and a value of the product as $1,156,129,000. The total number of pe0ple employed in woodworking was about 907,500, and it ranks third in importance in the industries of the nation. The magnitude of these figures, taken in connection with the slow growth of the forest, naturally brings us to a most ser- ious problem in connection with natural resources; a problem, too, that is not confined to any one state or nation, but that is of world wide importance, affecting, as it does, all those whose activities are directed to commercial and industrial de- velopment. In many parts of the world the forests are already exhausted, and in America and elsewhere they are rapidly dis- appearing. Although valley lands must, of course, be cleared and cul- tivated if we are to live, vast areas of hillside fit only for 15 forest cultivations are being ruthlessly stripped and left bare. Where this is done erosion rapidly denudes the hills of their soil, and the results of such a short-sighted pol- icy can be seen in China and many Eur0pean countries. With the loss of vegetation, the heavy rains rush down the hill- sides in floods, and the resulting effect of the forest-clad hills is lost to the streams that have their sources thereon. The forests, too, should provide homes for birds, whose value as destroyers of insect pests is slowly becoming appreciated. Aside from these important reasons for conservation, however, we are threatened with an actual shortage of timber if the present rate of cutting continues, and no effort is made to offset the destruction. It requires fifty years to produce a tree that will yield timber of even fair quality. Yet, our annual cut is at the rate of over three and one- half times the growth, and already our forests are about one- half of their original proportions. Obviously, we cannot go on long at this rate. The United States, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Austria and Hungary are, apparently, now supplying the world's demand. The problem of making the world's supply exceed or even equal its need is, therefore, an urgent and difficult one. North America supplies the world with fifty percent of the cut up timber. This averages 228 cubic feet of lumber per year that is used by each citizen of the United States, while the average person of the entire world uses only 32 cubic feet per year. most of the forests (about fifty per- cent) are hardwood forests, located mostly in the north 16 temporate zone. In the United States there is thirty-three percent of the softwood forest left, which is found mostly in the cooler regions of the northern hemispheres. Although Finland uses more wood per person per year, we use five times that amount when considering the average of the world. The timber used denotes the standards of living and the stage of development of each nation. Thirty-five percent of our forest area is made up of softwoods, sixteen percent is tem- porate hardwood, forty-nine percent is tropical hardwood, but only twenty percent of our forests are publicly owned. Sixty years ago seventy-five percent of our forests belonged to the government. Today the United States is made up of thirty percent of her area in grass lands, twenty-two per- cent in deserts, and forty-eight percent in forests. Four- fifths of our original forests were in the eastern half of the United States, but today this area contains eighty per- cent of our population, and is equal to 1,000,000 square miles. We could probably get along without timber, although timber is consumed everyday. Every important animal, veg- etable, and mineral product requires wood in some stage. Wood brings up civilization. China's wood has run out, so they now restrict the use of their wood to the manufacturer of coffins. They have a great deal of coal, iron ore, and other raw materials, but cannot take advantage of them be- cause they havent any timber to be used for mine pr0ps, or to be used in the process of manufacture. They could have 17 wood shipped in to their country, but they find it is cheap- er to have coal and other finished products shipped in. China also has poor homes, although they have suitable clay for bricks, but due to the lack of wood, bricks cannot be made. One-half of our usable timber is now confined to the west, although our manufacturing centers for wood are in the east. The uses of the forest are food, water, clothes, shel- ter, heat, work, recreation, health, tranSportation, and ed- ucation. Our "forest foods" are nuts, fruits, berries, sugar, maple syrup, honey and meat from the animals. It is estimated that in this country only three-fourths of the timber cut is sent through the mill, so great is the waste of logging Operations. At least one-third is lost in Ithe mill in refuse and sawdust, so that only one-half of the timber in the forest actually leaves the mill as saleable lumber, and that fraction further shrinks in working up the product of the mill into merchantahle articles. The total production of lumber in the United States in 1919 was 34,552,076 thousand feet hoard measure, as compared with 37,346,025 thousand feet in 1914, and 44,509,761 thou- sand feet in 1909; these figures showing the steady decrease in annual production. It is believed that the crest of lumbering production in the United States was reached in 1909. Estimates made by the forest service indicate that there is four times more cutting than growth, excluding loss by forest fires in our forests today. The need for conser- 18 vation of our timber resource is, therefore, self-evident. The annual per capita consumption of lumber in the United States, which is over 300 cubic feet, greatly exceeds that of any other country, being eight times as much as that of Germany, and twelve times as much as that of France prior to the war. Consumption of timber by-products in 1919 in the U- nited States was as follows: Veneers ---- 576,581 Thousand feet, worth $25,104,164, including red-gum, yellow pine, birch, cotton-wood, tupelo, yellow pOplar, and white oak, with smaller quantities of maple, walnut, spruce, and other woods.‘ Dye-stuffs - 950,275 tons of wood, valued at $12,133,799, of which chestnut supplied 754,972 tons. This timber came mainly from Virginia, Ten- nessee and North Carolina. Tanning ---- 609,130 tons of wood and bark, worth $12,027,687, mostly chestnut, cuebracho, oak, spruce and hemlock. Distillation 1,442,675 cords of which were hardwoods, mostly beech, birch and maple supplied 1,186,477 cords. Wood alcohol, charcoal, acetates, tars and tar oils are distilled from hardwoods. Wood alcohol produced for sale in 1919 totaled 6,980,693 gallons. Rosin, turpentine, tar, taroils, charcoal, and wood creosote are distilled from soft- 18 vation of our timber resource is, therefore, self-evident. The annual per capita consumption of lumber in the United States, which is over 300 cubic feet, greatly exceeds that of any other country, being eight times as much as that of Germany, and twelve times as much as that of France prior to the war. Consumption of timber by-products in 1919 in the U- nited States was as follows: Veneers ---- 576,581 Thousand feet, worth $25,104,164, including red-gum, yellow pine, birch, cotton-wood, tupelo, yellow pOplar, and white oak, with smaller quantities of maple, walnut, spruce, and other woods.. Dye—stuffs - 950,275 tons of wood, valued at $12,133,799, of which chestnut supplied 754,972 tons. This timber came mainly from Virginia, Ten- nessee and North Carolina. Tanning ---- 609,130 tons of wood and bark, worth $12,027,687,.mostly chestnut, cuebracho, oak, spruce and hemlock. Distillation 1,442,675 cords of which were hardwoods, mostly beech, birch and maple supplied 1,186,477 cords. Wood alcohol, charcoal, acetates, tars and tar oils are distilled from.hardwoods. Wood alcohol produced for sale in 1919 totaled 6,980,693 gallons. Rosin, turpentine, tar, taroils, charcoal, and wood creosote are distilled from soft- 19 woods. 0f the total cut of 34.500.000.000 board feet of lumber in the United States in 1919, yellow pine contributed thir- teen billion feet. Douglas fir nearly six billion feet, oak about two and three-fourths billion feet. and western yellow pine. hemlock, and white pine about one and three-fourths billion feet each; the production of white pine having sunk to sixth place. If, then. we are to face the problem of our forests squarely, and if we may hOpe to maintain a supply equal to the demand, certain reforms are imperative. First, we must reduce the waste in cutting and milling and utilize it and all its by-products. And, second, we must, in some manner. prevent forest fires. and, most surely of all. we must re- forest all available areas. compelling careful cutting so that young growth can have a chance to mature. In discussing the nations mineral wealth we find that, to prevent the impairment of our heritage, public policy must look with clear-sighted vision into the future. Pri- vate enterprise sometimes thinks too largely of immediate profit, and the competitive system is apt to Operate with an insufficient regard for future resources. When we come to our riches in forests, we find similar need for looking ahead. The problem of conserving our material resources is primarily a question of abstention. of substituting wherever economically feasible some non-mineral material. 20 The relation of forests to the soil is well set forth in the report of the National Conservation Commission: 7That forests hold soil and that hillsides denuded of forest do not hold their soil is to be seen in any mountain region in the United States. One small stream has been found by actual measurement to deposit silt in one year equal to one and one- half tons per acre of its watershed. For the whole United States the loss of soil each year is from one to two thousand million tons. At the lowest estimate the total quantity of silt carried by our streams would cover one foot deep a sur- face of more than 900 square miles. The larger part of it is deposited in the lower courses of our streams and in our har— bors. a menace to navigation and to present develoPed water powers. and a handicap to their develOpment." The Commission also states that in the National forests in the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast states, twelve per- cent of the cattle and twenty-one percent of sheep of these states find summer ranges. And in the southern pine belt and southern mountains sheep. cattle. and hogs are granged for the larger part of the year. And the value of game whose existence depends upon the conservation of the forests should not be underestimated. Most of our furs are taken from.forest animals. Yearly we export raw furs valued at from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000. and larger amounts are held for domestic manufacture. Few fresh-water fish can live in streams fed from denuded water-sheds, and those which do exist are mainly of inferior value. 21 The general public has only recently begun even to com- prehend the enormous value of our wooded tracts. The annual value of the forest products of the United States is over $2,000,000.000. and the industries which subsist wholly or mainly upon wood yield employment to more than a million and a half of workers. But the services of our forests can by no means be measured solely by the value of the wood products: and it is the recognition of this fact which has brought the question of forest care to the forefront in the conservation problem. The states have also seriously begun the task of build- ing up thier forest reserves. It is estimated that in 1909 twenty-two states owned nearly nine and one-half million acres. Nevertheless. three-fourths of the forest area is still under private ownership, and it is probable that the amount of standing timber on the private reserves is only one-fifth that on the public. The problem of timber conservation can- not. therefore, be solved unless some method is adopted to reach the private owner. In seyeral states laws have now been passed prescribing specified rules for cutting and otherwise regulating private forestry. In Louisiana a bill was introduced to the legis- lature in 1908 prohibiting the cutting of any tree less than twelve inches in diameter. It is further provided that brush must be removed from the neighborhood of young trees. In other states similar bills have met the approval of their legislatures and the courts have, in general, favorably in- 22 terpreted their constitutionality. For instance, the supreme court of Maine has decided that the state has a constitution- a1 right to require forest owners to handle their prOperty in such a manner as not to jeOpardize the public's interests. But, however admirable the spirit in which such silvi- cultural measures have been passed, their enforcement must be decidedly difficult. An army of forest inapectors would be required. It is likely that such measures would often be couched in terms inapplicable to local conditions. When such is the case, great antagonism is likely to be invoked against the law. It is probable that more is to be accomplished by endeavoring to arouse the private owner's interest in the proper care for his timber. . A standing cr0p harvested once in a generation or once in a century cannot justly be taxed as heavily as though it were a crOp harvested annually. Unwise taxation laws. laws which make necessary rapid cutting. have much to answer for. and should be abolished. There should be the utmost CO-Op- eration between private