11 ®IjE ^. ^. ^tll pbrarg Uh 'MAS. 3. WiiKAMS. NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES S00818764 Y -ftwm Date Due Mayi 1 '31 -'/. ^ 8iVlay'39 iiMiL4ai: iuivir ^k:^ 4Dft^4?|B -~:? ^[42DO«i^ 47^at49£- 3Cliay3 5 8.i^3 5 a4FebPB0«| 4^n35 i5Mav^T "^^ iia 20398 y UTILIZATION— THE FIELD OF ^ THE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY BEGINS HERE The Forest Products Laboratory A Decennial Record 1910 -- 1920 THE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY' AN INSTITUTION OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH MAINTAINED AT MADISON. WISCONSIN IN QUARTERS FURNISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BY THE BRANCH OF RESEARCH FOREST SERVICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PUBLISHED BY THE DECENXIAT. COMMITTEE HOWARD F. AVEISS. Chairmen 1921 DEMOCRAT PP.IXTIXG COMPANY MADISON, AVISCONSIN GENERAL COMMITTEE Decennial Celebration FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY MADISON. WISCONSIN JULY 22 AND 23, 1920 Honorary Chairman, Emaxuel L. Philipp. Governoi; Commonwealth of Wisconsin. Chairman, Howard F. Weiss, C. F. Burgess Laboratories. Madison, Wis. Ex-Director, Forest Products I.,ab- oratory. First Vice-chairman, Carlile p. Winslow, Director, Forest Products Laboratory. Second Vice-Chairman, . H. J. Thokkelson, Bnsinrss Muntifjcr, Uni- versity of AVisconsin. Executive Secretary. Dox E. MowRY, General Secretary, Madison Association of Commerce. R. H. AisHTON. President, American R. R. Assn., Chicago, 111. W. R. Anderson, Publisher, "Packages." Milwaukee, Wis. James R. Angell. Chairman, National Research Council, Washington, D. C. E. A. BiRGE, President, University of W^isconsin, Madison, Wis. J. H. Bloedel. President. Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mills. Seattle. Wash. Vice Pres. Xat'l Lumber Mfgrs. A.ss'n. C. S. Brantingham, President , Emerson-Brantingham Co., Rockfoid, 111. Chairman, Advisory Committee, National Implement & Vehicle Association. R. C. Bryant, Yale Forest School, New Haven, Conn. Pres. Society of American Foresters. C. B. Chapman. President, Madi.son As.sociation of Commerce. Geo. M. Cornwall. Editor and Piihlisher. "The Timberman," Portland. Ore. Jos. H. Defreks. Defrees, Buckingham & Eaton, Attorneys. Chicago, 111. President Chamber of Commerce of U. S. A. M. C. Fitzgerald. Director of Transporta- tion, General Electric Co., Schenectady, X. Y. A. L. Ford, Managing Editor, "American Lumberman," Chicago. 111. L. D. Gardner. President . The Gardner- Moffat Co., Inc. New York, N. Y. W. A. Gilchrist. Chicago. 111. Chairman, Committee on Wood Utilization and Prevention of Waste. National Lum- ber Manufacturers'- Association. John AI. Glenn, President, Glenn & Co., Chicago. 111. Secretary, Illinois Mfgrs. Association. R. B. Goodman, Secretary, Sawyer Goodman Lumber Co., Marinette. Wis. Director, Nat'l Lumber Mfgrs. Ass"n. Henry S. Graves, Washington, D. C. Former Forester, U. S. Forest Service. W. K. Hatt. Purdue Univ., Lafayette, Ind. President Concrete Institute. Chas. H. Herty. Editor, "Jour. Ind. and Eng. Chem.," New \ork, N. i. Howard W. Hobbs, . . Wood Mosaic Co., Inc.. Louisville, K>. WiLLARD C. Howe. President and Treas^a•er, Journal of Commerce Co., St. Louis, Mo. B. F. Huntley, President, B. F Huntley Fuiniture Co. AVinston-Salem, N. C Chairman Forest Products Laboratory Committee, So. Furn. Mfgrs. Ass'n. Louis T. Jamme, . Chicago 111. Ex-V P. and Chairman Civic-Ind. Com., Chicago Association of Commerce. Elmer C. Jensen. . Mundie & Jensen. Architects, Chicago, 111- BoLLiNG Arthur Johnson. Editor and Puh., "Lumber World Review," Chicago, 111. \ R. Joyce, First Vice-President, .Tovce W^atkins Co.. Chicago, 111. Pres.. American Wood Preservers Assn. C P Kettering, Dayton-Wright Branch, ''General Motors. Dayton, Ohio James S. Macgregor. United Aircraft K"^.- neering Corporation, New \ork, N. i. B F. Masters, V. P. d Gen. Man.. Rathborne Hair & Ridgeway Company, Chicago, 111. Chairman of Bd. Nat'l Ass'n Box Mfgrs. Harry H. Merrick. President, Great Lakes Trust Co., Chicago TH. President, Mississippi Valley Association. Geo. W. Mixter. Vice-President. Pierce- Arrow Motor Car Co., Buffalo, N. Y. E R. MoAK. Managing Editor, "Wisconsin State Journal, L. D. Post. Publisher, "Paper Mill & Pulp Wood News, New York, Percival Sheldon Ridsdale, Editor, "American Forestry," Washington, F. J. Sensen BRENNER. First rier-Pre." Madi.son, AVis. N. Y. D. C. Kim- Neenah, Wis. berly-Clark Company, E. B. Stevens. President, „ „ , ^^ -i- Wood Products Co., Buffalo. N. i- W H Sullivan. Vice-Pres. .f Gen. Man., Great Southern Lumber Co., Bogalusa, La. Director, Nat'l Lumber Mfg. A.ss n. Dwin !<:. Town. General Manager, "Chicago Evening Post" and a.s.sociated papers, Chicago, iii. R v. Windoes. Editor, "Furniture Manufacturer and Artisan, Grand Rapids, Mich. C. H. Worcester. President, C. H. Worce.ster Company, Chicago. 111. Vice-Pres., Nat'l Lumber Mfgr.s. Ass'n. ?02R% CONTEXTS Foreword Taut I CllAl'TKK /^^ I ^^^o()(l and Huiiuiii Progress '^ II Early Pers})ectives of Forest I^tili/ation III The Forest Prodiiets Ea})oratory . Kstahlislmieiit .... (xrowtli ..... Organization .... <- — E(ini])ment .... Personnel .... IV 'I'en ^^ears of Research in Forest Product ^=^^ Pre-war Research . . ' . ^ WarW<^rk .... ^^^ Financial A^alue of Research Results -==^VI Future Research in Forest Products *--V"II How to Fse the liaboratorv PAGE 1 4 9 9 10 12 16 19 23 23 37 59 63 7.> Pakt II Decennial Foreword Decennial Celebration Pro"-ram 8.5 86 Decennial Celel)ration Proceedings (reneral Asscnil)ly, July 22. 1920 II. F. Weiss. Chairman Jianquet. .July 22, 1920 Burr W. Jones, FE. D., Toastinaster General Assembly. July 23, 1920 . Jolin Foley. Chairman 87 119 139 ArPENDIX Decennial Registration Eist I'ormer Faboratorv Staff Members 179 189 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Utilization — The Field of the Forest Products La])oratory Begins Here Frontispiece Three Foresters, United States Forest Service .... 3 The Yard to ANHiicli Come T.,ogs from Many Climes and Coun- tries 8 Organization Chart, Forest Products I.,aboratorv . . .14 Erection of the Million Pound Timber Testing ^lachine (1920) . 17 Three Directors, Forest Products Laboratory . . . .20 The Timber ^Mechanics Laboratory ...... 24 Box Testing in tlie liig Tum])ling Drum . . . . .27 A Cliarge of Ties Knteringtlie Preservation Cylinder at tlie lial)- oratory .......... 30 War AVork — .An Airplane AVing Rib Being Placed in a Testing Machine 36 Personnel Development Chart — July, 1917 to July, 1920 . . 39 Laminated Construction as Applied to Wooden Articles of Com- merce 44 Glue Spreach'ng ^Macliine ........ 46 Some AVar Time Installations of Types of Dry Kilns Developed at the La))oratory 50 Wood DistiHation Retort 56 Studying the JNIany Factors Entering into the Manufacture and Storage of Airplane Propellers 62 Forest Service Improvements in Turpentining . . . .68 Wood Technology— The JNIicroscope is Useful in Identification . 72 84 100 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Control and Operation P^nd of a Dry Kiln at the Lahoratoiy 76 Cooperative Box Work — A Stndy of Diagonal Compression . 79 A Qniet ^lonient During the Decennial .... Educational Work — A Typical Class in Kiln Drying Tinilier Tests — A Large Built-u]) Floor Beam Being Tested to Destruction 110 Xew Boxes for Old— Some AVar Time Box Work at the Lah- oratory . . . . . • • • • .118 Xotable Decennial Figures — Director C. P. A^^inslo^^^ Forester W. B. Greeley, Former Director H. F. Weiss . Bending Heavy Wheel Rims :\Ioisture Resistant Coatings -A])plying Aluminum Leaf to Wheel Pattern The Paper Making Machine A Corner of the Pulp and Paper Laboratory . Xotable Decennial Figures — Speakers and Leaders . I>aboratory Helpers Gatliering Data for Determining ^Moisture Content of Woods A ^liracle of Chemistry — Conversion of Sawdust into Stock Food 122 134 138 142 148 156 162 170 FORFAVORD On July twenty-second, nineteen twenty, several hundred representatives of America's diversified Avood- nsing industries assembled at IVIadison, Wisconsin, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Forest Products Laboratory. ]Men, representative of every important industry which draws upon the forests for its raw material, were present from throughout the United States. Several came from foreign countries. The decennial celebration, of which the publication of this record is a ])art, was conceived as a mark of tril)- nte to ten years of ])ublic service unique in the forest history of the world, and it was made possible by the contributions of over two hundred firms and individ- uals. Acknowledgment is here made by the committee for this striking evidence of good will, and the hope is expressed that this volume M'ill reflect the spirit and character of the work of this institution during the first ten years of its public service. THE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY A DECENNIAL RECORD PART I Stat^ CHAPTER I WOOD AND HUMAX PROGRESS Knowledge is the torch of human progress. It throws its light forward and hfts each generation upward in the scale of civilization in proportion as that generation accepts its standards. In the story of creation, knowledge is symbolized by a tree. Down through the intervening ages man's use of wood in attaining new heights of knowl- edge has been one of the most important factors in the advance of civilization. Primitive man, we are told, was dominated by the forest. But as his crude imagination slowly awakened to the arts of life, he finally succeeded in reversing the order of his environment by making the forests more and more serve his material needs. And in conquering the forests, he built up the material structure of his own civihzation; he stimulated his latent consciousness of the power of civilization; he lifted himself from a life of savage and nomadic wandering to the social and industrial modernism of today. History is rich in evidence of the achievement of human progress tlu-ougli knowledge derived from Mood. Man, it is held, was rescued from a state of savagery primarily by two discoveries : the art of kind- ling fire at his will and the use of the bow and arrow, which made him master of his food supply and provided him with clothing. Ages later, tlie discovery of iron, with M'hich he could fashion wood more and more to serve his needs, appears to have been the step from bar- barism to tlie first stages of civilization. It would be difficult to express proper appreciation of wood as a material stimulus to learning and the arts of living. Its ready adapt- ability, we can well believe, made it tlie sculptor's clay by which man tested and developed liis first imaginative theories and laid the primi- tive foundation of much present day science. The origin of the prin- ciple of the wheel, which is an essential part of almost every machine or mechanical conveyance of our own age, is lost in antiquity, as evi- The Fokest Pkoducts Labokatory denced by wooden wheels taken from tlie monuments of ancient Egypt. In these same mounds are found the earhest recorded form of plows, made from wood, m ith iron tipped wedges. With these plows man acquired his first crude knowledge of extensive agriculture, and he used them, with slight modifications, until the first half of the eighteenth century. With wood, man learned to build homes and create architecture; to construct ships and master navigation; to build bridges and develop the science of mechanics ; to generate steam and harness its power for transportation. Modern electric and magnetic science owes its birth to fossd resin from coniferous forests which were prehistoric when PHny, seventy years before the dawn of Christianity, recorded the fact that amber, when rubbed, acquired the power of attracting straws. Thus, in diverse ways, fundamental principles have first been worked out from wood, and the knowledge thus gained— primitive though it may now appear — has been applied in developing the use of stone, iron, steel, concrete and other materials. The process still goes on. Within a decade, man has conquered the air with a wooden plane and is today applying the results of his experiments to the fabrication of an all metal machine. It is a striking fact that through the agency of wood, man has acquired more fundamental knowledge of related subjects than he has of the properties of wood itself. In the development of his wood craft, he has been likened to the growing child who, building with blocks, acquires an ever larger consciousness of their adaptability to new figures as experience matures his mind. Spurred by personal needs and the rewards of commercialism, however, man fashioned wood into many scores of standard products, about which trade-crafts took shape and became clearly defined through many centuries of compe- tition and zealous individualism. He thus built up a great diversified mass of wood-using lore, based, not upon a scientific knowledge of the many different kinds of wood used, but upon rule of thumb methods, behefs, customs and prejudices, passed down from one generation to another as expanded by the increasing complexities of each clianging age. Into this accumulated mass of trade practices, business methods, and usages built up through the years, there was injected, even up to (^AAAT/lkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAA Henry S. Graves 19IO- 1920 William B Greeley ^ .^ «>vwvvvvvvv«vvvvvwvvvvwvtfww«««vv«w«*vvv«AVV*v*vv«v«v«*ir»«v*¥«v*vvirvvvvvvvvvv«v^ The Forest Products Laboratory the beginning of our present century, little knowledge derived from pure scientific research into wood products and the wood products industries. However, by that time certain forces were well under way that were destined shortly to produce results and create an entirely new factor in the field of wood-using trade methods of America, and other countries also. CHAPTER II EARLY PERSPECTIVES OF FOREST UTILIZATION Abundant forests have made the United States the greatest M'ood-using nation of the world, but they have made it also the great- est wood waster of the world. Our lumbering i)ractice has been built upon supplying the best the forest affords and leaving the rest as waste. Our forefathers commenced the practice because they had more forests than they knew how to use. Pioneers, moving westward, continued the system. And limiber consumers, educated to expect the best, continued to demand the best. Thus the great dictator of forest utilization in this country has ])een custom instead of specialized knowledge of the properties of our different woods. The power of knowledge has been capitalized in a mechanical science for converting forests into lumber and manufactured products, a science which is unsurpassed anywhere in the world, and which has made wood avail- able in a greater variety of forms than any other material with which man comes in contact. It has made wood, as Roosevelt asserted, an indispensable part of the structure upon which our civilization rests, but its ready convertibility to man's multitudinous needs appears to have held passive, so long as forests seemed inexhaustible, the stimulus to study its properties. The world today very generally accepts the view that forests are essential to progress and to social and industrial supremacy. The V Dkcknxial Record culture of the forest-starved regions of Europe leaves, in the minds of those who have had opjjortunities to make comparisons, no doubt that there is a point belo^v which forests can not safely be reduced. Europe itself recognized that fact several centuries ago, but America, with its boundless forests, once thought inexhaustible, is just begin- ning fully to awaken to the cause of forest conservation espoused in this country a few decades ago by a small group of far-seeing men. The present Forest Service, a bureau of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, is the outgro^^i:h of the study, thought and efforts of these men. Their purposes, however, were much opposed and misunderstood from the start. A common misconception was that they j^roposed to lock up the forests against use ; whereas what they sought was to re- place heedless and wasteful exploitation by rational management of the forests and by rational utilization of their products. They spoke from the experience of older countries and urged tlie application of knowledge then available as well as the acquirement of an additional knowledge needed to })iit our forest lands and our wood crops to their highest use in perpetuity. They stressed the forest management that they had learned from Ein-ope. but they did not fail to recognize that a knowledge of the properties of our many different woods is funda- mental to the economical utilization and conservation of our forest resources. In tlie report of the Division of Forestry for the year 1887. E. E. Fernow. Chief of the Division, wrote: "The properties upon which the use of wood, its technology, is based, sliould be well knoMn to the forest manager if he wishes to ])roduce a crop of given quality useful for definite purposes. Our ignorance in this direction has been most fruitful in fostering a wasteful use of our natural forests, and the same ignorance