owners and state foresters. much can be accomplished by disseminating a scientific knowledge of forestry. We must, in short. whole-heartedly accept the principle that our forests are a national heritage. Each successive generation holds them, with the right of use. as trustee of the future. Q. Probably in no industry is the progress of applied sci- ence so evident as in the timber trade. WOJd has been so largely displaced by iron and steel, brick and concrete, that 23 it might seem at first glance as though the highly civilized races were becoming independent of the forests in which their ancestors lived. Coal and gas and oil have made logs a cum- bersome and costly kind of fuel. The big trees once used in building have been displaced by metal girders and beams of reinforced concrete. The great sailing ships, for which vast forests were once cut down. are now constructed of steel, and even their masts and much of their rigging are made of metal. Wood is still much used in some countries. notably America, for constructing dwellings, and is almost universally em- ployed for making furniture. But even here we may look for its lessening use. Because of the beauty of its color and grain. wood will probably always be used for interior finish, but modern requirements in the way of fire protection, and the rapidly increasing price of lumber, indicate that as a building material it will soon disappear. Quite good-sized dwellings have already been made by pouring concrete into molds. and such materials as hollow tiling and metal laths are very rapidly displacing wood in many small structures. while large buildings are universally constructed Of steel. stone, brick, concrete. and other fire resistive materials. All this might lead one to think that wood was becom. ing of little importance in modern life, but, as a matter Of fact. the very Opposite is the truth. In spite of all ap- pearances to the contrary wood is growing more necessary and more valuable with every advance in industry and science. As fast as it is diSplaced in one line of work it becomes 24 vitally useful in some new way. and the supply. as will be seen, is far from keeping up with the demand. For example, the ground that wood has lost in ship and house building has been more than made up by the demand for timber for railroad ties. wood blocks for city pavements, telegraph and telephone poles, false work for underground and steel construction, molds for concrete, packing cases and count- less other necessities Of modern industry. The great sav- ing that has resulted from building freight and passenger cars Of steel is more than Offset by the increased demand for wiod in the mining industries. For every ton of coal taken out. a cubic foot of timber must be put back. Wher- ever mining is carried on underground it is necessary to shore up the walls and ceilings of tunnels and galleries with timber to keep them from caving in. This is one of the heaviest sources of expense in most mines and a constant supply Of cheap timber is indiSpensable for their Operation. Vast areas in this country and elsewhere have been entirely denuded Of timber to satisfy this demand, which is ever in- creasing. and to supply which no substitute has been found. A timber famine would be a very disastrous blow to all min- ing interests. In addition to such direct uses for wood as those-enu- merated. chemical science is finding an increasing number of others. For many years such products as turpentine and rosin have been obtained in large quantities from the exu- dations of several species Of pine, their tapping for this 25 purpose not being necessarily fatal to the tree. Recently. however, it has been found that wood alcohol, acetate Of lime. turpentine, tar. acetone. formaldehyde, wood creosote and other less important products can be Obtained from wood by distillation. which generally destroys it or its value for other purposes. Of course, refuse wood. stumps. small limbs and branches usually burned without appreciable re- turn. can be thus treated. But at present much valuable timber is used up in the processes. which is seen to be a serious matter when we remember that eventually we shall have to look to such substitutes as wood alcohol to replace gasoline and other petroleum and coal derivatives for Oper- ating gas and gasoline engines. All the reserves of coal and petroleum now in sight will most certainly be exhaus- ted in a comparatively short time and cannot be recreated. But wood and other vegetable growths, such as potatoes. can be cultivated, and fortunately. there is strong reason for believing that hydrocarbon products will soon be Obtained from vegetable sources cheaply enough to enable us to em, ploy them for our prime movers. NO doubt. also. much ve- getable matter that now goes to waste, as, for instance. the growths on our marsh lands, will be made available for use in this manner.- The greatest indirect use of wood today. however. is in paper-making. Vast forests are being leveled to satisfy the ever increasing demand for wood pulp for paper of many grades, but chiefly for books and newspapers. So much is 26 required for the latter alone that the very existence of spruce and other conifers in this and other lands is ser- iously threatened. and the worst feature of this applica- tion of wood is that so much of it goes to waste. Our newspapers are very extravagant in their use Of paper, to begin with, and little effort is made to collect and re- work the Old material. The forests Of the United States that are available for pulp wood are rapidly becoming ex- hausted and great demands are being made on the Canadian forests to supply the deficiency. As in mining. so in the paper industries there does not appear to be any adequate substitute for wood. It is true, of course, that the trees do not need to be so large. but even small trees take time to grow. and the present demand is far in excess Of any natural processes of growth. Of the many surprising uses for wood, one is of par- ticular interest. This is the making Of artificial silk. Modern chemistry has discovered how wood fiber can be turned into viscose and spun into silk with results so good that it can hardly be distinguished from the real article. so it would appear that there is almost no limit to the useful _possibilities Of the products of the forests. The indirect utilities subserved by forests are many and great. It has been shown how greatly forests tend to prevent the dissipation of water into the run-Off. The forest floor has often been likened to a blanket, and a blanket will hold more moisture than the porous soil of 26 required for the latter alone that the very existence of spruce and other conifers in this and other lands is ser- iously threatened. and the worst feature of this applica- tion Of wood is that so much of it goes to waste. Our newspapers are very extravagant in their use of paper, to begin with, and little effort is made to collect and re- work the Old material. The forests of the United States that are available for pulp wood are rapidly becoming ex- hausted and great demands are being made on the Canadian forests to supply the deficiency. As in mining. so in the paper industries there does not appear to be any adequate substitute for wood. It is true, of course, that the trees do not need to be so large, but even small trees take time to grow. and the present demand is far in excess of any natural processes of growth. 0f the many surprising uses for wood, one is of par- ticular interest. This is the making Of artificial silk. Modern chemistry has discovered how wood fiber can be turned into viscose and Spun into silk with results so good that it can hardly be distinguished from the real article, so it would appear that there is almost no limit to the useful .possibilities Of the products Of the forests. The indirect utilities subserved by forests are many and great. It has been shown how greatly forests tend to prevent the dissipation of water into the run-Off. The forest floor has Often been likened to a blanket, and a blanket will hold more moisture than the porous soil of 27 treeless tracts. Because of its roots and undergrowth, the forest encourages the absorbtion into the underground reser- voir, which furnishes the water for wells. and from which springs and streams are fed. Forests also check the fre- quency of floods and refulate the flow of streams. Indeed, in the absence of forests.reservoirs, either natural or ar- tificial. often become useless through the washing in Of great quantities of silt. A forest also moderates the ex- tremes of temperature. Its presence retards the melting of snow in the spring. Snowbanks in the forests remain until late in the summer. It was estimated as of June 30. 1922. that there are left Of the forest area Of the United States, not including the.woodland and chapparral. 357.303.000.000 acres, con- taining 2,215,000,000.000 board feet. Of this 137,000,000 acres are Of virgin timber; 112,000,000 acres are in culled and second-growth timber large enough for sawing. 133,000,000 acres are partly stocked with smaller growth, and 81,000,000 are devastated and practically waste land. The 357,313,000, 000 acres left are little over half of the original area. North *akota has the least area of forests of all the states, which is nothing, and California has the largest forest area with 24,000,000; Oregon is next with 23,275,000; and Arkansas, Florida, and Minnesota are tied for third place with 22,000,000 acres. Nebraska has 100,000 acres and rates next to the last. Michigan has only 19,000,000 acres, although at one time it rated first. Except in the Rocky Mountain and the Pacific areas for- ests are now mere remnants of their original Splendor. The stand of board feet has, by clearing fJI agriculture, by fires and logging. been reduced over one-half; the forest acreage has been lessened by 300,000,000 acres. Our yearly consumption is three and one-half times as great as the yearly growth, and we export more lumber than we import. Particularly large has been the destruction of the rarer and better grades of lumber, wood Which in some cases, requires centuries to mature. In 1923 yellow pine lumber cost two hundred percent more than in 1904; white pine, one hundred thirty-three percent more; walnut, two hundred percent more. The extinction of many of the hardwood grades is already threatened. The industrial progress has meant an increasing consump- tion Of wood, so that today the problem is not to clear the forests away, but rather to lessen the timber waste. Among these wastes is first of all, the loss incurred through careless cutting. On our private forest lands an! average of twenty-five percent of the timber is left stand- ing or wasted in the woods. That this loss can be greatly reduced is shown by experience on our national forests where, by the introduction of methods common in other coun- tries. such wastes have been reduced ten percent. Part of the present waste is unavoidable under present conditions. Nevertheless, there are many ways by which the waste can be reduced without the impairment of present profit, and Except in the Rocky Mountain and the Pacific areas for- ests are now mere remnants of their original Splendor. The stand of board feet has. by clearing for agriculture, by fires and logging, been reduced over one-half; the forest acreage has been lessened by 300,000,000 acres. Our yearly consumption is three and one-half times as great as the yearly growth, and we export more lumber than we import. Particularly large has been the destruction of the rarer and better grades Of lumber, wood which in some cases, requires centuries to mature. In 1923 yellow pine lumber cost two hundred percent more than in 1904; white pine, one hundred thirty-three percent more; walnut, two hundred percent more. The extinction of many of the hardwood grades is already threatened. The industrial progress has meant an increasing consump- tion of wood, so that today the problem is not to clear the forests away, but rather to lessen the timber waste. Among these wastes is first of all. the loss incurred through careless cutting. On our private forest lands an? average of twenty-five percent of the timber is left stand- ing or wasted in the woods. That this loss can be greatly reduced is Shown by experience on our national forests where, by the introduction of methods common in other coun- tries. such wastes have been reduced ten percent. Part Of the present waste is unavoidable under present conditions. Nevertheless. there are many ways by which the waste can be reduced without the impairment of present profit, and 29 with the security of permanent gain. First of all, imma- ture trees should be saved. The poor grades of lumber come from the small trees. and on the basis of their values a few years hence, only a loss is incurred by cutting them. Clean work in the woods is also necessary. Trees are Often left in the woods which, though defective in some reSpects, are nevertheless merchantable. High stwmps and broken trees may be used for pulp. When left in the forest this requires the cutting Of expensive trees. There have been further losses through the failure to care for young growth. It costs no more to fell trees uphill than to let then roll downhill, and it is not exceedingly expensive to release young trees bent over by the weight of those fallen. Suf- ficient seed trees should be left. In the northwest, ex- tensive areas, formerly heavily timbered with white pine, have, because of the cutting of seed trees. no second stand. The cut should, furthermore, not be limited to the choisest timber, but the mature trees and, particularly, those of inferior varieties, should be cut to make way for the younger and more valuable species. There are also avoidable losses in milling and manu- facture, a general failure to utilize by-products carefully. Science is now just beginning to acquaint the public with proper methods of battling with insect pests, and unwise and heavy taxation has necessitated the too rapid cutting of the trees. But in the reduction of fire losses particu- lar progress is to be made. Yearly since 1370 the toll of 30 the forest fire has averaged $50,000,000. And this figure scarcely represents the total loss, for the young growth destroyed is worth far more than the merchantable timber. Fires also encourage the growth of poorer woods, for the hardier and the more valuable varieties are usually the most combustible. But fires do not confine their ravages to the destruction of the timber. They also burn the hu- mus Of the soil. After a fire, especially in areas pre- viously run over. there is left little organic material. Much has been accomplished in the control of fires, but much more yet remains to be done. Nothing'but perpet- ual vigilance can solve the problem. In each of the great national forests. patrol systems have been established, committing the timber to as regular surveillance as the streets of our cities. Fire lanes are necessary. Despite all the precautions, fires are bound to spread beyond control. The problem is then to confine it within narrow limits. Nature requires a century and a hilf to produce the white cedar and the tamarack in the northern swamps; for western hemlock, one hundred thirty years; for beech, one hundred years; for white oak. eighty years. This is too long a period for private enterprise, which thinks primarily in terms of immediate profit. But the government, which is stable and enduring, can well undertake the work of preserving these future necessities of industry. In the matter of forest fire losses, the United States is the ”black sheep” of the nation. During the five years 1916 to 1920. they averaged over 335 millions of dollars. 31 exclusive Of forest fire and marine losses; in 1923 they reached the record total of o21,600,000, a per capita loss Of $4.75 as compared with the $.72 in Great Britain; in 1921 there were over 495,000.000'8, and in the twenty years from 1900 to 1920, the pOpulation of the United States increased roughly forty percent, while the increase in fire loss was one hundred ten percent. The fire problem is one of the biggest problems of forests. Fire is a chemical action called combustion, which is accompanied by light and heat. There must be fuel (carbon and hydrogen), and when heated to the kindling tem- perature will combine with the exygen Of the air. Forest fuels of the lighter types are weeds and grass, which are able to pick up and lose moisture very rapidly. Forest fuels of the heavier types are branches. twigs and stumps. which lose and pick up moisture more slowly. The moisture of the air and duff, the decayed vegetable matter which covers the floor of the forest, determine the danger of fires. The weatherman and the forester are hand-in-hand. It is almost impossible to start a fire if the duff is twenty-five percent or over of moisture; there is a fifty- fifty chance of fire if the duff is about eleven percent of moisture; duff containing eight to ten percent is quite likely to catch fire; and duff containing up to seven per- cent is in acute danger. Air and duff are always tested to determine if men are really needed for lookouts. Fire weather in which the duff and air are low in moisture is dangerous. 52 Fires can be divided into four different classes. They are as follows: surface fires, which the majority of fires are, and which run rapidly over the surface of the ground; ground fires, which burn a little slower and deeper than the former, but by which the damage does not show until two or three years later, and which kills the trees by burning up- wards on the side of them, or the cambium, making it pos- sible for insects and fungi to enter; crown fires, which burn in the tOps of the trees, and are difficult to get under cintrol because of that fact. The fire-fighter's lives are endangered with this type becatse they may find themselves under a mass of burning trees, or they may be en- trapped by burning trees on all sides; and muck fires, which are in dry swamps and burn the minerals, slowly, and are stOpped by trenches. Things which fires and topography have in common are that fires burn uphill with speed because the hot air rises and draws the flames up, and that fires burn downhill slow; ly, and that on level ground fires burn more uniformly and do more damage. The south and east 810pes of hills are im more danger of fires due to the sun and the prevailing winds, which increase as the velocity of the fire increases. Fires are more severe in the middle of the day because the heat from the noon-day sun makes everything drier and burn easier. The best time to fight a fire is at night, because there is less wind and less heat. Methods of fire detection are towers, patrolmen, who 33 use automobiles, speedsters, railroads, canoes, horses and airplanes. Michigan uses the tower system, each tower which is equipped with alidades and aximuth. Each towerman phones in to the district station when he sees a fire, and at that place the fire is accurately located on a map from the azi- muth of two or more towers. Different types of fires are; the nonpreventable, which are hard to stip, and under which come fires caused by lightning and spontaneous combustion; the preventable or incendiary fires, caused by railroad workers, grudges, blasting, lumber companies, tourists, lighted tobacco and bee-hunters; the miscellaneous fires caused by fire-works, transmission lines, and friction; and the unknown fires. Forest fires destroy the value of the region, vegeta- tion, animals, seeds, young trees, which are the coming for- ests, buildings, logs, humus of the soil; lets insects and fungi in; permits floods and erosion; leads to drought; takes human lives and the lives of domestic animals; ruins fences, bridges and towns. The following are a few examples of the damage caused by fires. The Saginaw fire in 1871 spread across the entire state, and in which one hundred thirty-eight people lost their lives; the Hinkley, Minnesota fire in 1594, south of Duluth, was the cause of the loss of the lives of four hun- dred peOple, two hundred thirty of which were lost in just the city of Hinkley; the Metz fire in Michigan destroyed 200,000 acres of land; four hundred thirty-two peeple lost III I: 1‘. iii; 34 their lives in 1918 in the Choque, Minnesota fire due to a lumber mill; in 1923 a fire broke out in Ontomigan County, in which five or six people were killed and $20,000,000 worth of damage was done; in 1910 the village of Oscoda had a pOpulation if 9,000 ard Au Sable a population of 6,000. In 1920 Oscoda had 170, and Au Sable had none. This was the result of another fire in Michigan. Au Sable was completely destroyed and was never rebuilt, while Oscoda, just across the river was badly burned and almost cimpletely destroyed. Today the pe0ple are being educated about the causes of forest fires and the terrible losses cause thereby. Their means of education come through posters, newspapers, tags on cars, and through the tales of sportsmen. Fire hazards are reduced by certain laws which gives one the right to burn brush only by permit from the warden; by locomotion inspection, by which the railroads clean up thier right-of- way; by fire lines, twenty feet wide of plowed land which is a means of holding back surface fires. The state of Michi- gan owns five hundred miles of telephone lines, but uses the A. T. and T. where possible. In 1930 smokers caused forty-two percent of all the fires in the Upper Peninsula, and thirty-nine percent in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The above and the fires caused by the railroads amounted to about fifty percent of the fires in the Upper Peninsula, in which 9,500 acres were destroyed, and with the 1,300 fires in the Lower Peninsula, which amounted to 21,000 acres being destroyed, the total of 1750 fires destroyed 50,500 acres. .‘F 35 Forest policies of today are that the land should be devoted to the best use to peOple as a whole; that all re- sources were to be for use ; that to make resources as permanent as possible; that home builders come first in the uses of resources; that local questions siould be settled locally as far as possible; that five years of forest re- ceits given over to forests be developed for forest service; and that a fee be placed upon grazing rights and upon tim- ber. The United States Forest Sezvice became a branch of the Department of Agriculture because of the agriculture in- volved, the grazing problem involved, the protection of water and irrigation, the timber cr0p, and insects and diseases of agriculture. Forests are not self-paying and never will be, because there is a great quantity of non-timber land in each forest. Today our country is divided into sisteen tracts, each in charge of a erester. Each forester is aided by assis- tant foresters, rangers, and guards. Excepting the guards, members of this organization must be trained foresters. They patrol the forest, marked the timber for cutting, ex- tinguish and prevent forest fires, plant deforested areas 7with tree seeds or seedlings, and advise owners of private forests upon request. The forester grants grazing privil- eges, sells timber, and exercises general supervision )ver the forest under his charge. Wanton destruction of forests has been stopped, and 56 attempts of greedy corporations to control the public for- ests and water power privileges have been successfully re- sisted. The annual apprOpriations fir the service are about $6,500,000, two-thirds of which is derived from the leases of grazing lands and the sale of timber. In 1911 a forest products laboratory was organized at Madison, Wisconsin, by the United SLates forest service in co-Operation with the University of Wisconsin. The labor- atory studies forest products and the best methods of their utilization. The expense of conducting this laboratory up to January 1, 1921, was $2,000,000, and it is estimated that it has saved the industries at least $30,000,000 annu- ally. The great difficulty with forestry in America is the unwillingness of the democracy to wait fifty years for re- sults. Our country is more subject to dry spells than is northern EuroPe, and forest fires are more apt to destroy our timber. 37 CHAPTER TWO Process of Manufacture of Artificial Lumbers THE MASONITE PROCESS. The Masonite Corpora- tion is now slightly over three years old. In that time it has progressed from.a small exPeri- mental station Operating two guns and turning out about 40,000 feet of board daily, to the present plant, equipped with nine guns and turning out over 130 million feet annually. It is one of the developments in the industry which can boast of an entirely new process. Instead of reducing the ‘wood structure by chemical means or by grinding, the chips are exploded under a steam pressure of 1000 pounds per square inch, thus preserving the fiber structure without loss through chemical ac- tion. .The originator of this process is W. H. Ha- son, and he has brought it through the eXperimen- tal stage to its present position in the insula- tion field. lr.‘lason was formerly with Thomas Edison and for seventeen years worked with that great inventor on problems of many types. He first thought of exploding wood structures while investigating the removal of naval stores from sawed lumber. When this development was success- fully established, he turned his attention to the eXplosion process. 38 The first experiment in the production of us- sonite was rather crude. A gun was made by drill- ing a hole in a large piece of shafting. It was filled with chips, a small amount of water was ad- ded, and a tapered steel plug was fastened in the end. The gun was then placed in a vise and heated with blow torches until it was assumed that a pres- sure of about 1000 pounds per square inch had been reached. The steel plug was then struck with a long bar and the fibers were blown out of the gun with a terrific report. Enough of the fibers were gathered up to demonstrate the possibility of se- curing a suitable fiber structure in this manner. The tapered steel plug could not be found; it had apparently been blown several hundred yards. The fiber was formed into a board on a small hand frame, run through a wash wringer to remove a por- tion of the water, and then pressed and dried to form.insu1ation board. The method of making Presdwood was discovered by accident. The idea had been conceived of manu- facturing a very hard, dense board, but efforts to produce it by first pressing the wet lap and then drying the board in an oven were unsuccessful. In a neighboring paper mill a small letter press e- quipped with steampheated platens was used to ob- tain the moisture content of pulp samples. This was used in some of the preliminary experiments. 