mis- leads even the forest planter of today in choosing the timber he ])]ants and the locality to Avliich he adapts it. How the Black Walnut lias ])een sacrificed for fence material, how the valuable Chestnut Oak lias rotted in the forest unused, how the Hemlock has been despised and passed by when it might have been suc- cessfully used to lengtlien the duration of White Pine supplies, how tim])ers are now used in unnecessarily large sizes and applied The Forest Products Laboratory to uses for which they are not tulMpted. while other timbers are neglected for uses for which they are adajDted — all these unfortu- nate misapplications are or have been due to lack of knowledge of the technological properties of our timbers. "Every day, almost. ])rings to light a new use for this or that timber, every now and then lumber papers are weighing the serv- iceability of this or that wood. Instead of proceeding on a sure and scientific basis in recommending the application of any wood to a particular use, opinions pro and con are brought to bear, and the proper development of our resources is thereby retarded. Yesterday it was Redwood that needed commendation in the market, today it is Cypress that must be praised in order to re- ceive due appreciation. Our timbers have never been fairly tested, or if they have their qualities are not duly appreciated. Many kinds have their use and value still hardly recognized; woods of exceptional value for manufacturing purposes are con- sumed for fuel; valuable and scarce varieties are used for coarse work, while cheaper and more abundant sorts are available. Still less knowledge exists in regard to the conditions of growth w^hich influence the quality of woods. Crude 'experience' has been our guide, and 'crude' has remained our 'knowledge'." Fifteen years later, Theodore Roosevelt, then President, broke all jDresidential jirecedents by addressing, at a private home in Wash- ington, a meeting of the Society of American Foresters, an organiza- tion wdiich embraced the handful of American foresters of that time. During his talk, he said: "And now, first and foremost, you can never afford to forget for one moment Avhat is the object of our forest policy. That object is not to preserve the forests because they are beautiful, though that is good in itself, nor because they are refuges for the wild creatures of the wilderness, though that, too, is good in itself; but the primary object of our forest policy, as of the land pohcy of the United States, is the making of prosperous homes. It is part of the traditional policy of home making of our country. Every other consideration comes as secondary. The whole effort of the Government in dealing with the forests must be directed to this end, keeping in view the fact that it is not only necessary to start the homes as prosperous, but to keep them so. That is A Decexxial Record why the forests huxc got to be kept. You can start a prosperous home by destroying the forests, but you can not keep it prosper- ous that way. . . . 'Forestry is the preservation of forests by wise use'." In the midst of tim])er plenty, the work of early pioneers to advance the cause of forestry in this country belied itself to many, but in the years that followed, the rapidly enlarging spectacle of forest devastation accompanied by growing scarcity and increasing prices of wood, left in doubt no longer the accuracy of their vision or the justice of their endeavors. Today the problem of forest conservation stands out as one of the most vital economic issues of the nation. Knowledge accumulated during the past thirty years has served to crystalize the problem, for it is now generally conceded that its solu- tion lies along two main lines of endeavor : the first is by stopping fur- ther devastation through such measures as will afford adequate pro- tection and regulation of our remaining forests and Mill put our forest- bearing lands on a permanent forest producing basis; the second is the curtailment of the annual drain upon the remaining forests by more complete and scientific use of the trees cut, a use arrived at by an accurate knowledge of the properties of the various woods and their economic use. A Dix'ExxiAL Rkcokd CHAPTER III THE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY ESTABIJSHMEXT The national need for researcli in forest prodncts was recognized from the earhest days of the Di\'isi()n of Forestry and became increas- ingly apparent as forest exliaustion in the east advanced. Eventu- ally it asserted itself. The scanty appropriations of the first decade of American governmental forestry provided little money for research in forest products, and between 1890 and 1910 work was mainly of a cooperative natm-e and was done largely at various universities where laboratory facilities were obtaina])le or buildings were available for housing testing equipment. Studies of the mechanical properties of the more important woods were begun at the universities of AVashington, Yale, Purdue, Califor- nia, and Oregon. Some preservation and kiln drying studies were undertaken at Yale, research in naval stores initiated in the South, and a small experimental pulp mill erected in Boston. Wood chem- istry and the chemistry of M'Ood preservatives were also handled in a limited way at this latter place in 1907. During the following two years it became increasingly evident that greater facilities for research would have to be provided, and that centralization was essential to the success of the work. Tlie very na- ture of researcli demands coordination of all related facts and studies, and this coordination is difficult to secure without centralization of allied research agencies. ^V very large part of tlie researcli Avork of the Forest Service had been carried out in cooperation with various universities, which had been glad to place some of their facilities at the disposal of the service, and so it Mas natural that, in the need for increased facilities, thought should be given to the universities. A thorough canvass of Washing- ton had already shown the utter futility of trying to rent suitable quarters for the small sum available. 10 The Forest Products Laboratory A survey of available and potential facilities at a number of the universities was therefore made. An unexpectedly large number of universities showed a keen interest, and very generous offers were made by several. Finally, the oft'er of the University of Wisconsin, which included the erection of a suitable building and the furnishing of heat, light, and power for it, was accepted. Construction started in the summer of 1909, and the installation of equipment was begun in the fall, shortly after the nucleus of the organization arrived from Washington and established temporary quarters. At the time of the formal opening, June 4, 1910, the personnel consisted of about 45 people, drawn from the various lines of work imder way elsewhere. IMuch of the credit for the progress of the lab- oratory ])elongs to the small group of loyal and enthusiastic workers comprising the original staff of the laboratory. They are the ones who laid down the general plans for the fundamental researches, worked out the details of procedure, and designed much of the special apparatus and machinery which was required for the preparation of the specimens and the carrying out of the tests. These preliminaries having been worked out, they jDroceeded to ol^tain the groundwork of information upon which most of the war work and the majority of the later general and special studies were based. Growth The first years of the laboratory's existence were devoted to the task of getting the plant running and obtaining a grasp of funda- mentals. 'No marked increases in appropriations were secured, and expansion was comparatively slow. It was possible, however, to broaden the scope of the work gradually, and to establish satisfactory contact with the principal forest products industries. When the United States entered the war in the spring of 1917, the laboratory staff numbered eighty-four persons, a mass of funda- mental data on the properties of w^ood had been accumulated and good contact with the wood-using industries had been established. Thus equipped, the laboratory immediately bent all its efforts to ^var work, recognizing that the wood would play a major part in the con- flict. It immediately made its knowledge and facilities available to all the other branches of the government which had need of them. An A Deckxxial Record 11 analysis of the entire wood and forest products situation, from the standijoint of war needs, was begun at once, and steps were taken to secure the vast amount of information which this analysis showed would be needed by the War and Xavy Departments. Contact was established with the various branches of these de- partments and others doing war work, and systematic cooperation undertaken. Funds were made available by the cooperating depart- ments, and the personnel of the laboratory was increased as rapidly as men could l)e trained for the specialized work. This expansion con- tinued throughout the war, and on armistice day the force numbered 458. Many of the problems presented to the laboratory were solved immediately with the knowledge available. Others were of new and specialized character and required the construction of special ma- chinery and the making of many special tests. The experience and the vision of the older men in the various branches of the work proved to be invaluable in the planning and execution of these special investi- gations. It is safe to say tliat a large measure of the usefulness of the laboratory during the war would have been lost had these men, instead of remaining in the organization, answered the many calls to other fields and gone where greater financial reward and personal gain Mould have resulted. ]Many developments of the war, new inventions and new proc- esses, chemical and physical, born under the stimulus of war necessity and devoted to military use were found after the armistice to be of value in peace times industry, either with or without modifications. In the poison gas campaign normal time industry profited by discoveries that, lacking the stress of national emergency, might not have come in years of dc^•cl()])ment. The unl)elieva.ble progress in aeronautics in a brief four years, at once, upon the cessation of hostilities, was converted to commercial, sporting and other transportation, such, for instance, as the mails. The same thing happened in many fields, among them forest products research. During the war, no effort liad been made to ])ublish and distribute the results of the lal)oratory\s researches,- — in fact, a very large per- centage of the war work was secret and confidential and did not permit of publication. Special effort has since been made l)y the entire or- The Forest Products Laboratory ganization to disseminate as much of the accumulated information as has useful application among the industries. The re-establishment of many of the contacts, which Mere broken during the war, was undertaken, and fundamental researches, tem- porarily laid aside, were resumed. Plans were perfected for further study of several new lines of research undertaken during the war. and for rounding out the investigative program of the laboratory. Orc;axizatiox The laboratory is organized upon a basis intended to yield the greatest measure of scientific results with the minimum amount of time and energy devoted to the mere mechanics of operation, and the routine of the organization is centered almost entirely in separate service sections; so that the research men may be relieved, as much as \ possible, from everything except the planning and execution of re- search investigations. This type of organization has proved itself verj^ well adapted to research institutions, since, in the final analysis, the success of a research institution depends in greater measure, than is the case with most organizations, upon the individuals composing its staff. Research is most individualistic; and while it is possible for the leaders in the organization to plan and direct the research of the various men, the success of each project depends to an unusual degree upon the man immediately in charge of it. The technical w^ork of the laboratory is divided among seven sections, each of these units devoting its investigations to certain well defined fields. In addition to the research sections there are four service units carrying on the many functions, such as finance, engi- neering, maintenance, personnel details and so fortli, essential to the smooth working of an organization of the size of the laboratory. In these service units is grouped for convenience the office that handles the editorial work, and to this office is assigned the responsibility for the general dissemination of the results of all the laboratory's re- search. Every effort is made to reach the entire wood industrial field through a variety of mediums. Coordination of research activities is handled through a small subdivision, tributary to the director's A Decexxiat. Record 13 office, acting as a balance wheel or governor to the entire program of the research portion of the laboratory. To one interested in getting a more intimate grasp of the lab- oratory organization scheme a study of the chart on the following page will serve better tlian a descriptive effort. Further, there can be gained from this chart a good general idea of the main lines of research pursued at the present time (1921 ) . Forest Service Products Offices A discussion of the organization of the Forest Products I^ab- oratory would not be comiDlete without mentioning the forest products offices in several of the headquarters of the western districts of the Forest Service. While not a part of the Madison organization, their work is intimately tied in with the laboratory through chiefly furnish- ing a close contact with the industries in the several districts. The offices of the District Foresters at INIissoula, San Francisco and Portland are assigned one or more men to handle the work in this field that occurs within the states covered by these offices. Reporting to the District Forester at Portland there is also a timber testing lab- oratory maintained in cooperation with the University of Washing- ton, at Seattle, which works on local problems referred to it directly or indirectly. The personnel of the district products offices ofl:'ers broader outlets, in somewhat remote regions, for the Avork of the laboratory than otherwise would prevail. Handling many local problems directly on the ground the field men are also enabled to rapidly obtain for the industries information or special investigations from the laboratory tlu'ough interior organi- zation channels. To these same offices the laboratory in turn occa- sionally refers problems that can be handled better in the field. The relationship, in the final analysis, is the logical outcome of the insep- arable tie that the development of forest products utilization, repre- sented by tlie laboratory, has to tlie silvicultural and management aspects of national forestry practice in this country. Ul Hill O o ^ < A \ \ 1 u UJ (E SER REELEY F RE PP ASST. CTS INSLOW ASS'T. Dl O UJ z »- u. H-aJ oo'^ci -ORES WILLIAM AMCH EARL H. PRO CARLILE Ul o li. u. o i; ^ < o "■ U u u < z Si i >: o J £ -I S ° °" 5 o =^h II III !«. m liii m m 'ml ^ is! ill >- a * o i *= ill K a. 11 5l - £ -.