39 One day the steam on the press was carefully turned off and a portion of wet lap was placed in the press. For some reason Hr. Mason forgot about the board in the press for about two hours. When he went back, he dis- covered a leaking steam valve on the press and found that the wet lap had been under pressure and a relative- ly high temperature for two hours. When the press was Opened, much to everyone's surprise, a very hard, dense board had been formed. This was the first piece of Presdwood. Four distinct products are manufactured by the Ma- sonite Corporation--Insu1ation Board, Insulation Lath, Quartrboard, and Presdwood. Only the Quartrboard and the Presdwood will be discussed here. Quartrboard is an intermediate between Insulation Board and Presdwood. It is made in panels 4 feet wide and 12 feet long. Quartrboard is l/d inch thick and weighs 700 pounds per lOOOVsquarelfeet. It is strong- er and more rigid than the structural insulation and has a wide variety of uses. Presdwood is manufactured in 4 by 12 foot panels and is made l/8 and 5/16 inch thick. It weighs about 750 pounds per 1000 square feet and has a specific gravity of about 1.10. Presdwood is an extremely hard, 'dense board with a tensile strength of over 4000 pounds per square inch. It is made with one side smooth and hard while the other side has a mesh surface. lasonite products are made chiefly of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and southern gum, but it has 40 been made very successfully from spruce as well as from some of the hardwoods. It may also be made from some vegetable fibers, provided they have certain general qualities, although boards made from these materials are generally inferior to those made from.wood. Wood is received at the plant in three classes-- roundwood, or small logs with the bark on; trimmings and edgings from saw mills; and wood waste, which con- tains shavings, bark, splinters, sawdust, etc., and forms the bulk of our raw material. All the wood except the wood waste is run through shippers which reduce it to chips approximately s/4 inch long. These chips, together with the wood waste, pass through chip screens, which separate them into find, med- ium, and coarse fractions. The fines, which are prac- tically all sawdust, are sent to the boilers to be used‘ as fuel. The mediumpsized chips (5/8 to 1 inch in length) are sent to the chip bins. The long chips are run through hogs or chip crushers and then returned to the screens. No effort is made to separate barks or knots, as these are taken care of in the explosion process. The guns used in the explosion process are 20 inches in diameter and 5 feet high, and have a capacity of 10 cubic feet. They are equipped with quick-Opening hydrau- lic valves at the bottom for the release of the load and with both low-pressure and high-pressure steam inlets at the top. Our ”low-pressure steam! is at 350 pounds per square inch which hardly coincides with the customary use 41 of the term. The high-pressure steam is 1000 pounds per square inch. The gun is loaded with chips through a port in the tap, which is then tightly closed. Immediately the low- pressure steam is admitted, bringing the chips to a tem. perature of approximately 3759 F. The condensate formed in this way is continuously removed from.the bottom.of the gun by an automatic trap system. The chips are left at this temperature for 30 to 40 seconds during which time they are softened and the moisture content equalized. No chemicals are added. The high-pressure steam is then admitted and the gun brought up to a pressure of 1000 pounds per square inch in 2 to 3 seconds. This is equivalent to a temperature of about 540° F. After remaining at this pressure for about 5 seconds, the hydraulic discharge valve is Opened, and the chips pass through a small port in the bottom of the gun, where they explode immediately owing to the high internal pressure. This completely ruptures the chip and produces a mass of long fiber bundles. The exploded fibers pass into a cyclone, where the steam is separated and the fibers fall into a storage chest. The stock at this point in the process is known as "gun fiber." Hot water, which has been clarified of all suspended solids, is added to the stock and the entire mass is maintained at approximately 160° F. throughout the refining.. This temperature serves a double purpose--it assists in the penetration of the sizing emul- sions, and it also facilitates the refining of the fiber. 4'1 LIL ' The high-pressure boilers supply saturated steam to the nine guns. They have a total heating surface of 5880 square feet. They have a single cross drum 4-1/4 inches thick at the front, the main tubes being 5/16 inch thick and 5-1/4 inches in diameter and the circulating tubes s/s inch thick. The peak load is 400 per cent rating, the average load being 250 per cent. Both coal and wood refuse are burned under these boil- ers, as well as under the low-pressure boilers. The feed water is slightly acid, ranging from.a pH of 6.0 to 6.5, and is obtained from the condensate of the low-pressure boilers. The flue gas normally has a carbon dioxide con- tent of 16 per cent when operating on wood refuse alone and approximately 15 per cent when both wood and coal are being used. . The gun fiber is refined by passing through rod mills containing rods 3 inches in diameter. The consistency of the stock is maintained by a consistency regulator, which functions by measuring the resistance to mechanical action of the mixture and adds water to maintain a uniform ratio of stock to water. Three rod mills are in operation on the Presdwood unit and one on the Insulation unit. The stock is screened to remove all fiber which has not been sufficiently refined for the next Operation, and again re- turned to the rod mills. The accepted stock from the rod mills now passes through a battery of refiners. A refiner consists of a cone-shaped plug rotating in a shell. Both shell and plug are equipped with bars, the clearance of which is adjusted lifllqll ‘ :r j'u ,e- viii; J 43 by a herizontal-motion.of the plug. The stock enters at the large end and leaves at the small end, reversing the usual procedure of Jordana, Claflins, and the like. After leaving the refiners, the stock is again screened to remove all fibers which have been sufficiently refined to enter the accepted stock. The remainder of the fibers pass through two more batteries of refiners and then enter the machine stock chest, ready to be felted into board. Waterproofing consists of a sizing emulsion having a paraffin base. It is heated and added to the stock through a regulator which continuously delivers it at the desired rate. This emulsion penetrates well into the fibers and imparts an extremely high water resistance to the product. During the refining the temperature of the stock is carefully controlled to secure the greatest possible ef- ficiency. The pH must also be held constant at the Opti- :mum point for greatest efficiency.l Since the explosion process produces free tannic, acetic, and formic acids, as well as other products, the pH of the stock leaving the guns is about 4.5. In order to secure correct refining as well as to lessen corrosion of equipment, it is desir- able to maintain a pH of about 6.5. In this case Nature has been generous. The plant has a well which has been sunk to a depth of 1050 feet and which tapped a rich vein of soda water. This contains approximately 650 p. p. m. of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, and by the Ju- dicious use of this soda well almost any desirable pH can be obtained. Incidentally, the entire plant is Operated on well water. The other three wells are only 400 feet deep and deliver a very pure water, almost neutral, and with very low hardness. The machines on which the fibers are felted together to produce the "wet lap” have been developed by this comp pany. They are similar to the ordinary Fourdrinier paper machine, except that they produce a wet lap about 5/4 inch thick rather than 1/32 inch thick or less as on a Fourdri- nier. They are slightly over 4 feet in width and the wet end is approximately 40 feet long. The fibers pass through a head box, where the con- sistency is carefully adjusted by another regulator. The stock then passes to the machine, where it is formed on an endless wire 57 inches wide. At this point the wet lap is about 2 inches thick. It then passes over suction boxes and through press rolls, emerging, still hot, as a wet lap Q/4 inch thick, containing about 65 per cent water. ‘An automatic cut-Off knife cuts the wet lap into 12-1/2 foot lengths. These pass along table rolls until they reach an automatic tipple, which feed them.into large movable racks, each of which holds twenty panels and consists of an end- less screen, mounted on driven rollers. From the racks, the boards are fed into the presses. Each press takes twenty boards and is actuated by three large hydraulic rams 50 inches in diameter. Between each board is a steam-heated platen covered by a wire screen. fastened to rollers, which are driven to insert or remove 44 45 the boards. On tOp of each Presdwood Board is a polished chrome plate which imparts a smooth finish and a hard, glos- sy surface. I For pressing Insulation or Quartrboard, the presses are equipped with stOps which hold the boards at the de- sired thickness. The boards are dried in the press, re- quiring about 30 minutes. In making Presdwood no stOps are used, and the full pressure of 300 to 400 pounds per square inch is placed on the board. This pressure may be varied to suit different conditions of fiber, but it must be great Warsaw; W3L17‘W ' ' ' ' f ' enough to cause a coalescence or welding of the fibers at the press temperature. The drying time for Presdwood is (sir i ‘ ., about 15 minutes. During this time the board is converted from.a soft, spongy mass of fibers to the extremely hard, dense product which is known as Presdwood. The fibers lose many of their original characteristics and become hard and glassy. It is believed that the'lignins present ’ in the original wood, separated by the explosion process, become reunited or welded together to produce this product. When the press is Opened, the boards are again placed in the movable racks and, after being inspected, tested, and graded, are run through a humidifier, in which there is a moisture regain of about 7 per cent. This Operation is carefully controlled so that the moisture content of each piece of Presdwood shipped will correspond to the av- erage humidity of the district where it is to be used. Al- E though Masonite products are very well waterproofed, if ex- ; posed to damp conditions, a certain amount of moisture will 0‘ “W's v-*" 0 ”'fl‘ Ur." 3, ‘°' 46 be absorbed and some expansion will follow. While this amount is small, it may cause a warping of the surface under extreme conditions if the board is not humidified. The humidifier is 18 feet wide by 180 feet long and has a capacity of seven hundred 4 by 12 foot panels. The panels remain in the humidifier about 10 hours at 800 F. and 100 per cent relative humidity. This insures a mois- ture uptake of about 7 per cent. After leaving the humidifier the boards are again in- spected and graded and are piled in storage to allow comp plete equalizat on of moisture. After a week or more in storage, they are ready to be shipped in any size. THE OELOTEX PROCESS. The story of Celotex begins in Iinnesota, one thousand miles from Louisiana's cane fields. The central figure is a young man, who despite his youth, is already a prominent figure in the industry of the great northwest. With thoughtful eyes he is watching America's great timber tracts shrink under a constantly increasing demand for lumber. Looking into the future he sees this demand growing larger and the supply dwindling. He senses an eventual swing to higher and ultimately nearly prohibi- tive prices. Pondering this problem, this young man, whose name is Bror G. Dahlberg, reasons to himself: "Lumber is largely cellulose. How can we manufacture a building board out of cellulose taken from.a plant that can be cut and regrown each year as a crop?" He broached the subject to a small group of friends and thus began the search for the plant that would meet their needs. The investigation ranged far and wide. They experimen- ted with milkweed, with straw, cactus, cornstalks and many other plants. None met all requirements. Some were not commercially available in proper quantity. Others did not meet the physical tests for strength and durability. At length the search brought them to Louisiana and bagasse. Bagasse is the tough fibrous residue remaining after the juices have been crushed from sugar cane. A board was made in the laboratory by felting cane fibers together. It met the group's stringent requirements. And--bagasse was comp -mercially available. Large tonnages were produced annual- ly by the Louisiana mills; the supply was concentrated, and it was inexpensive. With the discovery of the desirable qualities of ba- gasse, the search for raw material was ended and in July, 1920, The Celotex Company was organized with Dahlberg as president. Immediately, tribulations beset the infant in- dustry. The first great problem.was transportation of bagasse from sugar mills to factory. While the company's plant was to be located at Marrero, Louisiana, directly across the Mississippi from.New Orleans and in the heart of the sugar belt, it was necessary to bale the bagasse to facilitate transportation. Existing baling machinery could not handle the bulky mass of tough, tangled fibers. Baling machine manufacturers said°bagasse was too heavy and bulky to bale. Nevertheless, baling machines.were ordered and the company's