^ Ji 1 5| H «EU s! i £ d < c/> i! m is s Si S liil ii i ii! I! 5siE in i« -°3i ill iii § i ill ill 5 I LIZI riZLIZIIZL 5, O ; o a. s J Ii 5 = ^ 5 f f i ' z o o 5 > 3 TZZL z yi i: I I I n ! I 6 f 3 .? I ]() The Fokest Phoducts Laboratoky Equipment 3Ir. Howard Weiss, director of the laboratory- from 1912 to 1917, tells the following story of conditions prior to the establishment of the laboratory : "xVt that time I was in the office of Wood Preservation, and was in charge of the Section of Research, which consisted of myself and the title. Since we had no permanent laboratory, we liad to move around from place to place with what little equip- ment we could gather together. "It was about this time that I was sent to the great Southern Lumber Company at Bogalusa, La., to show them how to pre- serve timber. All I had was two galvanized iron tanks which I had had made at a cost of about $20 each." From this meager outfit has grown the present thoroughly equipped section of wood preservation at the la])oratorv, with a large pressure treating plant handling several dozen ties at a charge, smaller pressure cylinders, one of which is capable of injecting preservatives at a pressure of 600 pounds to the square inch, and much auxiliary and special apparatus permitting carrying on of preservative trea' according to any commercial or experimental process. Handling as it does the glue and laminated wood studies, the section of preservation is also suitably equipped with glue mixing and spreading machines, hot and cold presses, strength test machines, an aircraft propeller manufacturing plant and a series of conditioning rooms where temperature and humidity are under control. The first efforts at wood testing in this country were strength tests on timbers of several species of American woods. In this sense one may say that the study of timber mechanics of wood was the lead- ing field of research. Today the equipment of this important part of the laboratory is especially complete, and most of tlie equipment was designed by the laboratory engineers. A timber thirty feet in length is readily accommodated in the capacious jaws of the new million-pound testing machine recently erected as part of the equipment of the timber mechanics laboratory. This same giant of wood ])reakers will test the strength of horizontal, ])uilt-up beams, trusses and girders with a length as great as eighty ERECTION OF THE MILLION I'OUND TIMBER TESTING MACHINE (1920) 18 The Forest Pkoducts Laboratory feet. While this indicates the inaxiiiiiini capacity of the Forest Prod- ucts Laboratory to test timbers and huge built-up members, the equip- ment for lesser parts is especially complete. Ten machines capable of applying breaking strains of from 10.000 to 200,000 pounds are also available. Toughness and impact resistance are measured on other machines, while man}^ special tools and rigs are here for special tests, including those for testing plywoods. Most of these machines are original devices that first saw the hght of day in the laboratory as need for them arose in the progress of the development of the technique of testing wood. The box laboratory, a part of the work of timber mechanics, is equipped with two tumbling drums, the larger of which can take boxes weighing as much as half a ton, and reduce them slowly or quickly to a shattered wreck — the quickness of the breaking depending on the amount of resistance built into the box by its designers. Here also can be measured the ability of a box to stand tension and compression, drop tests and similar abuse. The drying of wood by almost any conceivable variation of tem- perature, humidity and circulation within practical limits is possible in the laboratory equipment of six dry kilns of commercial size, all closely regulated and entirely automatic and autographic in their operation. In addition to the kilns, a conditioning apparatus permits fundamental research in the conditioning and treating of wood under pressures or gases, and under absolutely controlled factors. This apparatus, as well as the kilns and many supplemental devices, was designed by laboratory engineers. ComjDletely equipped to make wood pulp by any of the commer- cial chemical or mechanical processes and convert the pulp into paper by cylinder or Fourdrinier process, the pulp and paper section meas- ures up to the general standards of equipment existing throughout the laboratory. The list of equipment sounds like a combination of several paper-making plants, but of course everj^hing is on a laboratory rather than on a commercial scale. The main items recognizable by the paper manufacturer are a wood chipper, sulphite and soda digesters and necessary auxiliaries, grinder, pulp press, wet machine, beaters, Jordan and a 22-inch combination cylinder and Fourdrinier paper- making machine. Pressers, driers, colenders, etc., complete the list. In addition to complete chemical equipment, a constant humidity and A Decexxial Record 19 temperature room is maintained for strength- tests on the finished products. i The section devoted to derived products, deahng with the many phases of the chemistry of wood, carries as its working tools the usual chemical lahoratory equipment. ]Miich special equipment is used, especially instruments for measuring acciu'ately the various physical and chemical properties of oils, sugars and solutions. Specialized equipment consists of complete semi-commercial plants for produc- tion of ethyl alcohol and stock food from saM'dust ; destructive distil- lation of hardwoods and softwoods; the extraction with volatile solv- ents of resinous woods, Maste paper products and other materials. Pathological work, largely a study of fungi and their effect on wood in many fields of use and from many viewpoints, is carried on by a cooperating office of the Bureau of Plant Industry. The equipment for the work is complete, consisting of all necessary apparatus and medimns for studying fungi imder various conditions. Included in the working equipment are pure cultm-e sam])les of various wood fungi used for comparative studies. The enumeration of tliis sundry pliysical e(iuipnient of the lab- oratory is made mainly to outline briefly to the prospective user, the man with a wood problem ])ut unacquainted with tlie laboratory, Avhat can he expected in the way of a capacity to handle that problem. The enumeration also indicates the growth in the science of wood technol- ogy and research in ten years, for it must be remembered that at the time of the establishment of tlie laboratory, an uncharted sea lay be- fore the youtliful explorer. INIuch of the complex testing machinery in use at the laboratory stands as a marker or buoy in the portion of the unknown tliat has been cliarted. A vast and unlimited field yet re- mains ahead. Persoxxee It has been said that an institution is but the lengthened shadow of a great man. The laboratory, from its rather composite nature, more properly, as it stands today, is the lengthened shadow of many men. To its esta])lisliment and to its development many men have contrilmted the ])est that tliey had to give. Tlie strength of the lab- oratory in its own particular field, after the brief lapse of ten years, fcAAAAAAAMAA^AA0AAAAAAAAft^A»i'iiiciples determined, the adoption of wliich cnt down tlie losses very materially. It was evident, however, that further investigation would serve to improve the art still more, and plans were made for an extensive project. A steam-bending machine and steam- ing retort were installed and preliminary tests had been made when the armistice was signed. Further work has been temporarily aban- doned because of tlie lack of funds. ^Vn interesting pliase of tlie drying situation was that connected witli the conditioning of walnut gunstock blanks. The quantity of blanks needed was l)eyond belief, and naturally, long before the entry of the United States into the war. air-dry su])plies of walnut had been absorbed l)y rifle manufacturers filling contracts for the allies. The first attempts to kiln dry green walnut wlien the availal)le air-dry material disappeared, resulted disastrously — one instance being re- corded when the opening of the kilns at one plant at the end of a run disclosed 60, 000 totally ruined blanks with a loss of $72,000 in mate- rial costs. One firm with an order for two million rifles for Russian use called on the lal)oratorv in this crisis and tlie ai)plication of the drying })rinciples already perfected, su])plemented with needed varia- tions indicated after a study of tlie problems of this specific material, reduced losses to less than two per cent. When the United States itself entered the market for greater (piantities of rifle blanks than ever, facilities existed for filling orders without loss and with l)ut little delay. Additional assistance was rendered in various ways, especially in the preparation of specifications and in the selection of substitute species for those difficult to secure in sufficient quantity. The fund of data on the ])roperties of wood accumidated since the laboratory's incej)tion. couj)le(l with the ex])erience of the staff, ])roved of very great value in this M'ork. JFar Time Bo.v Work The first intimation that there was going to be trouble in connec- tion with the boxing and crating of goods for overseas came when the Ordnance Department sent out recjuests for bids on boxes, using its standard specifications which called for high grade white pine. 'No bids came ])ack. The help of the laboratory was souglit, and, on the The Fokest Products Laboratory basis of its previous exijerience in })ox testing, a specification was pre- pared which allowed the use of many different kinds of wood, thq thickness of the boards or shooks varying according to the species. This solved the immediate difficulty and showed the way for much additional work. This was at first largely confined to the Ordnance Department and consisted, for the most part, in the re-design of con- tainers for various specific articles, such as rifles, shells, hand grenades, machine guns, saddles and harness and other equipment covering a wide range. It was possible, in practically all cases, to make a mate- rial reduction in the size of the container and also in its first cost without reducing its efficiency. Thus, in the case of the Browning automatic machine rifles, the re-design of the package carrying two of the rifles netted a saving of 33 per cent ])oth in cargo space and in material. The significance of the saving in cargo space becomes evi- dent when it is realized that it was valued at $6.00 per cubic foot, and was not to be had in sufficient quantity at any price. Assistance in boxing and crating was rendered to a number of the army branches from time to time, and when the general staff took over many of the functions formerly exercised by these various branches, definite cooperation was arranged with the Office of Industrial Re- search of the Division of Purchase, Storage and Traffic, Avhich acted as a clearing house and systematized the work to a great extent. AVhen the shortage of cargo space became acute, and baling of many goods was adopted to cut the space required to the minimum, many tests were made upon various types of water-resistant papers to determine their suitability for this purpose. ^Miscellaneous investigations were made, also, upon various patent boxes and upon different types of straps and seals. Courses of instruction in boxing and crating were given to officers and enlisted men, as well as to civilian employes of various branches of the A^^ar Department, and these branches have re- ported that the courses Avere of exceptional value in building up efficient inspection forces. Laboratory Participation in Wooden Sliiphnilding The huge wooden ship program planned by the Emergency Fleet Corporation encountered many technical difficulties, a number of which were new or unusual, and the laboratory \s assistance was re- quested in the solution of a number of tliem. A Decexxiat. Recokd .53 The laboratory's experience in the grading of structural timbers and in the utilization of many of the woods used in shipbuilding was called upon in the drafting of new grading rules for ship timbers adopted by the Emergency Fleet Corporation and in the revision of the rules of construction laid down by the American 'Bureau of Ship- ping. Assistance was also rendered in the inspection of timber under the rules of the Kmergenc}' Fleet Corporation and for the same organization specifications for creosote and its application were pre- pared. These specifications permitted the use of all suitable creosotes and made the corporation independent of various expensive proprie- tary preservatives originally specified. A shortage of treenail stock and of properly seasoned treenails seemed imminent in the spring of 1918, and the laboratory was called upon to find new kinds of wood and to specify means of artificially seasoning the treenails. This problem was of first importance since, for a time, the su])])ly of treenails actually determined the rate of ship construction at a number of yards. Certain promising species were selected for experiment, and driving tests made to determine their suitability. Live oak and osage orange were selected as comparing favorably with l)lack locust, and specifications were adopted allowing the use of these woods and })roviding for a better system of inspection. Experimental Mork upon the kiln drying of these species was pushed by the laboratory and the Fleet Corporation made extensive prepara- tions for the kiln drying of live oak treenails, which were abandoned on the signing of the armistice. Coopcraiion With the liailroad Adniimstratiou The shortage of coal-tar creosote interfered seriously with the wood preservation industry, particularly the railroad branch. An analysis of existing records of the service rendered by treated ties throughout the country was made in connection with a study of rain- fall, and it was possible thereby to recommend the use of zinc chloride in a number of localities in place of creosote. This formed the basis of the allocation of creosote to the railroads by the Railroad Adminis- tration. Specifications for a creosote to be used in the joints in car construction were also submitted. o4 The Fokest Pkoducts Lauokatoky The Railroad Administration experienced endless trouble in the construction of wooden cars, largely due to seasoning difficulties caused by the shortage of dry car stock. An extensive field study was made and the exact causes of the trouble determined. A report out- lining the proper remedies was prepared and submitted to the Rail- road Administration. In various other ways the laboratory worked with the Railroad ^Vdministration to solve miscellaneous problems. The results of much of this work appear in the form of specifications issued by the Administration. Furthering ihc ChcmlcaJ Warfare Campaign The chemical warfare work for the army was first got under way by the Bureau of Klines and later taken over by the Chemical AVarfare Service when this Service was organized. Specific problems were assigned to various laboratories throughout the country and several having to do with forest products were taken over by tlie Forest Prod- ucts Laboratory. One of the most urgent needs was for a highly absorbent charcoal for use in gas masks for protection against chlorine. Ordinary char- coals were soon found useless for this purpose and experiments were started to evolve a suitable coal. This resulted in the preparation of a beech-wood charcoal which met the requirements. A similar mate- rial had been developed at the same time by tlie chemists of a large commercial carbon-producing firm. The manufacture of this charcoal was immediately undertaken at a distillation plant under the super- vision of a laboratory chemist, only seven days being required to make the needed alterations in the plant. I^ater on it became desirable, due to a shortage of raw material to find a substitute for the very dense charcoal made from cocoanut shells. This charcoal was capable of absorbing a number of gases against M'hich the beech-wood charcoal offered but slight protection. A method of activating charcoal, simi- lar to a secret process used by the Bureau of Klines, was first devel- oped, so that activating and absorption tests could be made at the laboratory, following which a series of artificially dense charcoals, made from the hydrolized wood sawdust which is a waste product in the manufacture of ethyl alcohol from M'ood. were developed. The best of this series were almost perfect substitutes for cocoanut shell A Dkckxxiai. Rkcoki) charcoal, and tlie 2Ji"<^<-'e.ss was worked out hy laboratory chemists on a seini-commercial scale at the Cleveland chemical laboratory of the Chemical A\''arfare Service. The commercial production was just about to be undertaken at the termination of hostilities. A number of other problems connected with defensive and offen- sive chemical warfare were Morked upon and definite conclusions reached. Chantring conditions, however, fre(iuently made tlie results of no value almost before tliey were secured. Among these problems may be mentioned tear gases, gask mask filters, carbon monoxide absorbent, solvent for arsene gas, and the recovery of isoprene and toluol from turpentine. It seemed, at first sight, tliat our entrance into the war woidd not throM' a very great l)ur(len upon the wood distillation industry since the Eritisli munitions manufacturers were the only ones using acetate of lime in making smokeless powder and it Mas not anticipated that American manufacturers would produce this particular type of })ow- der. It soon developed, however, that the aircraft program would demand twice tlie current ])roduction of acetate for tlie preparation of the cellulose acetate "dope" used to shrink tlie wing fal)ric. The Signal Corps finally decided to construct several new distil- lation plants, after the field had been carefully gone over and the merits of various expedients determined. Tlie laboratory acted in a consulting ca])acity in all of this work and also assisted plants already in operation to secure greater yields through the use of a tem])erature control method worked out by the laboratory before the war. Later, when the demand for acetic acid became so acute that the price of production no longer was a controlling factor, a method of increasing the yields of acetic acid by fusion of the wood with caustic soda was perfected. 'J'liis method ])roduce(l three and one-half times as much acetic acid ])cr unit weight of wood as straight distillation. Wood ('clhilosr for Kj'jjio.sivc.s Among the many fancied and real shortages of raw material, those having to do M'itli munitions were perhaps the most spectacular, because their immediate significance M-as most easily appreciated by the lay mind. Among these munition shortages none seemed to come so unexpectedly or develop so rapidly as that of cotton linters. the WOOD DISTILLATION RETORT— A CHARGE BEING PUT INTO THE RETORT PREPARATORY TO DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLATION A Decennial Recokd 57 base for the inaiiufacture of nitrocellulose, one of the most important high explosives. In spite of the fact that special machinery for cut- ting the linters from the cotton seeds had been installed at most cot- ton seed crushing plants, the demand grew much faster than the supply. Finally, the laboratory undertook to find ways and means for producing suitable cellulose from wood. Several grades of wood pulp were given a series of after-treatments to remove the impurities, and the treated samples sent to an arsenal for nitration. It was found that at least two of the after-treatments produced entirely satisfactory material, and ])lans for the daily production of several hundred tons of this pulp had l)een made when the cessation of hostilities ended the immediate need for such tremendous quantities of high explosives. MificcUancouH War Time Activities Among the many little things typical of the minor activities of the lal)orat()ry was the development of several types of sln-apnel nose plugs. These plugs were used, early in the war, to replace the tune fuses on shrapnel shells during shipment from the munitions plant to the front, and were intended to keep out moisture as well as to pro- tect the machined face and thread forming the shrapnel nose. The threaded and paraffined wooden plugs formerly used, quite frecpiently swelled during transportation and broke down during attempted re- moval. In one type perfected at the laboratory, use was made of the fact that wood shrinks very little along the end grain. Therefore, by so disposing the wood that the threaded portion was all end-grain, it was possible to prevent its swelling and sticking in the hole. Another type was moidded from a mixture of paper pulp and asphaltic pitcli. Still a third, intended to ])e (}uick-detachal)le and (piick-attachaljle as well, was built up of wood with a flexible tongue which caught in the threads and held the plug in place. A cpiick pull served to lireak the tongue and release the i)lug. Just about this time the Ordnance Department decided to put the fuses into the shells at the loading station, and tluis dispense with the use of the nose plugs altogether. The skill and knowledge gained through many years' study of wood under tlie microscope, and the collection of authentic wood sam- ples and microscopic wood sections proved to be of very great value 58 The Fokkst Products LahoKxVtoky ill many ways. The great bulk of the work carried out by the wood- microscopy specialists during the war consisted in the identification (as to species) of samples of wood for the laboratory and for various agencies and manufacturers engaged upon war work. Over 18,000 specimens were thus identified during the m ar. One of the most re- markable series of identifications was of gas mask charcoals submitted by the Bureau of Standards early in the war. It was possible, by the use of the identification keys worked out before the war, to identify the species of w^ood from which each sample of charcoal had been made. A distinct phase of the microscopic work was the examination of wood for decay. There are many kinds of stain and discoloration caused by various agencies, among which are certain decay-producing organisms. It is frequently impossible to determine the origin of a stain except under the microscope, and it is most impoivtant, especially in aircraft work, that no wood be used which is even slightly decayed and. almost as important, that no wood be rejected simply on suspicion of decay. Manufacturing and purchasing specifications of the leaders in industry usually embody in a few simple words the results of years of study and experience and they represent the latest and best prac- tice, ^luch of the progress made by the laboratory in its ten years of researcli is embodied in the specifications of the various Army and Navy bureaus and of the leading manufacturers in many industries using wood. Several hundred such specifications were referred to the laboratory for criticism and revision, and of these a goodly share were written practically in their entirety at the laboratory. Instructional work afforded another excellent means of making the la])oratory's knowledge effective. The staff had been doing in- structional work of various kinds for a number of years and was therefore well qualified to undertake the instruction of variovis grades of inspectors and operators. The first course for airplane inspectors was given in July, 1917, and succeeding courses at intervals of two or three weeks until the close of the war. xVbout 12.5 men received in- struction in these courses, exclusive of various of the newer members of the laboratory staff. Courses of instruction for box inspectors, principally for the Ordnance Department, were inaugurated at about the same time as those for airplane inspectors, and continued until after the cessation A DKcKXXiAr, Kkcoud .59 of liostilities. About 90 men in all attended these coiu-ses. As an illustration of their practical worth it is reported that a new type of cartridge case box designed by one of these men saved the Ordnance Department .$50,000 on the first contract, besides saving $100,000 worth of cargo space. Instruction was also given dry kiln operators at various periods, to supplement the individual instructional Mork being done by laboratory representatives in the field. In concluding this chapter of the laboratory's history, record shoidd be made of the fact that it coidd not have been written had it not been for the loyalty and enthusiasm of the individual members of the staff and the s])irit of the organization as a M'hole which overcame seemingly insiu-mountable obstacles and produced the results. CHAPTEK V FIXAXC'IAI. VAIA K OF RESEARCH RESULTS Closely related as the Forest Products Laboratory is to much of the business life of the country, and having much of its research applied directly to industrial processes, the acid test of, "does it pay f. is more likely to be applied than it would be if the research conducted here were entirely of an abstract nature. At the same time emphasis should be placed on the fact that much of the laboratory work has been and always will be in the field of pure science, laying the necessary ground work for the applied type of research that finds expression in many of the ])r()cesses described earlier in this volume. With far Hung connections such as have been built up in ten years, and with no definite knowledge of the ultimate distance traveled by the methods and ideas radiating from here as a center, it is impossible to answer in full the (piery. does it pay. or correctly estimate the true financial value of the research results of the laboratory. Any honest estimate, natu- rallv. falls short of the total. ()0 The Fokest Pkoducts Labokatoky We do know the operating cost of the hiboratoiy for the past ten years, what has been expended to produce the results so far attained. Briefly, in the ten years of its life, very close to two million dollars has been appropriated to maintain the institution. The war period accounts for a fair portion of this total, so the yearly amount, exclud- ing the time of greatest expansion, is, in the light of accomplishments, low. While the total gain cannot be estimated in dollars and cents, some of the known results, however, enable the use of a yard stick which will serve to demonstrate that organized industrial research in wood is a paying investment. The building and construction trade, for example uses annually about 51/) billion feet of luml)er for structural purposes where strength is important. This material is worth roughly $200,000,000. In- vestigation at the Forest Products Laboratory on the mechanical properties of American woods has given knowledge permitting a 20 per cent increase in allow\able working stresses in structural timbers. This means a possible saving of $40,000,000, of which it is estimated that some $4,000,000 is already saved each year through use of labora- tory data. Claims for loss and damage to commodities in shipment actually paid by the railroads amount to over $100,000,000 annually. Proper nailing and improved designs developed by the laboratory and adopted by the National Association of Box ]Manuf acturers, and through them by many companies and shippers, is estimated to save a])out one per cent of this loss, a total saving of $1,000,000 a year. Work on water-resistant glues and plywood for airplanes carried on at the laboratory during the war emergency alone saved the War Department a sum running into millions in its procurement of such material during a twelve months' period. Investigations in the use of hull fibre and second-cut linters for pulp and paper have resulted in the establishment of several plants having a potential daily production of 300 tons of paper with an annual sale value of $8,000,000. The adoption of improved methods of turpentining developed by the Forest Service has resulted in increased yields and decreased injury to timber wdth net savings aggregating $4,000,000 per year. The importance of the knowledge w^hich the laboratory had accumulated on suitable methods of drying and on dry -kiln design A Decennial Record 01 at tlie beginning of the war, cannot l)e estimated in dollars. It was put to immediate use in the drying of lumber for all war purposes, as gunstocks, wagon parts, artillery wheel rims and spokes, airplane wing beams and propellers. The results have l)een described elsewhere. Preventable losses in commercial operations, due to improper air drying and poor kiln drying, have aggregated annually over one bil- lion dollars, at the present price of lumber. How much of this is now being saved through the assistance of the laboratory it is difficult to estimate, but the losses are obviously growing less through the con- stantly Avidening sphere of laboratory influence. The annual saving to American industries directly attributable to the work of the laboratory is estimated at approximately 30 million dollars, with the possibility of a much larger saving were full use made of the results of its investigations. In addition, these results are of much value to Federal and State Governments and to private owners in the management of forest lands, and are promoting forest conser- vation by pointing the way to making one tree do the w^ork of two. Results, of course, cannot be obtained over night, and but ten years has elapsed since the beginning of the work. However, the results obtained so far have clearly demonstrated tliat over any rea- sonable period of years, economies residting from organized reseai'ch so greatly exceed the expense involved that there can be no (juestions as to its value. As a side commentary on the financial aspects of forest products research, the practical value of the work done at ^ladison has received M'ide foreign recognition. Based on a study of this laboratory a similar institution has been installed by the Canadian government: also in South Africa. India, and Australia, the various local governments have called men of the laboratory staff to direct research in forest products ])articularly in the seasoning and kiln drying of timber species commercially used there. In practically every country on the globe are Ial)oratory contacts, largely with wood-using industries, established through re([iiests for information availal)le at the labora- tory and tlie recognition of tlie ])ractical value of this information. A Decexxiai. Recokd 63 CHAPTER VI FUTI KE RESEARCH IX FOREST PRODUCTS The laboratory, passing, as it did. through the war witli a hirge measure of service to its cre(ht. is now in the post-war adjustment period, sailing out on a new tack. The immediate realignment of forces, following tlie armistice, the reduction in personnel, the clean- ing up of war projects, and tlie ai)plication of facts learned during the war to peace time industries and processes, liave l)een told earlier in this book. The two years that have elapsed since the armistice have seen the adjustment largely completed. What of the future, of the problems still unsolved, the fields of research visioned from this point, the beginning of the second decade of the Forest Products Laboratory's existence? Such a vision exists, and its keynote is the reduction of the annual drain ujxhi the remain- ing forests of America by more economical utilization. A vision of service to the wood-using industries of the country and a desire to stop the widening of the alarming gap in America's economic fabric — the shortage of timber to meet our present standard of civilization — are essential parts of this vision. Some of the problems facing tlie wood-using industries are given briefly below, together Avith tlieir relation to past and })resent work of tlie laboratory. A number of phases of these problems are being worked on now. in so far as provision has been made to finance them, either tlirough Federal appropriation or through cooperative funds. 77/r Mechanical Projjcrtics of Wood The laboratory's work in this field lias been centered upon deter- mining the mechanical properties of the diff'erent important commer- cial species of tlie United States. At the outbreak of the war some 130 difi^^erent species had been tested, and the results of these tests formed tlie foundation for ])ractically all of the laboratory's war work where the streiiirth of timber was a factor. This data, still incomplete, 64 The Forest Products Laboratory likewise forms a fundamental basis for determining the design and use of wood and things made of wood; effect of defects; the selection of proper woods for various uses; the technical studies of wood-using industries; the standardization of grading rules and })uilding codes; and the economic utilization of structural timbers. When it is realized that more than one-half of the tim})er cut each year is for structural use. the savings possible because of the accurate knowledge of the mechanical properties of the different woods may be appreciated. For example, one-sixth of the 40 billion feet of lum- ber consumed annually is in the form of l)oxes and shipping containers. It has been estimated that by developing ])alanced box construction it will be possible to use from 2.5 to 50 per cent less lumber (equivalent to a saving of from two to three ])illion feet of lumber annually) . and at the same time provide containers equal to or better than those now used. The demands upon the laboratory for information relative to proper box construction are far in excess of what it can handle; and while it has made a good many tests of different types of boxes, it has scarcely scratched the surface of the field of possibilities. Anotlier field in wliicli the mechanical properties of wood shoidd be studied is that involving the steam bending of wood. This is a field in which the percentage of waste is exceedingly high, particularly in the vehicle, furniture, and cooperage industries, due to the high per- centage of ])reakage in the wood when under bending pressure. The problem involves many factors. It is one upon which the laboratory has been able to do practically nothing. Other profitable fields are those involving the development of built-up trusses, thus making possible the utilization of low grade lumber; the development of joints and fastenings in timber construc- tion; the eff'ect of growth conditions on the properties of wood, and especially the determination of the differences in the meclianical prop- erties of the second growth timber now coming to merchantable size, and upon which the industries will be more and more dependent ; the development of laminated construction permitting greater utilization of small sized and low grade material; comprehensive tests on full sized timbers used as columns for building construction ; the standard- ization of building codes so that each species will be given its proper place, based upon its true mechanical value, thus avoiding tlie large A Decennial Kecokd «5 waste now resulting from the inefficient selection and utilization of material. 