experts experimented with them, tore them apart, and rebuilt them until a machine was perfected that 47 Tf_ 48 would bale one hundred tons of bagasse every twentyafour hours. The first obstacle was hurdled. Other problems quickly presented themselves. Special machinery had to be develOped to manufacture the board. As in all new machinery, kinks developed which had to be ironed out. There were days of discouragement when everything seemed to go wrong. But Dahlberg and his associates persis- ted. On August 21, 1921, newspapers from.naine to Califor- nia heralded the making of “the largest board in the world" at Harrero. Dahlberg and his associates had conquered. The plant machinery, which for so long had tried the patience of its makers, functioned perfectly and turned out a steady rib- bon of Celotex which stretched for 800 feet before it was divided into commercial lengths. From that time The Celotex Company mounted swiftly. In 1922 eighteen million square feet of Celotex were manufac- tured. The original plant became too small to £111 the de- mand for the new product. New units were added, until in 1929 there were four units in Plant No. l, and a new plant was begun. I ~ . The succession of Operations that converts bagasse into Celotex is an example of modern industrial efficiency. Thirty-three baling stations are located at the sugar mills from.which the company Obtains its supply of bagasse. The ‘bagasse is baled as it comes from.the mills. Because of the Short grinding season in Louisiana, which averages about seventy-five days, it is necessary to store enough raw ma- 49 terial during this brief period for a year's production. Therefore, as the bagasse is baled, big cranes pile it into lofty pyramids at the baling stations and at the Celotex plant. Before the bagasse is fed to the conveyors leading in- to the plants, the bales are broken Open with picks by ne- groes. Hand labor, rather than machinery, is used at this point because it permits minute-to-minute control of the amount of material fed to the conveyors. The bagasse is weighed as it goes to the conveyor to determine the exact amount of raw material consumed daily. The finished pro- duct is also weighed and from.these two and other figures all production statistics are computed. The loose bagasse is carried to huge cookers which re- move foreign substances encrusted on the fibers. The fiber is then thoroughly washed and refined. The manufacture of Celotex requires a mixture of fiber just as the building of a house requires a variety of lumber. There must be apro- per proportion of long fiber to weave and entangle and felt, the material together; a proportion of coarse fiber to give porosity, lightness and insulating value, and a proportion of find fiber to fill in between these two and give surface. These proportions are carefully controlled in the refining operations. All these Operations are carried out in water and steam, completely sterilizingthe fibers. The sterilized fibers are fed onto mould rolls covered with fine cOpper wire screen. Here the greater part of the water is drained out and the fibers thoroughly entangled 50 and matted together into a felt. The fibers of sugar cans are serrated--that is, they are covered with miscroscopic saw teeth--and this assists materially in the felting pro- cess. Wood fiber, on the other hand, is smooth and cannot be felted into a strong board by this simple entangling - and matting process. With a smooth fiber to obtain equal strength, the board must be pressed, which makes it con- siderable heavier. When the fiber comes from the mould rolls it is still wet. To squeeze out as much water as practicable it is passed through a series of heavy rolls. These Operations are continuous, the board machine turning out a board twelve and one-half feet wide at the rate of fifteen to twenty feet per minute. At this point ingenious, automa- tic devices insure uniform.thickness. From the rolls the board is carried on a conveyor through a drying oven. In Plant No. 1 there are two of these ovens, each of which is eight hundred feet long and has conveyors for two boards. In Plant No. 2, the single oven is 1,000 feet long and has three conveyors. The speed of the conveyors and the temp perature in the dryers (350° F.) are so correlated that the board is thoroughly dried when delivered at the oven outlet. From the oven the conveyor carries the board to a remark- able cutting machine which first trims the edges and cuts the board lengthwise into three sections four feet wide and then, without halting the forward movement, cross-cuts it into the desired lengths of 7', 8', 8-1/2', 9', 9-1/2', and 12'. The board comes in thicknesses of 2/8", and 2/16". The Celotex Lath comes in units 18' by 48", and 7/16” and 2/8' thick. 51 THE NU;WOOD PROCESS. Nu-wood is manufactured by the Wood Conversion Company at Cloquet, Minnesota, and is made from a raw cellulose material. Cellulose is the struc- tural material out of which the frame-work (trunk, limbs, and twigs) of all trees is built. Its chemical composition is fairly uniform, but as it occurs in trees, it has asso- ciated or combined with it a variety of other compounds such as lignin, pectin, and suberin, all of which impart to the natural or ligno-cellulose a variance in color and chemp ical prOperties . The physical form.in which cellulose is built up by the growing trees varies even more than its chemical. In certain trees it is develOped into long hollow tube-like cells, or into short hair-like fibers, or in dense thick- 'wa11ed and more or less circular "stone cells”, or at times into delicate, brick-shaped, pith-ray cells. It is these variations in the chemical and physical structure of the cellulose formations that enable the identification of the various woods with scientific accuracy and which also de- termine the commercial uses to which the various woods are put. Two great primary industries have been develOped in this country that are depending entirely, or almost so, up- on the cellulose structure of trees for their existence, and from these two primary industries a host of others in turn derive their existence. The combined result is that millions of dollars of capital are invested in, and hundreds of thousands of American workemn derive their living from 52 changing the cellulose structure of wood and converting it into forms suitable for modern industrial requirements. These two great industries are the paper industry and the lumber industry, both Of them the primary feeders for an enormous tonnage of commodities intimately identified with our daily existence. Although both of these industries use the same war ma- terial, namely living trees, they differ almost at the very start in their method of Operation. This difference occurs even in the logging Operations and it is seldom that logs for lumber and paper mills are gathered at the same time, although in late years there has been a tendency to consol- idate these Operations to some degree. 'The main difference between the sawmill and the paper mill process is that the sawmill changes the cellulose structure only in mass, while the paper mill is not satis- fied until it alters the form of the minute and individual tree fibers and often their chemical structure as well. Thus one industry deals with the tree in large units, while the other industry dissects the tree to individual and minute particles. Because Of this, the paper industry is able to 1188 trees with a much wider variance in size and shape than the sawmill industry and it furthermore can change the chem- ical and physical structure of the wood fibers so that its finished products, even from a great number of different trees, are all of uniform grade and quality. This is not ‘true of the sawmill, the finished products of which reflect directly the inherent characteristics and pr0perties of the 53 individual trees from.which they came. In the conversion of round trees into square-edged lum- ber, much wastage or offal is bound to occur. This takes the form of slabs, edgings, sawdust, shavings, and other wastage. Some of this offal is used for fuel, but much of it finds its way to the burner and is destroyed. This is the practice at most sawmills now Operating in the United States, and as a result it has been estimated that some forty or more millions of cords of wood are each year fil- ling the air with no more valuable product than smoke. About five years ago some lumber companies pOpularly referred to as the "Weyerhaeuser group", engaged the C. F. Burgess Laboratories to work upon this sawmill offal prob- lem, and see what, if anything, could be done to utilize it in some practical manner. Numerous plans were consid- ered, such for example, as the manufacture Of briquettes, the production of ethyl alcohol, wood creosotes and oils, and organic acids; but all these prOposals had such limi- tations that their commercial develOpment did not appear particularly promising. ‘Seme researches were then started with the Object of embracing the more desirable features of the two primary wood-using industries mentioned above, namely, the lumber and paper industries. The question was asked: ”If trees can be picked to individual fibers and these then put together again in thin sheets called paper, why cannot the trees be picked to pieces and put together in thicker sheets called boards, and thus actually make boards by altering the individual fiber and cell structure?” 54 Search for an answer to this question finally led to the development and manufacture of two new commercial pro- ducts from living trees. In order to carry on the commer- cial develOpments of the laboratory, the Weyerhaeuser com- ‘panies organized by-product company to manufacture the new products. The first product is balsampwool, which we wont take up in our study of artificial lumber. The second product more recently develOped at Cloquet is quite different from the balsamewool, although it is made from.the same raw cellulose material. This product, to which the trade name of nu-wood has been given, is a dense solid mass of tree fibers pressed together into boards 4 feet wide by 16 feet long and varying in thickness from L/8 to 5/8 inch. These large boards are then resawed into smaller boards of any size desired. Since the process starts I with the individual fiber just as in the paper industry, it is possible to use the natural wood in any form or size whatever. In fact, the process uses sizes and forms of wood even to small and crooked to be ordinarily profitable to the paper maker; thus slabs, edgings, sawdust, and trimmings make an ideal raw material for the manufacture of nu-wood, and from them is made a finished product which can be sawed, nailed, sanded and finished like natural lumber. In"the manufacture of nu-wood the sawmill offal is first chipped to small particles and is then treated with an alkaline solution. The alkaline treated chips are then ground mechanically in the presence of water, so that they 55 are torn to pieces and the structure of the individual cells in many cases is completely destroyed. In this condition they are sized to render them.waterproof and are then flowed in a current of water on to a screen and subjected to heavy pressure to force out the water. The pressure reduces the mass of fibers to a stiff board-like cast of wood, which is then subjected to heat so that the remaining moisture is reduced to about six or eight per cent. The final result is a stiff, strong, dense foard of wood fibers, so intermingled and interlocked that they synthetic product has none of the grain characteristics of natural wood. The wood is cut into uniform.sizes, and comes in units of 6 pieces each, each board is 4 feet wide, and 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 feet .long. THE SHEETROCK PROCESS. Sheetrock is manufactured by the United States Gypsum Company in Chicago, Illinois. It is a gypsum wall and ceiling material. Gypsum is a hydrous‘ sedimentary rock deposited like limestone. it is mined or quarried much the same as coal or limestone, and after being finely ground, is calcined to remove some of the water of its composition. Calcined gypsum.mixed with water becomes plastic and later sets or hardens because it takes back into its composition the water expelled in calcination. Sheetrock appears in big boards with square edges and gray covering. The gray covering is made in the gypsum mills especially for Sheetrock. Inside the gray cover is a gypsum.core, the "backbone" of the Sheetrock. The gypsum used is refined and toughened by a special process origin- ated by the United States Gypsum.COmpany. While plastic (like gypsum plaster when being applied to the wall) the processed gypsum.is molded and compressed between two sheets of the special fiber paper as it passes along an endless belt. A patented "finger" fold the paper around the edges and an automatic knife cuts of the uni- form.1engths of 6, 7, 8, 8-L/2, 9, and 10 feet, uniform widths of 32 and 48 inches, and the unvarying thickness of 3/8 inch. THE HOMASOTE PROCESS. Homasote is manufactured by the Pantasote Company in New York. Homasote is made of wood fibers and other fibers united in a process that meshes and binds themftogether. The process of manufacture.of Homasote is not available for company reasons. Vehisote, put out by the same company, has three forms; the Panel Board, the Tileboard, and the Grainboard. Homasote comes in uniform thickness of 6/6 inch, and in sizes Of 4 x 8, 4 x 10, 4 x 12, 4 x 14, 6 x 12, 8 x 10, 8 x 12, and 8 x 14 feet. Vehisote also comes in uniform sizes and thicknesses. The Panel Board comes in 6 x 12, 8 x 12, and 8 x 14 feet, in 6/16, 3/8, 2/16, and 1/2 inch thickness- es. The Tileboard comes-in 4 x 6, 4 x 8, 4 x 10, and 4 x 14 feet, in 6/16 inch thickness. .Grainboard comes in 4 x 8, 4 x 10, 4 x 12, and 4 x 14 feet, in 6/16 inch thickness. There is also a Clapboard for siding whick come 12 inches wide, 8, 10, 12, and 14 feet long,v and 6/16 inch thick. 