77/ r Preservative Treatment of Wood This is a large field of conservation possihilities. To date the laboratory's work has been directed mainly to determining the pene- trability of different species with available commercial preservatives and to developing more efficient processes of treating wood to protect it against decav. Recent estimates show that the annual loss due to decay in varied' forms of structural timbers, such as railroad ties, mine timbers, pihng, bridge timliers, posts, poles, etc., amounts to as much material as is annually lost by forest fires. A\^ood preservation has been demonstrated as commercially profitable, but its practice is not as general as it should be, and preservative methods are still susceptible to much improvement. The laboratorv has also done a limited amount of work on the problem of fire-])roofing wood, but has not had the facilities nor the organization to carrv it to the point of success. Of the annual fire loss in this countrv a great deal could be prevented by the develop- ment of more effective and cheaper methods of fire-proofing wood. ■Research in this field is necessarily expensive, but the possibdities of saving both timber and property are so great and important that work of this character should not be long postponed. Great cpiantities of mine timbers are destroyed annually l)y decay because thev are not given preservative treatment. The amount of timber usedin the mines throughout the country is staggering, and the laboratorv should have men in the field most of the time conferring with mine officials, demonstrating the value of wood preservatives and promoting their use. Much of the necessary ex])eruneiital work on the treatment of mine timber has been done, and its value has been conclusivelv ])roved, but the laboratory has not the organization to carry its iiiformation to tlie mine and demonstrate its application and use. . i . Similarlv, great (luantities of timber used as piling in salt water are destroved annuallv bv marine borers. Incidents may be cited where large docks and over-water buildings erected at great expense have been undermined and practically destroyed within a year or two 66 The Forest Products Laboratory after construction, due to the attack of the marine borers. The lab- oratory has done some work on this problem cooperating with a committee of business men on the West Coast, but the problem of finding a more effective treatment to protect piling against these bor- ers is one calling for urgent consideration, both from timber-conserva- tion and property-maintenance standpoints. Because of the gradual depletion of eastern woods, railroads in the East and Middle West are being forced more and more to use the far western species for ties and structural purposes. Many of these woods are of the so-called inferior species, and they must be given preservative treatment in order to render effective service. A num- ber of them, however, take treatment with difficulty, and the present investigations of the laboratory are inadequate to recommend treating processes which are whollj^ satisfactory. The laboratory plans to continue its work on these species, but its organization and finances are inadequate to attack it on the scale its importance justifies. During the war the laboratory was called upon by the Army and Navy to conduct a series of researches involving the development and use of water-resistant glues. The results of this work have found wide application for peacetime uses, including the manufacture of plywood, laminated articles, airplane construction, etc. The de- velopment of most effective glues in relation to the service which wooden products should give, is, however, still in its infancy, and it is difficult to predict what economic savings may result from intensive research in this field. Laminated wood is becoming increasingly practical, and develop- ments in its manufacture hold out promise of great improvement in wood utilization practice. They may even have a profoimd effect on the future methods of forestry in making it unnecessary to raise trees of large size. Even under conditions existing today, the development of laminated construction will open a market for the profitable use of millions of feet of small material now wasted. The single discovery of a process of making a durable water-proof glue which will withstand outside climatical conditions will open a great field for laminated products. A Decennial Record 67 The Chemical Utilization of Wood From the standpoint of utilizing waste, this is an important field calling for further development in our knowledge of the chemistry of wood and the application of that knowledge to the chemical and by- products industries. The laboratory has had a small force of specially trained men engaged in studying the processes by which some of the more important chemical products, including ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, acetic acid, tannin, etc., are derived from wood. It has not been able to ad^-ance far in a fundamental study of the chemistry of wood cellulose or to investigate in a comprehensive way many other problems which hold out promise of utilizing present waste. It has been stated that in the waste resulting from the lumbering and milling of southern pine there are values in chemical products greater than the value of the lumber manufactured. The problem is to work out practical processes for reclaiming these values. One of these products, for example, is grain or ethyl alcohol. The laboratory has done considerable work in developing efficient processes for con- verting sawdust and wood waste into ethyl alcohol and the process is now on a commercial basis. This alcohol is of high purity. It is an efficient fuel for gas engines and finds wide use tlu'oughout the chemi- cal and pharmaceutical industries. To extend the use of the process further, intensive and exhaustive investigations to secure greater effi- ciency and lower production costs are desirable. Another example of how new uses for wood waste may be discov- ered through research is the recent development by the laboratory of a stock food prepared from M'hite pine sawdust. Results from the preliminary feeding of this material by the University of Wisconsin indicate that a carbohydrate food from sawdust of many coniferous species may be made and that it has a value equivalent to one-half that of barley and similar stock foods. Conservative estimates indicate that it can be produced under present conditions at a])proximately J^T.OO per ton. Another striking and important field em])races the problem of providing a future supply of w^ood alcohol obtained primarily by destructive distillation of hardwood. Many of the basic industries are dependent upon wood alcohol, and no other means of producing this FOREST SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS IN TURPEXTININCx PROCESSES REPRESENT AN ANNUAL SAVING TO INDUSTRY OP $3,000,000 A Decexxiai. Recokd <>9 product have yet been discovered. The growing scarcity of hardwoods makes the problem of its future supply increasingly acute. The labora- tory has given some study to the different processes now^ used in wood distillation, and during tlie past year it has developed certain modifi- cations AN'liich indicate that the yield of wood alcohol from a given (luantity of wood may lie increased about 50 per cent over the present normal production. It is important that this wliole field be studied more comprehensively than the laboratory is now able to do, not only in order that processes may be made more efficient, but that the pro- ductive value of new woods may be determined. Still another field, in which better methods of utilization are urgent, embraces the turpentine and rosin industry. This industry is in a precarious situation liecause of the rapid exhaustion of southern yellow pine which is its main and practically only source of supply. Xot only is it one of the oldest industries in the country but it gives the Ignited States the leadershij) in the world in the production of tur])entine and rosin. It is imbued with old ideas and in many cases is following old customs with consequent waste of raw material. While the laboratory has already developed methods which have elim- inated some of this waste and have increased the yield of both turpen- tine and rosin, further work is desirable in order that the hfe of the industry may be prolonged ])y developing maximum production from the longleaf ])ine timl)er now remaining. There are many otlicr lines which give ])romise of reclaiming wood now wasted and of increasing the value of products already being reclaimed. Among these may be mentioned studies to improve tire boxes and grates so as to get the maximum lieat from wood waste when l)urned in fire plants: the ]n'()duction from wood of absor])cnt and decolorizing charcoal; the effect of various species used in food containers on the odor and taste of the contents: and the methods of treating M'ood to remove odor and taste: and methods for decolorizing rosin ()])tainable from i)ine stumps, thus making it comparable to that obtained from the living tree. The ViUhatiou of Wood for PuJj) and Paper It is unnecessary to call attention to the importance to the nation of the pulp and pa])er industry. Its products weave into every other 70 The Forest Products Laboratory industry and almost every activity of the nation. Under present methods of converting trees into pulp this industry is dependent for its raw supphes upon three per cent of the standing timber remaining. This is due to the fact that present processes are commercially adapted to a very few species only. This accounts, in part, for the fact that the pulp mill industry in the East and the Lake States faces exhaus- tion of local timber within a decade or two, and the future of the industry for the country as a whole rests upon the development of processes which will make it commercially practical to use species other than those now being used, especially western woods which com- prise over 60 per cent of our remaining timber. The laboratory's work in the pulp and paper field has been focused primarily in determining the value of our different species for pulp and paper. More than 70 different species have been studied. A process was recently developed, for example, whereby a high grade book paper may be made from southern yellow pine. This process, put to commercial application, makes available the southern pineries as a source of book paper and thus relieves the drain upon the species now used, the supply of Mhich is rapidly being exhausted. A further field of research work promising high returns, particu- larly in the East where the industry has been long established, em- braces the prevention of waste and the greater utilization of the timber supply now available. It is conservatively estimated that with proper research to develop increased utilization, our remaining pulpwood su23ply will produce, unit for unit, double the finished jn-oduct that is now being obtained. Present chemical processes applied to over 30 per cent of the wood used in producing newsprint, for example, con- vert less than 50 per cent of the raw wood into paper. The remainder passes off as waste. It contains valuable chemical constituents. Tremendous losses occur in the storage of pulp wood and of the manufactiu-ed pulp. These losses are placed by the industry at about $5,000,000 annually. They are due to fungus decay which the mills, to date, have been unable to combat, owing to the lack of knowledge of the fungi and their methods of attack, and of proper methods of control. Within the past year (1920) the laboratory has made a study of this problem in cooperation with the industry which has supplied a large part of the necessary money to conduct the work. Preliminary results indicate that much can be done to check the decay by applying A Decennial Record 71 proper methods of storage to both pulp and pulp wood and by treatmg the pulp with antiseptics. These possibilities should be fully investi- gated, and the limiting concentrations of antiseptics already found effective should be clearly determined. Much more comprehensive work should be done in studying the chemistry and fundamental practice of the cooking processes, as at present conducted by the pulp and paper industry. These processes have not been improved to any degree for a long period, and there appears to be little doubt but that there is great room for improve- ment, not only in cooking but likewise in the bleaching processes. Over 50 per cent of the weight of the wood that enters the chemical pulp mills, or over 2,000,000 tons, is now dissolved in the cooking liquors. Of this less than a third finds ultimate use and that merely as a fuel. It contains, however, methyl and ethyl alcohols, acetones, acetic acid, various oils and materials from which it should be possible to obtain a vast number of other valuable products. The pulp-maker, however, is not essentially a chemist and avoids by-prod- ucts processes that are purely chemical. It is a problem that should be undertaken by the research men. Physical Properties of Wood The laboratory's work in this field has been along two main lines : ( 1 ) The development of efficient methods of kiln drying lumber, and (2) the identification of woods and the relation of their structure to their properties. The latter is important and fundamental to the determination of the penetrability of different woods by preservatives, fire-retardent solutions, coatings and glues, the explanation of phe- nomena occurring in kiln drying, such as shrinkage, casehardening, etc., and the detection and effect of decay and other strength-reducing factors. Considera])le work along both lines has been done by the labora- tory, but the respective fields are so large and the laboratory's facili- ties so small in proportion, that many of the more fundamental prob- lems remain incomplete. The seasoning process is an especially weak link in the chain of processes transforming the log into the finished product, and the annual loss incident to poor seasoning runs into many millions of feet. The laboratorv has worked out some of the funda- WOOD TECHNOLOGY— THE MICROSCOPE IS USEFUL IN IDENTIFICATION AND IN THE: STUDY OP DIOCAY, PRESERVATION, COATINGS, AND OTHER FACTORS A Decennial Record mental pliysicul laws governing the drying of wood and the relation of moisture to strength. This data forms the groundwork whereby charaeteristie indus- trial problems involved in the seasoning processes have been dealt with extensively and through whieli this country, shortly after its entrance into the war. became recognized as the highest authority in the world on the kiln drying of wood. This data, incomplete though it still is, has already done much to promote more scientific and more efficient kiln drying of wood. The laboratory has not only worked out kiln-drying schedules for a number of our more important species, but it has developed two types of dry kilns, one es])ecially adapted to slowly drying refactory hardwoods and the other to rapidly drying softwoods. Within its limited means it has given assistance to Imnber companies and wood- working plants in designing and remodelling commercial kilns, and through experiments it has developed methods of kiln drying many kinds of linnber green from the saw, reducing, in some cases, the time of drying as much as from 4 or 5 years to 90 or 100 days. With an expanded organization it would be possible to bring about very generally better methods of drying wood, by sending lab- oratory representatives to the different plants and helping tliem to solve their problems upon the ground. In the coiu-se of a year the laboratory receives many such requests, but is able to meet relatively few of them without interrupting its regular work. There is, fiu'tliermore, great need for more extensive study of auxihary dry-kiln ap})aratus in order to sim])lify the operation of dry kilns: the development of humidity control in shops and storage sheds; the improvement of drying schedules for many species upon which conclusive investigations have not yet been possible: and the devel()])ment of improved methods of air seasoning limiber in order to reduce degrade to the minimum. Industrial luvcsiigdtlous This field might be termed "the technical study of the efficiency of wood conversion processes". It is a field in which the laboratory's work has been exceedingly limited, owing to the fact that an adequate organization has not been available. Some of the problems involved 74 The Fokest Products Labokatoky are the standardization of lumber grades and specifications; effect upon the cost of production of various sizes and grades of logs; effi- ciency and character of mill operations ; studies of processes of manu- facturing furniture, vehicle, cooperage, etc., and the wood waste incident thereto; and the correlation of the properties of different species to their most efficient use. As an example of the tremendous possi])ilities of conserving timber through such studies the dimension-stock problem may be mentioned. The total requirements of the secondary wood-using in- dustries for wood in dimension stock sizes amounts to eight or nine billion feet annually. Of this amount, some five or six billion feet is small dimension stock which is cut from standard lumber sizes after the lumber has reached the wood-using factory. The extent to which this practice causes waste cannot be accurately gauged, but it is the opinion of many of those who have carefully studied the problem that a large percentage of this small dimension stock material could be cut at tlie mills from material now wasted. The laboratory plans to assign a number of men to this dimension stock problem with the ultimate object of determining by accurate studies the most efficient process by which the standing tree can be manufactured into the dimension standards required by the wood- using industries. This is merely one of the many important problems which should be undertaken in the same field. Estimated Saving, Ten Billion Feet The foregoing indicates, in a very broad way, the character of the work in which the laboratory is now engaged and tlie large and profit- able field before it. There can be