56 57 THE UPSON PROCESS. The process of manufacture of the Upson Board by the Upson Company at Lockport, New York, is not available. Upson Board may be called a "combination- of-fibers' board. It is made of several different fibers scientifically combined under a special formula. Upson Board is made entirely of spruce and other wood fibers, which are ob- tained by reducing the original logs to fibrous form. Then the fine, wiry shredded fibers are fabricated under enormous pressure into laminated boards of uniform thickness. When thus formed, each panel is subjected to the orig- inal Upson method of scientific processing whereby each panel is kilncured, waterproofed and surface-filled or primed. Upson Board is made in 32”, 48" and 64" widths. Lengths run 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 16 feet. it is made in thick- nesses of 1/8”, 6/16", 1/4" and 6/8'. THE CORNELL WOOD PROCESS. Super-Corne11.WOod Board is manufactured by the Cornell Wood Products Company in Chicago. The manufacturing process of Cornell Products is not avail- able other than it is made entirely of wood, and has an oat- meal finish. Cornell Wood Board comes in packages of 10 panels each, in widths of 32 and 48 inches, and in lengths of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15 feet. 7 58 CHAPTER THREE -Uses of Artificial Lumber In this chapter a summary may be obtained of the diff- erent uses of artificial lumbers as advertised by the man- ufacturers of each product. There will be many uses which will not be found in the list below, and no attempt will be made at this time to Show which product of the different manufacturers is the best suited to serve any one duty; but by refering to the table at the conclusion of this text, it will be an easy matter to choose the make of artificial lumber to suit any one particular purpose. 'Masonite advertises the following uses for their two products; boxes, outboard motor boats, play houses, store counters, wall panels, floors, outdoor signs, concrete forms, store show windows, motor truck panels, radio cab- inets, show cases, store fixtures, window decorations and displays, table taps, bedroom and fire screens, portable billiard tables, cupboards, trays, lining, ceilings, and home fixtures such as clothes hampers, flower boxes, flour bins, toys, chair backs and seats, closet linings, for insulation and plaster base in the home and also in farm buildings of all kinds. The uses for the Celotex products are for insulation, sheathing, plaster base, carpet and rug lining, linoleum base, acoustical correction, and refrigerator insulation. Nu-wood can be used on interior walls without decor- ation or covering, for wall and ceiling panels, attic lin- llli; in 59 ing, garage lining, in construction of summer cottages, acoustical correction, partitions, window displays, stage sets, and insulation for farm buildings of all types. It can also be used as a plaster base. Homasote products are used for exterior and interior walls, ceilings, partitions on dwellings, stores, garages, tool houses, construction camps, sheds, bath houses, and fanm houses. It is used for bookcases, shelving, screens, table tOps, buletin boards, signs, vehicle panels, and many types of boats. The Cornell Wood Products Company advertises their Cornell Board for the following uses; insulation directly on the roof rafters or on the tOp of the uncovered floor joist, for bathrooms, fOr sheathing, panelling, and for household articles such as clothes hampers, bird cages, radiator covers, and toys. Sheetrock may be used for lining in farm.buildings, industrial buildings, and homes as a plaster board. It can also be used in show windows and store displays. The numerous uses for the Upson Products are in the home for lining attics, closets and cupboards, and sleep- ing porches; for bookcases, drawer bottoms, radiator pro- tectors, table mats, storm doors, chair bottoms, cabinets; on the farm for poultry and dairy houses, stock sheds, garages, lining for storage bins and tank rooms; in indus- trial buildings for partitions, screens, lockers, buletin boards, waste baskets, machine guards, telephone booths; and in public buildings. 60 CHAPTER FOUR Testing Artificial Lumber This chapter will be devoted to the different tests given to artificial lumber. A discussion with all neces- sary drawings and graphs will be given along with the re- sults Obtained. Yellow Pine was used as the control to show the relative values between natural and artificial lumbers. There are several different manufacturers of artifi- cial lumber, and each manufacturer makes more than one type, but because Of the limited time only eight manufac- tured kinds were tested. All tests were conducted under the same conditions and the same apparatus by the author. Although slight errors might enter into these different tests through the apparatus and through the relatively small samples used, the results will be in relation to one another, and a very good perspective should be ob- tained. The materials used were of the standard thick- ness; that is, natural lumber is generally thought of as one inch thick unless otherwise stated, and for this rea- son the one inch sample was tested; but, of course, it would not be practical to use this thickness in all cases. Natural lumber may be had in any thickness, but any one- artificial lumber generally comes in two or three standard thicknesses. The discussion of the different tests should be read before the corresponding tables are examined to avoid any misunderstanding. 61 Test No. I Insulation Two duplicate boxes were used in this test with each box having one Open end. These boxes were made with the openings to fit very closely upon each other with the ex- tra aid of one layer of heavy felt on each end. One box was placed on a table with its Open end up, and a piece of material to be tested was put over this. The other box was then placed with its Open end down on the material so that it lined up in all directions with the box under the material. As mentioned, between each box and the sample was a layer of heavy felt for the purpose of insuring a very tight fit. In the lower box was placed a 100 watt, type C Mazda bulb, connected to the city electric light lines. In the upper box was placed a Centigrade ther- mometer so that its bulb was a definitely known distance from the material to be tested, and projecting above the box so that it could be easily read without dismantling the apparatus (see drawing). These boxes were also lined with material to keep the heat inside. The size of the boxes were 9-3/4 x 9-6/4 x 10-1/2 inches, inside dimen- sions. I The apparatus was first set up and the room tempera- ture recorded. The electric light bulb was then turned i on and the reading of the thermometer taken at given in- tervals of time throughout the test, which terminated at the end of three hours and forty-five minutes. After all 62 materials had been tested and the data recorded, the total degree rise in temperature for each interval Of time was computed. The following graph was then made. The room temperature was kept as near constant as possible by refering to another thermometer. The number of watts entering the apparatus through the electric light line was assumed to be constant, or as near constant as all practical purposes require. Of course, it is only natural to expect that the thicker material would be the best insu- lator. After the test was concluded, the material was re- moved, and the apparatus was kept in action. In ten min- utes after the material was removed the thermometer read 73.3° C. Of course, the apparatus had been in action three hours and forty-five minutes prior to this time, but some of the heat, no doubt, was lost so that it is safe to say that the thermometer would register 73.3° C. in three hours and forty-five minutes providing the insulating material had not been inserted. Both Cornell and Upson board warped after they had been put through this test. 62 materials had been tested and the data recorded, the total degree rise in temperature for each interval Of time was computed. The following graph was then made. The room temperature was kept as near constant as possible by refering to another thermometer. The number of watts entering the apparatus through the electric light line was assumed to be constant, or as near constant as all practical purposes require. Of course, it is only natural to expect that the thicker material would be the best insu— lator. After the test was concluded, the material was re- moved, and the apparatus was kept in action. In ten min- utes after the material was removed the thermometer read 73.30 C. Of course, the apparatus had been in action three hours and forty-five minutes prior to this time, but some of the heat, no doubt, was lost so that it is safe to say that the thermometer would register 73.3° C. in three hours and forty-five minutes providing the insulating material had not been inserted. Both Cornell and Upson board warped after they had been put through this test. 65 TEST I INSULATION Material Yellow Pine Insulite NuWood Celotex Homasote Cornell Sheetrock Upson Masonite Thickness 15/16 inch 1/2 inch 9/16 inch 7/16 inch 5/16 inch 51/52 inch 5/8 inch 1/8 inch L/g inch Time Interval' 00. Rise oC. Rise OC. Rise OC. Rise 0C. Rise QC. Rise 00. Rise 00. Rise 00. Rise 0 000 000 000 000 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5 000 0.1 000 001 0.3 0.6 0.1 0.5 0.8 10 0.0 0.7 0.5 1.2 1.5 2.4 1.5 2.4 5.2 15 0.5 1.9 1.6 2.5 5.0 4.5 3.4 4.3 5.7 20 0.8 5.0 2.0 5.8 4.7 5.0 5,3 7.7 7.9 25 1.5 4.1 4.1 4.9 6.5 7.8 7.0 9.2 9.5 50 2.2 5.2 5.5 6.0 7.8 9.0 8.7 10.4 11.4 55 5.1 6.1 6.5 7.0 9.0 10.5 10.2 11.7 14.7 40 5.9 7.0 7.4 8.1 10.2 11.8 12.5 12.8 15.1 45 4.7 7.8 8.3 9.0 11.3 15.0 12.8 14.0 16.8 50 5.5 8.6 9.1 9.8 12.2 14.1 14.0 14.9 17.5 55 6.4 9.5 9.9 10.6 15.1 15.0 15.1 15.8 18.4 60 7.1 9.9 10.6 11.5 14,0 15.8 16.0 17.2 19.4 70 8.5 11.2 11.9 12.7 15.6 17.4 17.7 18.5 20.9 80 9.5 12.1 15.0 15.7 16.9 18.7 19,2 19.3 22.1 90 10.3 12.9 14.0 14.5 18.0 19.8 20.4 20.5 25.5 100 11.2 13.4 14.9 15-2 18.8 20.6 21.1 20.6 24.1 110 11.9 15.9 15.6 15.9 19.5 21.2 21.7 21.0 25.0 120 12.4 14.5 16.1 16.4 19.9 21.7 22.4 21.6 25.5 135 13.0 14.8 16.9 16.9 20.4 22.5 25.0 22.3 26.4 150 15.6 15.1 17.5 17.4 20.7 22.9 25.4 22.8 27.0 165 14.2 15.5 17.7 17.9 21.1 25.4 25.7 25.2 27.6 180 14.7 16.2 18.1 18.2 21.5 25.7 25.9 25.8 27.6 195 14.9 16.9 18.5 18.5 21.9 25.7 24.1 24.5 27.7 210 15.2 17.6 18.5 18.7 22.2 25.7 24.2 24.5 27.9 225 15.4 18.1 18.4 18.7 22.5 25.7 24.5 24.8 28.0 '-Time Interval in minutes. 64 Insulation 1 ///////// /////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (Ii—— \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Y ///////// H'//////// ‘ m - material to be tested \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 8\ \\\\\\\\\\\\ 1 - electric light bulb b - box f - felt s - socket t - thermometer w - wire conducting electricity Drawing Of apparatus used in Test No. I. 2 if: C QLLEGE MEGAN STATE M' ‘1‘ _,l W _l -nl ,- nm—q “- . _a "I _ I i I 1. ‘ .- In—!- F . .0 . . l l i! 1 1 I _ r _ I r O . ,-' ,-- u..- n—-_ _ '- . .. . , I‘ . r 1 I V o.- s—r I. V I 1| '0" .+ I oo---vf~ 1 | d I I w—- "I III '_!‘._. . ‘, 6»... I‘ O I v Looqo—Q-to .4 0-. .-»-¢.§ 0—--fi.-- '0' I.‘ .l in I!" I u. . lid... .. 0.1.- I I -ll.‘ 5.1--" q l\ f . - LIEPARTM [NT OF NATHEM ATICQ 66 Test No. II Absorbtion of Water Samples Of the different kinds of material were weighed in grams on delicate balances. These samples were then sub- merged in water and held under the surface by means of small weights. At given definite intervals these samples were re- moved from the water, wiped dry 0f the surface water, and again weighed. This process was repeated, and upon comple- ting this test the amount of water absorbed by each sample was determined by subtracting the original weight of the sample from the weight obtained after it had been placed in water for each interval. The percentage of water absorbed to the original weight of the sample was next calculated by dividing the weight of the water absorbed by the original weight of the sample. Curves were then drawn to show the relation of the different materials as to absorbtion. City tap water was used with the room temperature at 25.70 C. All of these materials colored the water while soaking. This was because some of the material was being dissolved, and meant that the different materials were los- ing some of their own weight but taking up still more weight through the medium of absorbing water. All of these materialsexcept the Yellow Pine and Sheetrock when soaked had a tendency to divide into thin sheets parallel to its surface. Each also expanded or swelled similar t) the common cardboard when wet. In the case of Masonite the surface seemed to be impervious to ‘water, but the water did seep in a small distance through ”.my _- .—.- —-._-.- “a-.. -_o '71:. ".v If» ’0" - ' I.'-"'-m-‘U;_J-J'LT ‘0. ' the edges. All the samples retained their true identity again when dry with very little loss of cohesion. 