no doubt of the ^'alue of research work of the character which is being done, whether performed by the laboratory or some other organization. It is one of the most effective and practical measures for meeting the forest problem. There is no extravagance in the statement that it is entirely feasible to save ten billion feet annually through better utilization. A Decennial Record 7.5 CHAPTER VII HOW TO USE THE LABORATORY To a greater or less degree every wood-using industry of the country is a prospective user of the Forest Products Lahoratory or the data available there. This statement is made with a fair apprecia- tion of the vast complexity of the inter-relation of the many different aspects of this great primary industry. Sooner or later in the long process from the forest giant growing peacefully in the fastness of the far-away hills to the finished article of commerce containing wood in its make-up, a number of contacts of common interest will be devel- oped by every one of these industries, however unrelated the ultimate products. Economies in logging, in saw mill practice, in kiln drying, in the elimination of loss all along the line, in the development of means of utilizing what is now waste by-product, all these will ultimately affect the wood user through cheaper or more stable supplies of raw material, whether this user be a man building a house, a plant turning out wagons, a pulp manufacturer, or the maker of wooden mouse traps. The laboratory, through its contact with all phases of forest products, has something of interest to all of these. Tlie prospective user should think of the laboratory as a big reservoir of facts bearing on his industry, which he, as a taxpayer, has helped to create and which he can tap on demand. If he is engaged in a business that has a relatively wide bearing on wood and its use — for instance, wood preservation, pulp and paper, kiln drying — he will find liere information in great detail, even the most complete data in exist- ence ])earing on his pro])lems. Many minor fields and side trails of the vast ramifications of the wood-using industries have also been probed to a greater or less degree, or, if problems in these lesser lines have not been specially covered, light may be thrown on them through knowledge obtained by work done in related fields. "Ask and it shall ])e given you", might be the first suggestion for using the laboratory. The daily quota of laboratory mail contains many requests from all parts of the United States and usually a num- ray Pmt IK ll a "^ Bi«S_ THE C()XTR()L AND OPERATION P:ND OP A DRY KIEX AT THE LABORATORY A Deckxxiaj. Kkc'okd ber of far corners of the world for information, publications, and ad- vice on general and specific phases of problems arising in every con- ceivable soi-t of wood-using industry. If a problem comes within the field covered by the laboratory — and this field has been indicated in other chapters of this l)()ok — the mail and telegraph will tap the lab- oratory's reservoir of information on demand. Many companies and individuals have found personal conference of Aalue. and this medium of communication with the industries is welcomed. Further, the lab- oratory is always available for either a short or extended study and investigation of its methods and lines of work not only by American citizens but by accredited representatives of foreign wood users or governments. Naturally, for any of the services rendered as just outlined, there is no charge. A vast amount of material — reports and articles, printed bulletins, photographs and diagrams has been prepared for distrilm- tion and, as far as available, will lie furnished gratis on ])()na fide request. With the establishment of fundamental principles and processes, and the outlining of standard methods of testing, the laboratory gradually has entered, in the past two years, a new phase of relations with the wood-using industries, namely, cooperative service. While essentially a government activity conducting research in forest prod- ucts for the benefit of the people of the Ignited States, its ])ur])()se is best served when the residts of its work are of broadest application and of most permanent value in promoting the economical use of wood. The laboratory is maintained and operated by annual appropria- tions made by the Congress of the United States. Tliese ap])ro])ria- tions are based u])()n general estimates of work to be imdertaken during the ensuing fiscal year, so that the amount of money a])pro- priated by Congress for the la])oratory's use must be spent in accord- ance with an annual ])rogram of work. In kee])ing with the purpose of tlie laboratory, it is tlie ])()lify of tlie Government to make this ])rogram, in so far as possible, one of fimdamental research, the results of wliich will be of greatest benefit and of most lasting value from a public standpoint. In addition, it is necessary to provide sufficient money to disseminate its data and information, free of charge, througli correspondence, which averages 3,000 letters a month, and through re])orts and special ai-ticles. 78 The Forest Products Laboratory From the foregoing, it will be seen that the laboratory does not have available money with which to undertake projects not included in its regular j^rogram of work. The amount annually made available by Congress must be spent in accordance with a general program approved by it. This sum, however, is much less than could be ex- pended effectively with the laboratory's present facilities. Recognizing the further opportunity for service, the laboratory has adopted the policy of undertaking cooperative work up to the point where it can be handled efficiently and without disruption of its regu- lar jDrogram of fundamental work. A number of important consid- erations influenced the Forest Service in offering this cooperative service, among which are : ( 1 ) The Forest Products Laboratory is the only organization of its kind in this country' fully equipped to conduct intensive re- search in all lines of wood utilization and readily available to the lumber- and wood-using industries. During the ten years of its existence, it has built up a great fund of scientific information on wood which is usually of direct ^alue and application in the solu- tion of specific problems, thus making it possible to solve many new problems with a minimum amoimt of new research. The idea behind its cooperative service is thus to place its facilities, organization, and fund of information at the disposal of the indus- tries under the best terms possible and practicable. The alterna- tive would be to attempt no research except that provided for in its approved program. (2) A certain amount of cooperative work, it is believed, is a healthy thing for an organization of this character. It not only increases contact between the laboratory and the wood users, thus stimulating appreciation of one another's problems, but it adds to the general fund of scientific information on wood. While all information in possession of the laboratory is disseminated free of charge, much of this information is incomplete when applied to specialized commercial problems. Cooperative service makes available to the industries an opportunity, which otherwise would not be available, to supplement by special research at minimum cost any incomplete data in possession either of the laboratory or of the industry. And it tends to utilize the full capacity of the laboratory. COOPEKATIVK BOX WoKK— A STUDY OF DIAGONAL COMPRESSION 80 The Fokest Pkoducts Lahokatoky In ottering cooperative service, however, it has been necessary to place certain hniitations upon the work which will be accepted. The laboratory does not desire to engage in mere routine testing, and it is not its purpose to do so. To meet all requests of this character w^ould require many times its present appropriation. Especially does it avoid a type of routine work that could be readily done by an industry through the installation of simple testing machinery, at reasonable cost, by the industry itself. Advice on such installations will invari- ably be given if desired. It is not its purpose to promote one product as against another, but to present facts which will enable the public and the industries to put wood to its best use. It has therefore adopted as one of its underlying principles of this cooperative work that it will not accept any project the results of which will not be of some general value and application. As between two pieces of cooperative work, only one of which the laboratory could undertake, the one would be accepted which it appeared would give results of broadest application. The conditions under which this cooperative service is rendered are: ( 1 ) The laboratory will plan and carry out the tests of investi- gations desired and will prepare the necessary report. The coop- erator will pay all expenses incidental to the work. He will be charged actual cost of work only. The laboratory does not render cooperative services on a profit basis. In cases wliere the work is of direct value in furthering the regular research program of the laboratory, the cost is often divided between the laboratory and the cooperator. (2) The laboratory shall have the unrestricted right to publish and distribute tlic residts o])tained from the investigation. The cooj^erator shall not publish for general distribution any state- ments or reports commiting the laboratory unless specific ap- proval is first obtained. Experience has shown this restriction necessary as a protection to the laboratory, the cooperator, and the public against possible misuse of data obtained and against dissemination of incomplete and misleading results. The value of the laboratory's work depends upon the authenticity of its re- sults and the confidence which the public and the industries can ])lace in them at all time. (3) Results are not subject to private patent. A Decennial Record 81 The cooperative service offered by the laboratory is thus an effort to aid the industries, at niininium expense, in a larger way than would be possible by limiting activities exclusively to the work authorized by annual appropriations from Congress. It in no way commercializes the work of the laboratory, because all information available on any phase of wood utilization is furnished free upon request or through personal consultation. But sj^ecial problems, involving additional data and investigations outside its regular program of research, can be handled only under the conditions stated. Individuals or companies, by referring their wood problems to the laboratory, may obtain in advance a statement of the tests or in- vestigations thought necessary to their solution and an estimate of the cost. Communications should })e addressed to the Director, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin. PART II A Decexxiai. Recokd THE DECENNIAL The culiiiiiiation of the first ten years of the hfe of the laboratory came with the Decennial Celebration on July 22 and 23, 1920, at Madison, Wisconsin. That the ten years was fruitful of no small measin*e of service and establishment of good will among those whom the lab- oratory was intended to serve is shown by the registra- tion during the two days' festivities, which were attended by 269 visitors from 22 states and Canada and Porto Rico. Largely drawn from the nation's wood-using and forest and lumbering interests, these representative business men and friends were given opportunity to study the development of the laboratory as it stands today in physical e(iuipment and facilities for future service. On the part of the laboratory, it was the laying of a new foundation stone for the erection of a greater laboratory, the gaining of inspiration to press on to the making of a new ten-year record. Service to the wood- using industries of the country indirectly, and primarily the extension of the usefulness of America's forests, so vital to the welfare of our present standard of civiliza- tion, were the keynotes of the decennial. The program and proceedings of the celebration follow. 86 The Forest Products Laboratory PROGRAM OF THE DECEXXIAL CELEBRATION FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY Thursday, July 22, 1920 Registratiox Headquarters have been estabhshed at the Park Hotel on Capitol Square and all are requested to go there for room reservations, registration, banquet tickets, train schedules and other information. 10:30 a. m. General Assembly Agricultural Hall, University of Wisconsin H. F. Weiss, Chairman, Consulting Engineer, C. F. Burgess Laboratories and Former Director, Forest Products Laboratory. "Legislative Measures for Forest Conservation" The Honorable Emanuel L. Philip^), Governor of Wis- consin, "Translating Knowledge Into Power" E. A. Birge, LL.D., S.C.E., President of the Univer- sity of Wisconsin. "The Forest Products Laboratory" C. P. Winslow, Director, Forest Products Laboratory. 12:00 noon Luncheon Gymnasium., University of Wisconsin 1 :00 p. M. Inspection of the Forest Products Laboratory (Report at the main building of the lal)oratory on Uni- versity Avenue and join a party with a guide.) The Home Economics Department of the LTniversity of Wisconsin will hold a special demonstration for the bene- fit of visiting ladies. A Decennial Record 87 4 :00 p. M. Recreation Automobile tour of the city, boating and swimming. 7 :00 p. M. Banquet Gymnasium, University of Wisconsin Burr W. Jones, LL.D., Toastmaster. "Forests and National Prosperity" Lieutenant-Colonel W. B. Greeley, Forester, Forest Service, United States DeiJartment of Agriculture. "Scientific Research and the Submarine Detector" Illustrated talk by Prof. Max Mason, Research Special- ist of the National Research Council. Friday, July 23, 1920 10:00 A. M. General Assembly Agiicultural Hall, University of Wisconsin John Foley, Chairman, Forester, Pennsylvania Railway System. "Some Problems of the Pulp and Paper Industry" D. C. Everest, Secretary and General Manager, Mara- thon Paper JNIills Company. "America's Place in Industrial Research" H. E. Howe, Chairman, Research Extension Division, National Research Council. "Some Probi,ems of the Lumber Industry" W. A. Gilchrist, Member of the Forestry Committee, National Lumber Manufacturers' Association. 12:00 NOON I^UNCHEON Gymnasium, University of Wisconsin 88 The Forest Products Laboratory ADJOURNMENT SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS A Wood-Losing Industries Conference on a National Forestry Policy will be held on July 23 at 2 :00 p. m. in Agricultural Hall, Uni- versity of Wisconsin. All are invited to attend this conference. A meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Wood Preservers' Association will be held on the afternoon of July 22. Deans of Forestry and Engineering Schools will meet the morn- ing of July 24 to consider a curriculum for Forest Engineers. There will be a meeting of the Inter-regional Technical Commit- tee of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association on the morn- ing of July 24. The Venetian Night Regatta of the I^niversity of Wisconsin will be held at the foot of Park street on Lake Mendota on the afternoon and evening of July 23. This is a gala event. A Decennial Record 89 FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY DECENNIAL CELEBRATION Introductory Speech H. F. Weiss, Chairman Friends of the Forest Products Laboratory : Ten years ago the state of Wisconsin, through its university, entered into a cooperative agreement with the Federal Government through its Forest Service to estabhsh an institution for studying the properties of one of our coimtry's great natural resources, namely, timber. We are assembled here today to celebrate the first ten years of work of this institution, to take an inventory of what has been accom- plished, and to interchange views in reference to developing plans for a bigger and better future. I think in these days of higli taxes, whicli may go even higher, it is well for all of us to become much better ac- quainted with our Government, to know what our Government is doing for us. The tendency of tlie time, I think, particularly on the part of Government and industry, is for these two to work too mucli apart, this being due largely to a lack of familiarity with each other. I be- lieve it is particularly necessary for the Government and the indus- tries to cooperate more whole-heartedly if our country is to play a prominent part in the commerce of the world. In the Forest Products Ija})oratory tlie Government has estal)lislied an institution which is doing nuich direct good for all of the wood-using industries and indi- rectly is doing good for all of us, because all of us use wood in some form or other. On behalf of the Celebration Committee I want to tliank each and everyone of you for coming here and for the splendid and loyal sup})ort wliich you have given. Witliout your support this celebration could not have been held. It now gives me great pleasure to present the man m ho stands at the head of the great commonwealth of Wisconsin, which has done so much to make this work in studying forest products a successful real- ity — Governor Pliilip]). 