67 . . .1113... .J It]; 2.. 015...... it . . . 4 .i 1 . .. . l! ‘ 'i .. o . oriflq. vatflwisfi... k1.\lp. .49“; 1.1.. . _ . \ .. n I I.» n . . . . _ ...v...... H..- ‘13! AN STATE f. OI I -"t".3_' ' ’1‘ I I u I -— II III —- u u u - _---'-.- .0 ._! I..-'l _ ._ ' .1 -I J | IC-1I~".'--I’I. q'-'IIf_I-I~—_--.--I———.—__I '- ,.-___. ) ‘ l 130 q ~Abcoration- ..: -, _ ...._.69: I ——— “—‘ h I a I e - a o I o a I .- 7 8mm .,.-- I A .pr _5' 1.7231001 _ - - | ' ». _ , 8' é ' - ' ‘ 1 . " G. , IHI ’ ‘ 1. . I p ‘ H I m C « ‘ . ' ._ ' - A . s- - I » ' 1 fl . ;92 00 Q i (5 r. ‘ . o l . ”téTthé ...‘. Q ‘\ ‘0 . L1 .2 11.9 I "I ‘I . ‘I an A- z '. , _- r .r Q \ I | I S .7 I sH \ L Q C I I . r.‘ . . ‘l r l - LI 1 .1 ‘1'- Q t +- 1" . 9 9+0 teraAbsorb ‘1 ~ '1. ;.'.'¢’ ‘;:[’vvy- ‘m ‘x a? II. I .flq [ I.“ L. l I l l I l H 50.,11 v-§—+ I ,.. l 009 O- 6 . .... I . . v .. at , _ a ' I ‘Wsfi‘ on I l V ~ ' ‘0 ‘ 4 '4.“ - 4,1,,_ J I ”I . '_ "_ . 1‘— ‘ A 'I p 'y.;' ‘_I ‘ _ v 111 V V . . - . f.. .. $1, . Hqu. .oco-.-. 0+--r ,- .» *0 917—1 _ '\ *"* -. t-. ._._. ——--o. I ., .. ..*-‘4H-o..oc-..I.. I + .o..«-«..E-‘a.QQ& 4H 8— .0 ‘ n . ~t.-.—._I $.I. . --I . -‘ 9¢I9;5M.~o >000-‘9“'{>H0-|¢‘oo t...--.-. { L.$ky—¢«J cl 0 b ¢ 1 . - " b '13—;&-‘ .IJSIHCDD—h”“”’f.“' +2.. y-.,... 2-...9- .Iot--..-->- {I§‘+§40--‘A>—+Q .eJHHHru 6 e4rqu—4 .’-- ‘ .-, 97.- boqpo—ooI .. A _. m'.:. ..-4...- 9.91-. 4.....- .6 f4.-.—{H...r +4 .4 15., ’I ~,._‘ .I ’ Jo—m ‘bM‘ ..»+—+¢.’-o.o-vo-o >'¢ A.~t>«»a—o.o 9+.o ov M-I I» .A]{ I __‘ ‘ . +"’ .,._. OQfH-vfo0yv6 o Ho». t» 450?}{4 ‘r ; .4+- 1. Hy900‘46v91? Mi, HIVAJ ‘ " 4~+§O 2...... , r—-§- 9 H1 ‘ 1‘ 'T A L;H+’ I’ l >_‘ \ . ovové‘ocv '9 . v—-—ov’t . o H» _ _ o». *9‘0"9‘fv0000 A 1 4 . _ .. K336 ’1 ®:‘“ “"HH<‘ [’**w-I?‘— l L 0 4 "‘ L _" I q~>< o. atop—r-.. '25.. -y-.o. J .>2 1‘. Y VA. 'I 1| o—. M vvv‘rooo 4-... Ooef—o—y‘frfit—q O fiLr-Ao‘o . . - A . . 1 ,- . ‘ - - f . ‘ .— . i - _ ‘. ~r «r r ' a J : I -- . I I ’--- . " 1 . . . .' I Y . -.-—: . | _ .._ _ , . . , I- c I _..< . J »- - . I ._ ._,~. _I I. . ‘ ‘ ' ‘ -l 1' l~ 1 l 9 q " - I‘ »‘ .— ’ \I » - . n V ~.—' '- .4 - ‘ . .. , \r, I 7. . u. e L_ i- .- .2... _ _ .: - .\_ : . T‘J, ;_ _ . .1 l I ‘r-éI-—‘,. \ :44 .. —I‘ I ‘ 1. ‘ .' ' _ v. . _‘ II " .-~—~—,V » 2, . — . -_ —_." ;_ :".' ‘I I ,_ I _. v' . I L . - _ _,_. - 1 . A o ~omasoe _ n I .- .-- -. ’L'I‘ . _ i I — ' — _ . .- W > .1. J. ., 2 I .L _ . - _ ‘ ‘ 3', “~ --.I,_, I . ‘ I ' . " ‘ - 3‘ flasmnitn. ' 4_. -- ' - ~ ~:- .. ~' ' - J . _ ' _H.._ . - _ __ , _ l , “I _ .’ ,1 -. .L ‘ _ ‘ '- _‘ . ‘I I" : r _ “ I -- ._, ~ in «i e. . ., -' I. :«.-_.,_I. yuan “P g ._ I" 1' Q“ ' . — M‘ > _._ I. ‘ .1 - I; l cl‘p» ' =* - :A- ,— - .‘ . L' -o-" DiPART'Ml NT OF MATHEMATICS 70 Test No. III Weights Below will be found a table containing the weights of the different materials tested in this thesis. These weights were determined from small samples placed on deli- cate balances, and from.this data the weights were figured for pieces containing one square foot of surface. The thickness of each piece was not taken into account, so that the weight of any size of standard material may be more readily determined without having to deal with cubic feet or thickness. No. Material Thickness Wt./sq. ft. Wt./sq. ft. in inches in grams in pounds 1. Cornell 6/32 214.56 0.47 2. Upson 3/16 244.80 0.54 3. Celotex 2/16 334.08 0.72 4. Insulite l/2 339.84 0.75 5. NUWood 9/16 360.00 0.80 6. Masonite l/8 383.04 0.85 7. Homasote 6/16 468.00 1.05 8. Sheetrock 3/8 741.60 1.64 9. Yellow Pine 16/16 1444.32 3.18 Illnlll...‘ f 71 Test No. IV Compression Samples of the different kinds of materials were cut to the uniform size of 8 inches long and 3-l/2 inches wide. These pieces were placed one at a time in a Special hy- draulic ram equipped with a pressure gage for testing com- pression. Each piece was placed longitudinally with its bottom side resting on a plate fastened to a ball and socket joint. The ram was then forced together and when the sample failed, the reading of the gage was recorded. This gage was calibrated for the compression of 4 inch diameter clyinders, so that these readings had to be cor- rected to pounds per square inch. As was stated before, the samples were subjected to compression on their edges; the grain of the Yellow Pine was in the lengthwise direc- tion of the sample. The following table was filled in, and all necessary calculations were made. To find the pounds per square inch it was only necessary to obtain the area of the sample resting on the plate and divide it into the area of the cylinder just mentioned. This gave the correction factor, which had to be multiplied by the orig- inal gage reading. 65 TEST I INSULATION Material Yellow Pine Insulite NuWood Celotex Homasote Cornell Sheetrock Upson Masonite Thickness 15/16 inch 1/2 inch 9/16 inch 7/16 inch 5/16 inch 51/52 inch 5/8 inch l/g inch L/g inch Time Interval' 00. Rise oC. Rise OC. Rise OC. Rise 0C. Rise QC. Rise 00. Rise 00. Rise 00. Rise 0 000 000 000 000 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5 000 0.1 000 001 0.3 0.6 0.1 0.5 0.8 10 0.0 0.7 0.5 1.2 1.5 2.4 1.5 2.4 5.2 15 0.5 1.9 1.6 2.5 5.0 4.5 3.4 4.3 5.7 20 0.8 5.0 2.0 5.8 4.7 5.0 5,3 7.7 7.9 25 1.5 4.1 4.1 4.9 6.5 7.8 7.0 9.2 9.5 50 2.2 5.2 5.5 6.0 7.8 9.0 8.7 10.4 11.4 55 5.1 6.1 6.5 7.0 9.0 10.5 10.2 11.7 14.7 40 5.9 7.0 7.4 8.1 10.2 11.8 12.5 12.8 15.1 45 4.7 7.8 8.3 9.0 11.3 15.0 12.8 14.0 16.8 50 5.5 8.6 9.1 9.8 12.2 14.1 14.0 14.9 17.5 55 6.4 9.5 9.9 10.6 15.1 15.0 15.1 15.8 18.4 60 7.1 9.9 10.6 11.5 14,0 15.8 16.0 17.2 19.4 70 8.5 11.2 11.9 12.7 15.6 17.4 17.7 18.5 20.9 80 9.5 12.1 15.0 15.7 16.9 18.7 19,2 19.3 22.1 90 10.3 12.9 14.0 14.5 18.0 19.8 20.4 20.5 25.5 100 11.2 13.4 14.9 15-2 18.8 20.6 21.1 20.6 24.1 110 11.9 15.9 15.6 15.9 19.5 21.2 21.7 21.0 25.0 120 12.4 14.5 16.1 16.4 19.9 21.7 22.4 21.6 25.5 135 13.0 14.8 16.9 16.9 20.4 22.5 25.0 22.5 26.4 150 15.6 15.1 17.5 17.4 20.7 22.9 25.4 22.8 27.0 165 14.2 15.5 17.7 17.9 21.1 25.4 25.7 25.2 27.6 180 14.7 16.2 18.1 18.2 21.5 25.7 25.9 25.8 27.6 195 14.9 16.9 18.5 18.5 21.9 25.7 24.1 24.5 27.7 210 15.2 17.6 18.5 18.7 22.2 25.7 24.2 24.5 27.9 225 15.4 18.1 18.4 18.7 22.5 25.7 24.5 24.8 28.0 '-Time Interval in minutes. 64 Insulation 1 /////////// //////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (2:: \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Y ////////// l'//////// m - material to be tested 1\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ l - electric light bulb b - box f - felt s - socket t - thermometer w - wire conducting electricity Drawing of apparatus used in Test No. I. M CHIOAN STATE COL! FGE I I '- .IIA u . I 1 O _ I. ‘ r . C . C . _ , _ I . I _ 1 . .r. 11 I O r I I _ 1 1 .I I1 O a r A , .IL I I . I I . . _ _ v _. 1 _ . . _ .. _ 1 o 1 I . . AA _. 1. 1 _ 1 f .. p _. 1 . . nl. . _ I I 1 1 1 1 O :0 I ‘ 2 . . . . ._ .1 _ b 0 » . ll_'_ I I I .I I l 'l' . . 4 v . O A . _ .. I I 1 _ v u C v _I v . . U . _ _ . vI _ Inf . I _ _ . s I .... . {I v . ”I v 1.111 I . 11 v ._ . _1 p. _ _ . .s I . . III . 1 o u . . . ‘ V. I I _ . . 1 _ 40 . I . . k 4 . ._ _ . . . . . n. 1 . r . _.. _ _ >14 0 Is I — l...1 1 . .1... A ll . 1 Ir I III I I . . .. a. .. t1. , . 1 . 1 . .__1 2 . 1 . . .1 . v . v 0 o ..1.' T V I . _ -_ . m 0 I u . _ , n: . 1 W: . . . 3. . - 1 ,. 0 I v 1 | 1 .r. .. . I a. I. . o v o I .11 . _ . I .. . . l u 1 I H . 4 Y. . 1A 1 1 1 '1 1 .._., I a 1 . ._ _ I I I. Q; o _ I _ o 1. 1< _ . _ I .. I o _ o .J. _— o _ 0 A ._. . . n I . 1 . I m C .0 _ K I“ I . I 4 U. o A I —. _ . I. o v v v I 1 *l . rI — ,. . 4 In 0 I v 9 I I 1 . _ 1 . o o I ---——-- o r--—‘ - u 1 U I 1 I _W-- A. 1' r L 1 v I ‘1... I -n_ p I 1 I'III‘I1I'II'H IIII. I. J'PIIICIII'IIII .‘I III _ 1 1 .II 41‘ l 11 11 1 4 4 J _ . . . _ _. .___. ......1.1...;-._. 1.1411 414.182.21.41 . . . 1. 1 .1 1| 1 1 0: >1 .1 .. 1. . m... H .. o 1 . . 1. .1”. f. 1 . ,:.- nuuunv w“ .1 - .- 1 . _ _ .1“ .. _. . 1... .. _.- . f 1.1. .1 .... 1.1.... . 1 011.1 l. 19.. 1 _ ,_.. a .]»1 11. c 1 _. .I ... 1 1 H. .. {1 .wl. 0. L». 1. . 1 __ 1 . _.. .v ._ a 1....I. '1“. _ .o _ . v1 . 1 a . _ 1.1.1 _.., .....1- - .. _. 1. _ _..... ; ._._“. r 1(r1l 8.11 1 a 1a Tr. .12. _ 1 H1 .1. _..c .. 1 Q 1. . . . He. t... 1.1; 91.‘ a ~13; -1 311 L .80 I l 1 '_!1 833‘ k'rL—v 'tf? *1 1'1 j. i“ ". If. I luv-Hr "YTYT' 11$ 14;; II-‘- . , r. “H19? 1 .1. .. _HIO- * V . HAM“- A ’11 JO . .1..V 5’ a. v .,. » f. 1>|O1 II 1 t .. IV 1 .1 LI C r.H_.-.. .ua waspsnmmsmm » .51.. . l __ . _ __ . J i 1 _ _ I I I. .1: I ... o 1 _ _ l _. _ _ l 1 1 I _ _. I: I.. 1 1 .1 1! I _ _ . _ I . I I 1 [011 I . I _ 1 .v 1 1 1 1 1.1 . I . 1.1 . 1 _ I I I II' _ _.6T1 01». 04 ft... ‘AI9I1I. O_ o _.. w1w1_._71 1 71....v.hl.w..1 ”.101. .l. .1 Pp 1 A If l.r . "ILWIPI .1. 41. 4H4. .1. 11 M.1....f.11...1¢. .11..fII>.f v Mm .194 DEPARTMENT or MATHEMATICS 66 Test No. II Absorbtion of Water Samples of the different kinds of material were weighed in grams on delicate balances. These samples were then sub- merged in water and held under the surface by means of small weights. _At given definite intervals these samples were re- moved from the water, wiped dry of the surface water, and again weighed. This process was repeated, and upon comple- tingthis test the amount of water absorbed by each sample was determined by subtracting the original weight of the sample from the weight obtained after it had been placed in water for each interval. The percentage of water absorbed to the original weight of the sample was next calculated by dividing the weight of the water absorbed by the original weight of the sample. Curves were then drawn to show the relation of the different materials as to absorhtion. City tap Water was used with the room temperature at 25.70 C. All of these materials colored the water while soaking. This was because some of the material was being dissolved, and meant that the different materials were los- ing some of their own weight but taking up still more weight through the medium of absorbing water. All of these materials except the Yellow Pine and Sheetrock when soaked had a tendency to divide into thin sheets parallel to its surface. Each also expanded or swelled similar t) the common cardboard when wet. In the case of Masonite the surface seemed to be impervious to water, but the water did seep in a small distance through the edges. All the samples retained their true identity again ‘when dry with very little loss of cohesion. 67 Wt. Size Material in inches in grams Time Interval in minutes 15 30 45 60 120 145 1110 '-Weight in grams of water absorbed. "-Percent of weight of water absorbed to original weight. -Room temperature at 23.70 C. masonite homasote 3%x2%xl/8 4x3%x9/l6 O 0 O O O 'I a moowqamo O O O (DIOI—‘DJUWLOJAO o OQO‘OOOQCD o o o MI—“OOEIb-OJMO IbP—‘KOLOQ'QJACD o o HHOOOOOC) O‘slb-OJCNOJCNFJCD IbIbCJJCxJZ‘OMOC) KOCDOEOBUWJ>QCJ #UBDIOZUP-‘OCD O O O O O O 0 O O>C130‘>(fiI‘>-O‘IODO 03C®O§OBI¥>MCD O O O O O FJH O O O 0 OJ 0 Q H (1'3 o (\3 (O (‘1! C. I ob Absorbtion Celotex 4%x34x7/16 35.0 abs.’ abs.“ 0.0 0.0 2.0 5./ 2.9 806 2.9 8.3 2.9 8.3 3.4 9.7 5.1 14.6 5.0 16.0 10.1 28.8 Yellow Pine 3&x2%xl5/16 82.2 wt. % abs. abs." 0.0 0.0 10.3 12.5 13.9 16.9 15.6 19.0 17.2 20.9 18.2 22.1 20.3 24.7 21.8 26.5 30.4 37.0 of Water Insulite 4%x3%x% FJH ooqmmmuo O O O O O O O O a pwmwwapo ,gx. (\3 Sheetrock 71.0 wt. % abs. abs." 3.0 C. i 29.9 40.1 30.7 43.2 30.9 43.5 31.2 44.0 31.7 44.6 32.0 45.1 32.2 45.4 34.2 48.2 Upson 23.5 wt. % abs.’ abs." 0.0 0.0 6.7 28.5 9.4 40.0 11.2 47.6 13.2 56.1 14.5 61.7 17.4 74.0 18.4 78.3 30.2 128.4 68 Cornell 23.6 wt. % abs.’ abs." {300 0.0 10.5 44.5 13.3 56.3 14.8 62.6 15.7 66.5 16.8 71.3 18.5 78.4 19.0 80.5 23.3 98.6 4%x3-l/16x3/8 4%x3-l/l6x3/l6 4-9/16x3é—x5/32 |’P.rL‘ll 41 F. L33.- -.~'.I-I‘M. sTATF. c. IIIIII' II .II] I I l I-I I I! II ' I1 I 5' ' II C' i l’ I I.I I. .II I 1'11 I! 'I _ . . I . | . . . . 1“ _ ‘ ‘ I‘ 1 . _. . 0 1.. . . . 1‘. ..I 1.1 I' I .I I 1 . . . . n. V I r . F _ . . 11. . I 1.r . I 1' _ v a 1 h .. . I I . . I. I I. . , .I r. . II 4I . o .. .II . . ._ .. 1 .I I . . I. II ... . If I. o r . _ I v 4 . IV _ m1. _. I. 14 I , . I . . I . I 7 .II I I I I. I I I .I I. I v. , 1 O ,_ _II I I I. H: I . . 1 I O 1 I A . _ 1 . O _ I. . . I .1 u.. . _IP . u I I ..., I . .. ,1. .1. I_ . . I . . . .. 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I I I _ __ I .. . _ I . O. I l I . . I _ _ ' . ‘ - _ ' . 3 . I ._ fl , I . I I _. - 1 . I 1. I . U I . A I .7 s ' 4 . \ C I l o I I O I . I . I I 4 I 4 I I 4 a I L . . . . . 1 - .. a . . . F1 .1.|1 In Ip-JIII‘IIIIHIDII Im’lI->I1IIIIII~.II.I..~.~.90. I .. ..Ur...—~rwlnr I 0. 1.. 0 . I. QIIII U , . o. 1 __ _ _ .. OI». . . I .. 4 _ . . . . _.. .. q . . 1 .. 1. .. I l I . o 4 I I II. . I ..I( III .. .. . . . 5 1... 0. .9; ... . 7 5. 15.31.... ...H I. . .. , , . .. . __ . . I . _ .1 I [ _ . .1: . , . I I . J_ ,I I . I.I _I I .1 - _ 41-._..-‘4Io . I..._v-. . _1 .a..-.II I . .. .. .. I _. .v .I. . ,. .I .. a . .....1 1. ... . 1 u .... O I _ .1133». ... .13 £114,121... .13 .IFI“ 1.1 . . . I I .II I . _I I ILLI ...! _ . . .. . 1 . _ _ 1. I . .. 1 1. .I _I,v _.I. I. I I. . . . I I. . .I a «.11 I - III I I r l I I I . I I. I._ “I. . 1. 1. . _ .u . I .. I _I I ..1 I . . 