90 The Forest Products Laboratory "LEGISLATIVE MEASURES FOR FOREST CONSERVATION" Emanuel L. Philipp, Governor of Wisconsin Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : In belialf of the state I Avant to bid you welcome, particularly those of you who have come from other states and from other sections of this state to this meeting. It is an important meeting in many ways and one which will result, I am sure, in some good. I welcome you to this great university, the capital, and our state in general; and I hope that when you leave here the j^eople and the surroundings that you have been in will leave a good and lasting impression upon you. To me has been assigned the subject of "Legislative Measures for Forest Conservation". Before I attempt to speak upon that subject, however, I am going to review briefly what I believe to be the waste of forest materials during the nineteenth century. I do this because I was reared in the state of Wisconsin ; I knew something of the timber supply of earlier days; I have been a lumberman, and I am going to speak to you from tlie lumberman's standpoint, not only of the waste in Wisconsin, but of the waste that we have seen in other states, par- ticularly in the South, and the new conditions and the better under- standing that the people no whave of timber values since the^^ began to see it disappear. I think that would better illustrate the necessity of legislation for timber conservation than mere legislative discussion of the subject. The state of Wisconsin, as you all know, had a great timl^er supply. I think back to the sixties when men went to tlie nortliern pineries, bought forty acres of land, and cut around that forty acres for three or four years. That was a common custom. There was so much timber in northern Wisconsin that it was the general belief among our citizens that the supply was inexhaustible. To that sup- ply was added the then only partially-known supply of northern Min- nesota and the great supply in the state of Michigan. There was so much timber to be had and lumber was necessarily so cheap that only the very best qualities could be used and sold for a very common and A Decennial Recokd 91 ordinary purpose. I recall the time out here on the Wisconsin river, where I lived as a small boy, when 1x6x16 fencing had to be free of knots. A farmer would not accept a fence board, a cork pine fence board, that had a knot in it; bridge plank had to be practically clear; and so it was with all the lumber that m as used at that time. You of younger years who have proba})ly had something to do with the wreck- ing of old houses have learned that the "piece-stuff", so called among lumbermen, used in those days was practically clear material. Xow, every lumberman knows that when you can sell only clear lumber there is a tremendous waste that must be left either at the sawmill or in the forest. I want to say at the outset, without any tliought of criticising nature, that nature woidd have been a great conservator of forest products if she had permitted trees to grow square rather than round, })ecause the fact that the log had to l)e square was one of the reasons for great M'aste in those early days. There was no thought of making ami;hing of slabs, and the slab burners of the country have ])een a great enemy of conservation. I do not know, nor does anyone know, how many billions, aye, countless billions, of good material have gone up in the form of heat and smoke througli the slab burner, a perfectly innocent apparatus, so far as that is concerned. I attribute the loss, not to the apparatus itself, but to the market conditions. That part of the log was biu-ned because tliere was no market for it, and the lum- berman was compelled to make whatever the people would buy. Xow. the waste has gone on not only in pine and softwoods but in tlie liardwoods as well. I had some experience in the soutli as a lumberman in the manufacture of hardwood, and I am going to give you a brief review of Avhat I saw tliere and of what is going on not only now, but as far back as the nineties. Prior to the entry of the sawmill in the southern forests, there had ])een a system of timber destruction going on in the South, particularly of the very choicest white oak, that I tliought was a reflection upon this Government. I^arge crews of men in these southern forests were in the business of making what is known as pipe staves. The staves were 60 inches long and from 4 to 6 inches wide, and could be made only of the very best quality of white oak that had a perfectly straight grain. AVhen- ever they found a tree with a winding grain they had to leave it, be- cause thev could not use a crooked stick. The system was this : Thev 92 The Forest Products Laboratory made arrangements with the owner, paying, as a rule, $2.00 per tree, to cut any tree in the forest that was over 30 inches in diameter — I may say any white oak tree. They cut it, and cut off tlie first bolt. If it did not split perfectly straight, they went away and left the tree to rot in the forest. By that system no doubt billions of feet of splendid white oak were left to waste in the woods. Every sawmill today util- izes the tree up to the point where the large limbs appear, or as far into the top as you can possibly use it to make a board of any kind. Now, they took out of the forests of the South the most beautiful, the best, clear white oak, which today would be worth countless millions of dollars, and which they sold for $2.00 a tree. I don't know what one would have to pay today if one went out to buy it. Gum as far back as 1900 had practically no value. I started a sawmill in the Yazoo Delta in 1892. I sawed enough so-called red gum to build our plant and our tramways, and I sawed possibly 100,000 feet more than we actually needed. I though I could sell it. I could not give it away. Finally I sold it to the planters for $1.00 a load to get it out of the yard. The same may be said of white ash. There was a splendid growth of what was commonly known as cane ash. It was slaughtered for one purpose or another and was sold or practically given away. It was used largely for mechanical purposes and would ]}e a valuable timber if we had it today. The history of hickory is rather interesting to the lumberman. I remember when southern hickory with the wide, broad, redheart, or what we lumbermen used to call shellbark hickory, had no value at all. Everj^body wanted what was called second growtli hickory from Indiana and Ohio. About 1900, people's notions changed in that re- gard, because the supply of hickory was about exhausted. They be- gan to saw and use shellbark hickory; and about this time I imagine the market was glad to take even that kind of hickory. The poplar tree had the same history. As long as poplar was available you could not sell cottonwood at any price. I recall when so-called boxboards sold for $12 per thousand f. o. b. Memphis. Standing cottonwood was worth 60 cents a thousand. The supply is exhausted. Cottonwood has gone, and now they have come to gum; and it is truly unfortunate that so many countless billion feet of gum, that beautiful, splendid tree, have gone to waste before we began to appreciate its value. The planters of the South destroyed it. They A Decennial Record . 93 i^irdled it, left it standing for a year or two, and then set it on fire. It was in their way. The timbernien went hy, fortunately, where the wood was still standing. The gum tree that was neglected back in the nineties is now being put to practical use and has direct commer- cial value. That was due to the fact that so much timber of a better quality was available during those years, and at a cheaper price, that the people refused to use the poorer qualities of timber at any price Avhatever. It is unfortunate for the country and unfortunate for the timber supply of the country that there was not some control, even back in the sixties and seventies when the great timber supply was here; that there was not some supervision that compelled the use of what we at that time regarded as the class of timljcr that had no commercial ^-alue for purposes to which it could be put and save the high-grade timber — the timber that we need so much today — for the future. But somehow our forefathers did not foresee it. We will not blame them for it. It is not a nice tiling to speak ill of those who went before us. We do not mean it that way, but we can express regret that no form of intelligent supervision M^as undertaken at that time. I am sure that many billions of dollars' worth of beautiful timber that was slaughtered for nothing might have been saved for the benefit of future generations. We have reached tlie point now where we appreciate that. I believe that all thinking men appreciate the fact that the question of a timl)er supply for the future has resolved itself into a serious propo- sition. It is true that we are using now what we left in years gone by. AV^e are using now even the despised hemlock that you could not give away in the early days. Xobody Avould look at it. It was not good ))uilding material in the ])ast. It may ])e the best we have now, but, compared with what we used to have, it is not good ; nevertheless, we have to use it. That is becoming exhausted, however, little by little, and in the course of time the liemlock will })e in the same situation that the cork pine was in, a magnificent supply when we started, but completely exhausted. Now, what shall we use as a substitute for hemlock? I do not know. We shall have to find some ornery tree that we would not use in the past and do not care for now, but it will answer the purpose and will look better wlien ^ve need it. 9-i The Forest Products Laboratory How much more could be said upon the question of the timber that has disappeared. Let us consider wahiut, if you please, for a while. There was a time, as most of you know, several older people tell us and younger people have read it, that they built rail fences in Indiana and Ohio of walnut. Now they are digging out the stumps of what was left, veneering it for covering for pianos and beautifid furniture. The walnut log is about as scarce as a gold mine now. There is very little left indeed. There is a small supply left in Okla- homa that is so far away from transportation that one could not afford to handle it. White oak is becoming very scarce. I had in my day a wide experience in the manufacture of white oak, and I felt that I was quite conversant with the supply throughout the United States. I made a study of it at that time. A man might offer mo any price today that he chooses in asking me to furnish a sawmill where I could supply him with, say 100,000,000 feet of white oak in the next ten years; I should have to tell him frankly, I would not know where to go. By white oak I mean the kind that can be used for finish, the kind that we used to regard as merchantable white oak during the days when we actually had a supply. Xow there enters into this question the tie supply for railroads. There is still quite a lot of white oak available along the Ohio river, some in the mountains of Tennessee, some in the state of Mississippi ; and as you go on through the Soutli you will find a little patch of white oak here and there that the planter has refused to cut down because of some sentiment connected with it or because he wanted to keep it for ornamental purposes. You will find in Arkansas little patches and stands of timber that the lumberman has gone through which he left because the trees could not be used for ties and merchant- able timber. Vast quantities of ties in this country are being made of hemlock and other softwoods, and the railroads are getting along with what years ago they thought they could not use. The hemlock is going and so are the other woods that they are using, and finally some other material must be substituted. But to get at what I was asked to speak about. What are we going to do to better conserve our forests, our timber supply; and what kind of legislation should be enacted to do that? The people of this country are not agreed upon this subject. In fact, it is one of oin- peculiarities that we are never quite agreed upon any subject. A Decexxial Record 95 and there was never greater evidence of that than now. However, this state has had some experience in reforesting. We have attempted, and we have made an honest attempt, to rephuit some of oiu- cut-over timberlands. Now, I have this to say about it. As a state pohcy it is not a possible thing today. The cost of the land, the cost of planting, the cost of the care that the plant needs, the taxes that the state loses provided it reserves this land for forestry purposes, make the price, if we compute it up to the time tliat the trees might have become merchantable, so high as to make it an impracticable thing. Xor is it, in my judgment, a state duty. Let us assume that the state of Wisconsin would plant in the northern part of our state a million acres of young pine. I do not know what it would cost to do it, nor does anyone else know. The best we could do is to make an estimate which would be liable to be wrong, but we would have to wait at least 50 years before we could get any merchantable tim])er. Xow. when that timber comes into the market it is not for the state of Wisconsin alone. If it were, it would not be a supply for the country, and what we need is a supply for the whole nation. So, then, those who^ agitate that the state ought to undertake reforestation would do it upon the basis that it is a state duty merely ])ecause we at one time had a forest, and that these states that at one time had forests shoidd now undertake this great business proposition, this great speculative investment, in order that the whole country might have a timber supply. That does not appeal to me. It is not a state duty, it is a national duty. The national government should recognize it promptlv and take hold of the future supply in an efficient manner. The timber supply of the futiu-e, the one which is produced, shoukl ])e the supply of the entire country, and whatever it costs should be the expenditure of all of the people. There are many states in the Union that have never had any forests. Why sliould they come in on a timber supply that costs them nothing? Xo private citizen, I am sure, would like to invest his money in an enterprise tliat coidd not possibly, under the most favorable circum- stances, give him any returns in less than 50 years. If we go into national production of linrdwoods. why, we have to wait perhaps as much as 100 years. In my experience as a lum])erman I cut an oak tree in Missis- sippi that was 7G inches in diameter, 52 feet to the first limb. It had 96 The Forest Products Laboratory 352 rings, and if we assume that each ring represents a year's growth, and no one has been wilhng to say that it represents any less than one year, then the minimum age of that tree was 352 years. That would have been a long time investment. So it would be with the hardwoods we plant ; and it is not for the state of Wisconsin alone to wait, but the nation should wait. It can afford to because it is for the general good. Now, I would recommend to Congress, if I were to recommend an}d:hing and they were willing to listen, that they provide for the purpose millions of acres of land, not merely cut-over lands, not merely land that produces perhaps scrubby timber, whatever kind it is, but some good agricultural land with it that will produce the hard- woods. We all know, w^ho have had experience in the forest, that the oak and ash and the other hardwood timbers that we must have for mechanical purposes are not going to grow on a sand heap. They need good soil. The nation must sacrifice some good agricultural soil if it proposes to be a successful timber raiser. The government should provide the land and set it aside for that particular purpose. It should firmly stand against the demands of the agriculturist and say to the people that this land must be used for tliis particular pur- pose, that it is just as important to raise this crop as any other crop. It should be the rule in the future that whenever a tree is cut down a tree should be planted in its place, and that another tree be planted w^herever there is room to produce one. And then we must look after the crop of trees. We must protect it against destruction by fire, against trespassers, etc. Unless we go into the problem in an intelhgent and practical way, of course, the whole project will be a failure. So then, those of us who are interested in the reproduction of the forest, and who appre- ciate that we must begin it now, ought to do our work not in the States, because I think it is useless, but go to the halls of Congress and im- press Congress with the importance of this work. The lumbermen of this country, perhaps, have the best conception of the value of timber and its fast disappearance. As an organization interested in replacing what they have cut down, interested in putting back the trees they have taken to the mill and sawed into lumber, they should go to Congress and impress Congress with the importance of the subject, in order to get the necessary appropriation and the nee- A Decexnial Recokd 97 essaiy legislation to go