1. . . . _ I I . I’IEPAHTMENT OF HATHL'UA'IIP- 70 Test N0. III Weights Below will be found a table containing the weights of the different materials tested in this thesis. These weights were determined from small samples placed on deli- cate balances, and from.this data the weights were figured for pieces containing one square foot of surface. The thickness of each piece was not taken into account, so that the weight of any size of standard material may be more readily determined without having to deal with cubic feet or thickness. Ho. Material Thickness Wt./sq. ft. Wt./sq. ft. in inches in grams in pounds 1. Cornell 6/62 214.56 0.47 2. Upson 3/16 244.80 0.54 3. Celotex 7/16 334.08 0.72 4. Insulite 1/2 339.84 0.75 5. NuWood 3/16 360.00 0.80 6. Masonite L/B 383.04 0.85 7. Homasote 3/16 - 468.00 1.03 s. Sheetrock 3/8 741.60 1.64 9. Yellow Pine 18/16 1444.32 3.18 71 Test No. IV Compression Samples of the different kinds of materials were cut to the uniform size of 8 inches long and 5-l/2 inches wide. These pieces were placed one at a time in a Special hy- draulic ram equipped with a pressure gage for testing com- pression. Each piece was placed longitudinally with its bottom side resting on a plate fastened to a hall and socket Joint. The ram was then forced together and when the sample failed, the reading of the gage was recorded. This gage was calibrated for the compression of t inch diameter clyinders, so that these readings had to be cor- rected to pounds per square inch. As was stated before, the samples were subjected to compression on their edges; the grain of the Yellow Pine was in the lengthwise direc- tion of the sample. The following table was filled in, and all necessary calculations were made. To find the pounds per square inch it was only necessary to obtain the areaof the sample resting on the plate and divide it into the area of the cylinder just mentioned. This gave the correction factor, which had to be multiplied by the orig- inal gage reading. - o .- V n . ' , . . - 0 - ‘ O c . u < , - , .A . ' f . ' ‘ 0 -.- I . a. - ~ . A o 72 Compression No. material Size Gage Compression in inches Reading #/sq. in. 1. ‘Masonite 8x5-L/2xL/8 50 560 2. Yellow Pine 8x5-i/2x15/16 85 255* 5. Cornell 8x3-L/2xQ/32 15 150 4. Sheetrock 8x3-l/2xQ/8 35 140 5. Upson 8x5-1/2x5/16 15 120 6. Homasote 8x5-L/2xL/2 55 105 7. Insulite 8x5-1/2x1/2 15 45 8. NuWood 8x3-l/2xQ/16 15 41 9. Celotex 8x5-1/2xz/16 10 54 ' See page 192 of the American Institute of Steel Con; struction Handbook, January, 1930. This book gives 250 #/sq. in. for this value. 73 Test No. V Tension Briquettes were cut out of the different kinds of ma- terial in the shape shown in the drawing; 2-7/8 inches long and with a maximum width of l-l/2 inches on each end, and a minimum.width of 1 inch in the center. These briquettes were then placed in the testing machine (see drawing), and the apparatus started. Lead shot continued to drOp on to the scales until the specimen failed. The crank was con- tinuously turned during the test to increase the pressure, but as soon as the material failed the shot ceased to drop. On the dial of these scales the gage readings were calibra- ted directly into pounds per square inch tension. Because these samples were not 1 inch thick (containing 1 square inch at the smallest cross section), these readings could not be used, so it was necessary to do some correcting. The grain of the Yellow Pine was at right angles with the length of the briquette. Masonite, Insulite, Upson, Cornell, Homasote and Celo- tex were given this test along with the Yellow Pine, Sheet- rock and NuWood, but no results could be obtained because the nodes of the briquettes were compressed and could not be held in the apparatus. This shows the relationship be- tween compression, tension and shear. The following results ‘were then recorded. All briquettes were the same size, and ‘the tests were made on the same machine under the same con- (11 tionso No. l. 2. 3. Material Yellow Pine Sheetrock NuWood Tension Gage Reading 420 35 5O Tension in #/sq. in. 420 93 88 74 Tension ab indicates line of failure Drawing showing actual size of briquette. 75 76 Test No. VI Deflection The materials to be tested were fastened as cantilever beams, extending 8 inches from the supports and 3-l/4 inches wide. A spring balance was fastened to the free end of the beam and a force exerted. Simultaneous readings were taken of the amound of bending from the index point, and the nump ber of pounds exerted recorded (see drawing). Several values were obtained, and from these readings the deflection was figured for each sample (see graph). 77 Deflection Cornell Masonite Upson huWood Celotex Homasote Insulite Sheetrock Size in in. 8x5-1/4x5/52 8x5-1/4x1/8 8x5-1/4x5/16 8x5-1/4xa/16 8x3-l/4x7/l6 Bxfi-L/4Xl/2 8x5-1/4XL/2 8xi’>--l/4xi’>/8 lbs. d 3 d E d E d E d E d E d E d E 2 1.000 551,000 .625 1,050,000 .575 5,120,000 .625 11,500 .375 40,200 ~250 40,400 .250 40,400 - .125 1919000 4 2.750 245,000 1.515 985,000 1.125 5,410,000 .750 18,900 1-000 50,100 .500 40.400 -5OO 40.400 .250 1919000 6 ' 1.875 1,050,000 2.575 2,410,000 .750 40.400 8 2.750 940,000 1.000 40,400 average 287,000 996,250 5,647,000 15,100 55.150 40.400 40,400 191,000 average /lb. .594 .524 , .288 .250 .219 .125 .125 .065 E-Modulus of Elasticity - W15. Sdl d-Deflection in inches. 78 Deflection and Bending Strength .3 ////// a _ _ __ ____________________ p ////7/// b s % / / / / / 5 / / § / 0 - index point e - support W - load (spring balances) ab - line of failure ac - material to be tested ao - free length of material to be tested 00 - deflection lxrawing of apparatus used in Test No. V1 and Test No. VII. A‘J STATE COLl EGF C M (HI _.- O 1. . . I f 81; I1 . IIOIJIIIII'IIII'I I! 1 l"ll Ii I.I .II {I I III' 1- ll'll,"llli III'III I'll II‘ .. . . I I, .I .II I . . I. , . v I t e . 1 _ I I. L. , I I I! I . _ I I _ 1 _ 1 _ 1 1 _ I _ I _ I , o I v. I II I _ 1 ..I 1 .> | . y o I _ II _. F I I. 1 ._ _ .w r . Ilw 11 I v I I ._ .I I J l \|[| _ _ r I _ l I I; III I, I _ _ . _ , I _ I I I I I _ I . 1. 1 I _1 I . . I .1 I s IIdII,_I.I II I I I I l _I I I I I I > . v I J _ _ 1 I 1 IIII " I . _. . I.I \I 11_ _ . .11 I . . _ I. b 1 . ., .II. . I 1 _ F . I.. I . _ _ I . I I I II o I I . .. .1. . _ _ . _I ,1; . 1. 1 . 1.. _ . 1. _ _ _ _ v. . _ _ _ _ . . 1 1 . . I _ _ I . 1 _ ,— .1_ D ... . v x . 1 1 I o 0 II . ,1 _ . _ .1 I a . o. a r o v I I I . . _ 1 . II. I _ . . III I I I. ._ 1 I I 1 f 1 o- 7 1s. a. o ”r _ O I . I ... I. II.I I . sr .I I I I I I a I I. _ y ”I I 4 _ .L o l 4 \ ~— V I. W I | I I 1 I I l I. I III I .‘_ I'l I .II II I I I . I I I I I . 1 I I. II . . o I o- I . I to. . . 6 a I 1 o I I I. o o e . . . I. I e. . I _ I . _ I _ I _ Q . . v i. . I I _ I I 1 .tl I _ I I: ; I. . . I w I o I .1. L l _ e o 1 II c 1'. _ .. . I . . I II I | 1. II I 1 1 . I n v . n II. III) I I. o _w II I I . —. I 4 II I _ . c _1 II .I. I ._ I. I .. . aw . II I.I. I I I. I 1 I _I _ 1:. _ .l A 1 I I. _s I I lit .IIIII‘ . I _.- '_ . I a Q . _Am I I I . I . , I I: I. _ I I I 1 I 1 l I I I I I ”I II I.IL .. . . , . o . I. , , I- - _. . I _ I . _ _ _ 1 s . . ,1 _ . I. .. . v . . I a. _ _ I I _ I .1 a I I . .. . I . I , I l v I I. n n I I . I» w I r _ I _ a I OIIA.|¢ o «.12 e a I. III A. A DLPARTMLNT (JI- MATHEMATICI _ . ..-.._I.1aoaonH awaogoeawmmw 80 Test No. VII Average Shear and Bending Strength This test is a continuation of Test No. VI, and the same process was used. In this test, however, the force was ap- plied until the material broke; the object was to see what magnitude of force would cause the material to fail (see drawing). Average Shear - E. Bending Strength - s - Fae. A I No. Material Size Force Av. Shear Bend. Str. in inches in lbs. in #/sq. in. in #/sq. in. l. Homasote 8x3-l/4xl/2 13.0 .500 312 2. ‘Masonite 8x3-l/4xl/8 8.5 .326 5260 3. Insulite 8x3-l/4xL/2 7.0 .269 168 4. Upson 8x3-l/4xS/l6 7.0 .269 1195 5. Celotex 8x3- 1/4x'7/16 6. o . 230 188 6. NuWood 8x3-1/4x9/16 5. 5 . 211 104 7. Cornell 8x3-l/4x5/32 5.0 .192 1240 8. Sheetrock 8x5- l/4x3/8 5. o . 192 213 81 Test No. VIII Edge Strength A finishing nail, l-l/4 inches long and 0.08 inches in diameter was driven l/B of an inch from.the edge into the ma- terial to be tested. The material was then fastened to a kmavy support by this same nail. A pull was exerted on the apposite end of the material. The object of this test was to determine how much force was required to pull the material at right angles away from the nail, and thus leaving a slot l/8 inch long and as wide as the diameter of the nail (see drawing). When the Yellow Pine was tested it was necessary to use a larger nail because the sample was too thick; this nail was 2 inches long and 0.10 inches in diameter. Follow- ing will be a table of results. Shear - F a 2 dt No. Material 1. Yellow Pine 2. Homasote 3. Masonite 4. Cornell 5. Upson' 6. Celotex 7. NuWood 8. Insulite 9. Sheetrock Edge Strength Thickness in inches 15/16 L/z L/B 5/32 s/is Z/lé a/le r/2 a/s Force in lbs. 150 49 36 30 25 19 18 15 82 Shear in #/sq. in. 640 392 1152 '768 533 174 128 120 85 '-The manufacturer advocates the use of Upson Fasteners and not nails. They claim two fasteners will hold a 50 pound weight on Upson Board 3 inches wide. Edge Strength in A u a \fl09\\\00\\ E ab - l/8 inch x - finishing nail ac - sample to be tested w - load (spring balances) s - support Drawing showing a set up of the apparatus used in Test No. VIII. 85 Test No. IX Bond Between Hail and Lumber A l-l/4 inch finishing nail, 0.08 inches in diameter, was driven through the material to be tested and projecting l/4 inch beyond the Opposite surface (see drawing). Spring balances were then fastened to the head of the nail and the amount of force required to pull the nail out was recorded. This force was then calibrated to read pounds per square inch by dividing the area of the material in contact with the nail by the force. No. Katerial Thickness Force Bond in inches in lbs. in #/sq. in. 1. Yellow Pine 15/16 225 954 2. Masonite L/8 9 287 3. Cornell s/s2 4 102 4. Upson' s/ls 4 85 5. Homasote 1/2 10 80 6. NuWood a/le 7 so 7. Celotex 7/16 4 56 8. Sheetrock 8/8 3 32 9. Insulite l/2 2 16 '-The manufacturer advocates the use of Upson Fasteners, ‘which.they have tested on a piece of Upson Board 3 inches ‘wide, using two of these fasteners, which supported a 50 pound weight. 84 85 Nail Bond a E>H p. o abcd w- x- /////7//////////8//€3 Y Ef//////7////// /7/ w sample to be tested load (spring balances) finishing nail support Drawing showing the way in which Nail Bond was determined. 86 Test No. X Inflammability Samples of the various materials were placed in an electric furnace. The electricity was then turned on and the furnace was allowed to heat slowly so that the heat would not be absorbed from the heating elements by radia- tion, and so the interior of the furnace and the samples would be at the same temperature. These samples were continuously watched, and when any one started to burn, the temperature was recorded. Because of the lack of oxy- gen in the furnace, the materials did not burn at any time with a flame, but they did smoke profusely and burn. The temperature was obtained by means of a thermo- couple. The samples were placed on their edges so that more surface would be eXpand to the heat, and each sample started burning on the edges exposed. Follawing is a table of results: Inflammability Material oF. Remarks Sheetrock 420 turned brown I 455 paper burned 540 ' reduced in strength but intact Yellow Pine 465 burning began Celotex 255 burning began Homasote 255 burning began Insulite 255 burning began Masonite 255 burning began NuWood 255 burning began Upson ‘ 255 burning began Cornell 250 burning began 88 CHAPTER FIVE Conclusion This chapter will be devoted to a brief summary of the tests found in Chapter Four, and an effort will be made to classify the different artificial lumbers as to their physi- cal prOperties. In all instances, Chapter Four should be consulted, as the table in this chapter deals more with the average results, which should be considered as relative quan- tities. The prices found in this table were obtained from the local dealers who had no knlwledge that they would be printed in this thesis; also, the prices pertain to buying in small quantities, and all quotations were given the same day to avoid any fluctuation in the market. Below will be found a legend referring to different parts of the table and showing the classifications of these subdi- visions: Hardness Smoothness Finish soft rough ' none firm . coarse dull medium. fair glossy hard smooth This manner of classification is the personal Opinion of the author. II I w. .- III III‘AIAI». . Color Finish Hardness Prices Smoothness Thickness Absorbtion Bending Strength Compression Elasticity Edge Strength Inflammability Insulation Nail Bond Average Shear Tension Weights '-0ne side only. "-One side pebbled. :-No. 1 grade, 10 inches wide. Celotex tan 54 55,150 174 255 18.7 56 .250 .72 Cornell cream dull medium 4.0 fair 5/52 98.6 1240 150 287,000 768 250 25.7 102 .192 .47 Homasote gray none firm 5.5 coarse l/2 18.5 512 105 40,400 592 255 22.5 80 .500 1.05 Insulite cream none soft 5.0 rough .75 Conclusion Masonite brown glossy’ hard 5.0 smooth 1/8 996,250 1152 NuWood brown none soft 15,100 128 255 18.4 50 .211 88 .80 Sheetrock gray none hard 4.0 fair 5/8 48.2 215 140 191,000 85 455 24.5 52 .192 95 1.64 Upson yellow dull" medium 4.5 fair 5/16 128.4 1195 120 5,647,000 555 24.8 85 .269 .54 Yellow Pine yellow dull hard 7.5‘ smooth l®fl6 57.0 255 640 465 15.4 954 see legend see legend g/bd. ft. see legen in inches % at 1110 min. leo/Sq0 in. lbs./sq. leo/SQO degrees F DC at 225 min. 1bs./Sq. lbs./sq. lhs./sq. d in. in. in. in. in. lbs,/sq. ft. 89 Room USE ONLY 84. «1.13.: 953-?" :h. 1‘: {(..~*-:;~:~:‘14.. i‘o’lu-Z'z 1!. ;' u,' : , 31'1“! {-1 '9)“. VA" . . - "Jvl ' ‘4’ s {H.- -. v- \' A I fit" 4' I f. k . 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