into this question of reproducing our forests in an intelligent way. Unless Me do that we shall soon be out of timber. Talk about reforesting the arid lands of the West I Now, fellow citizens, I do not know all about that, but it does seem to me that a section of the country or a land that never produced anything more than a little scrub sugar pine will never i^roduce anything else. If the country must wait for that kind of timber culture, I am afraid we will find ourselves very much out of lumber in the future. That type of land which does not produce an\i:hing left to itself, where natin-e has not planted the seed and produced it, that is not going to do any- thing under cultivation. It has no moisture, and there is nothing in the soil that will make it grow. It is so in our own state. We have sections here in Wisconsin that never raised good timber. There is nothing substantial in the soil to support the tree. It raises scrub stuff, scrub pine, Jack pine, and other pines of that variety. You must wait 50 years for that. So we must make up oin- minds that we must set aside soil that has substance enough in it to support a tree; otherwise we cannot have it. I want to say in conclusion that I fully approve and have been in great sympathy witli the work of tlie Forest Products Laboratory. Its business has been to find new uses for timber that heretofore have not been considered satisfactory for any particular use. It has ren- dered a great service in that respect. It has also found many Avays to use what was heretofore regarded as absolute waste around and about the sawmill. It was high time that somebody devoted some time to that, and in that respect whatever they have accomplished has been of real use. We must conserve, if you please, everything there is in a tree that can be used. You cannot throw away a six incli slab; you have got to make some use of it. They say of the packer that he makes use of every part of the hog excepting the squeal. We must make use of every part of the tree excepting tlie noise it makes wlien it falls. There must be a real spirit of conservation produced among our people; they shoidd be able and willing to use everAi:hing tliat is usable. The timber of today ought to be cut and used with reference to the use that it is to be put to. We should under no circumstances be permitted to use a good pine board, for instance, for a meat box that renders serv- 98 The Forest Products LaboRxVtory ice but once and then goes into the furnuce. That should no longer be permitted. Whether we can do that, whether we can regulate our lumber supply to that extent, I can not say, but it m ould be a right step towards conservation. You know what we really need some- times is a king; we need a lumber king anyway, a man who could tell the people to do with what they have and compel them to do it. If we had that privilege we could conserve what we have. I thank you for your time and I trust you will have a pleasant visit. llcniarlxs hy the Chairman, Mr. H. F. Weiss, FoJlcncing Governor Philipp's Speech I venture to say that you gentlemen who are from our sister states wish you could have a G overnor who understands the forestry program and problems as well as our Governor. That is just the way we do things in Wisconsin. (Applause.) Governor Philipp, I thank you for your splendid talk. In connection with every business organization there are two words used which I have seldom, if ever, seen applied to an educational in- stitution. They are "quality" and "service". You gentlemen who are engaged in business know full well to what I refer. The hours that you have spent and are spending in improving the quality of yoiu* product and the splendid service which your company renders are things which you are interested in. If these terms were to be applied to an educational institution, I know of none which lay better claims to them than the University of Wisconsin. The high quality of the University's m ork is reflected not only in the faculty and its teachers, but in the great student body which it sends out every year. The high ideals of the University are not locked up in the text books nor in the class rooms, but in this State they reach out to the shop, to the factory, and to the legislature. I think one of the biggest surprises of my life was when I first came to Wisconsin from my old home in Xew Jersey and saw farmers of fifty or more years of age walking down the streets of Madison with a text book under their arms, studying agriculture. This variety of farmer was totally unknown to me, and was not existent in the range bounded by the State of New Jersey. Through my years of A Decexxial Record 99 living here it has })een very evident to me why the Wisconsin farmer is able to make his farm pay while my old farmer friends in New Jersey are still paying for the mortgage on their farms. I think the Forest Products Laboratory is particularly fortunate in being identified with such an institution as the University of Wis- consin, because it furnishes an inspiring example of not only how to gain knowledge, but, of ^vhat is of equally great importance, how to aj^ply that knowledge. It gives me great pleasure to present to you the man who stands at the head of this great seat of learning — President Birge. A Decennial Record 101 TRAXSLATIXCx KXOWI.KDGE INTO POAVER E. A. Birf/c, President of the Vniversitii of Wiseousiu Mr. Weiss and ^lenibers of this Convention : I suppose that I have been asked to speak here in two capacities. In tlie first pLace, I address you as a representative of the University, whose guests you are in some sense today, since you are meeting with us in the University College of Agriculture. We meet to celebrate the completion of the first ten years of the life of an institution which was estabhshed by the government of the United States in coopera- tion with the State and the University of Wisconsin. It is an insti- tution to whose prosperity and work tliis State has continued to make contributions, small, indeed almost negligible, in comparison to the total budget of the institution, negligible in comparison to that con- tribution of the United States government. Nevertheless, they have been contributions which carried with them the hearty good will of the State and of tlie University. And we hope that we have also contrib- uted something of the spiritual aid and fellowship MJiich a university can give to an institution of research. We, ourselves, have received much from the presence of the laboratory with us, and we hope that we have been able, in our turn, to give something to it. So I welcome you, as representing an institution of the type which ought to gather about universities, carrying on work of a kind which is represented within the university as well as in its associated institutions. I wel- come you witli especial warmth as you are present here to celebrate a decade of distinguished success in services and investigations so fundamental to the advance of the science and art of forestry. In the second ])lace I am here to speak on the subject assigned to me by ]Mr. Weiss and ^Ir. Winslow — Trauslatinc/ Knoxcledge Into Power. You have just had a most vivid sketch of tlie history of the lumber resources of the country and of their ])resent situation from Governor Philipp, mIio speaks to you not only from the point of view of a statesman, but also from the point of view of one who has spent years in the industry that you represent. You will hear, after I have talked to you, a vivid presentation of the Forest Products Laborator}^ 102 The Forest Products Laboratory itself and its specific work from its director, iNIr. AVinslow. So, if I interpret rightly the subject assigned to me, I am expected to sand- Avich. as it were, ])etween tliese two vivid and interesting stories a little of what might perhaps be called "highbrow stuff", a little of that sort of talk w^hich is supposed to belong to the traditional university. When Governor Philipp was telling us the story of lumber, he spoke of the indift'erence of the last generation to the situation wdth which we are now confronted. It is easy for us now to see that our parents w^ere blind to conditions which the future was sure to bring. I do not believe that we should criticize them too severely for this blindness, for I suppose that our descendants, fifty or a hundred years hence, will look back to us and will w^onder at our blindness just as w^e wonder at the ignorance of our fore-fathers. However blind they may have been, they w^ere not without excuse, for the conditions under which they lived were ^vholly new in the history of the world. Xo pre- ceding century ever saw a growth of population in the least compara- ble with that of the 19th century in Western Europe, and especially in oiu" own country. And still more, no preceding century saw that rapid increase of drafts on natural resources which was characteristic of the 19th century, and especially of its later years. If, therefore, our fathers did not foresee the future, it was because the story of the past by which alone they could conjecture the conditions of the future, did not enable them to foresee them ; and we ought, therefore, not to blame them for ignorance. We, however, are in a totally different position, and if w^e do not foresee and provide for the future it will not be because of ignorance, but because of indifference and slothfulness. In our use of forest products Ave have lieen drawing on the balance of resources which has accumulated during the remote past. We can now see very plainly that in no long time this balance will be exhausted, and that if we draw a check on nature's l)ank, it will be returned to us promptly marked "No funds". The western world has never been in this situation ])efore. It is a wholly new thing that a great peoj^le like ours should be face to face wdth the situation that it must depend for its supply of wood upon the annual growth. It is a new^ thing that a people should be placed in a position where the annual growth of tim- ber wall be the substantial limit of the amount which that people can use. A DecexxixVL Record 103 This situation is not confined to the forest products. In all of those resources which are produced by the earth the same situation is arising or has already come to pass. We can not easily increase the area of j^roductive land or of utilizable water. We must make the annual production of land and water suffice for our needs. As this situation begins to become manifest, we take various measures in order to reduce the depletion of our l)alance in nature's bank; in order also to increase the annual production. We put up restrictions, both legal and moral, upon the use of the products of nature. We go still farther and endeavor to increase the annual income of these productions. We set up fish hatcheries ; we produce improved varieties of seed so that the net increase of the land and water may be made larger and that there may be a greater amount in this annual contribution of the earth to our su^^port; we try to utilize waste — or what we once regarded as waste; we handle the making of coke so that what were formerly waste products are util- ized ; we overliaul the culm bank of the coal mine and we rework the tailings of other mines. In all these ways and in many more we attempt to check the depletion of our natural resources. In the use of forest products we increase our balance, as the Gov- ernor has told us, by employing kinds and varieties and sizes of wood which only a few years ago were regarded as entirely worthless. All of these metliods are necessary and right, and they all help to prolong the period diu-ing which the lialance in natiu-e's bank may be available to us. They aid also in increasing the annual supply of the products which nature is putting forth for our use; but, as the Governor's story showed us, these means are inadequate— inadequate in every direction and particularly inadequate in securing a permanent supply of forest products. This raises the particular point which I was asked to talk about this morning. I am asked to call your attention to another great asset, another great resource of a civilized people, which is being used slightly and very imperfectly, which is continually accumulating, which is capable of very great use; out of which will come great saving and great addition to natural resources and a correspondingly great prolongation and advancement of the prosperity of the people. I am speaking of the stock of scientific knowledge M-hich has accumu- lated diu'ing, let us say, the past half or three-quarters of a century. 104 The Fokest Products Laboratory Look })ack at the condition of science in that earher period to which the Governor referred in his talk about the forests. We cele- brated here in Wisconsin a few weeks ago the fiftieth anniversary of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, founded in 1870. We talked about the men who were the fathers of that Academy. There was Lapham, a surveyor of JNIilwaukee; there was Dr. Hoy. a ])usy phy- sician, in wide practice at Racine. This was the type of man who first brought science to Wisconsin. Fifty years ago, science ^vas mainly in the hands of people busily engaged in other matters; that was true all over this country. Science was a side issue for people whose work and thought were chiefly given to other things. Since that time the situation has changed completely. In those days there were single individuals working at the exploration of nature, many of them doing this as a task for leisure hours: today we have an army of people who are devoting all their time to the exploration of nature and are deriv- ing their living from this work. Thus the knowledge hich these men and women are bringing together, the knowledge which they have been bringing together during the past generation, has been accumu- lating at a rate which one may almost call tremendous. We look with surprise at the rapid increase of population during the past half century ; we look with even greater surprise at the enormous increase of wealth during the same period. But neither of these facts is in any way comparable to the increase of scientific knowledge during the same years. Here, then, is an enormous asset which has been grow- ing rapidly, increasing indeed at a geometric rate, and of which by far the greater portion has accumulated during the memory of men here present. It is an asset whose increase is still going on at a rate which is constantly accelerated. To this asset there are contributing, not merely a few men, not merely a few great men, but the labors of lum- dreds of thousands of men, working each in his own field of explora- tion. This, then, is a new situation in the history of the world. It has made necessary the development of a new type of profession, of a new type of institution. It has made necessary men and institutions who are to mediate between knowledge in this sense of the word and prac- tical life, between scientific knowledge and aff'airs. This situation has brought about the establishment of institutions of various types and in various directions. Such are agricultural colleges and experiment .1 Decennial Record 105 stations; such are institutions like the United States Bureau of Stand- ards ; and such, also, is this institution in whose honor we meet today — the Forest Products Laboratory. It is noteworthy that these institutions have developed to greater size and in greater number in those relations which have to do with the soil and its products. Here we find the largest number of men whose business it is to take the knowledge which has been accumulated by the explorer of nature and to bring it into direct relation with affairs and with human life. Let me take an illustration from the activities of the department of agriculture and outside of the forestry service. Consider for a moment the student of soils. His work is dependent upon the knowl- edge which lias been brouglit together in past years in the department of chemistry, both organic and inorganic; it depends also on knowl- edge which is embodied in the sciences of bacteriology, of botany, of zoology; and in addition to these specific sciences he needs the princi- ples wliich have been wrought out in physics and in many other de- jDartments. The definite work of tlie student of soils is the application of knowledge and of principles which have been wrouglit out else- where. These he takes and applies to the conditions found in the soil. There are two points to be noted in regard to this work. In the first place scientific knowledge can not apply itself, nor can it be directly carried over from laboratory to field. For the conditions under which this knowledge has been wrought out are widely different from those in which it is applied. The student in the laboratory makes his own conditions of experiment, and it is only as lie is able to define and to limit the conditions of nature that he is able to secure the results for which he is seeking. But the student of soils must carry this knowledge over into the world of affairs, into the complex situa- tion which nature offers to us. Knowledge must be set to work under nature and therefore under conditions totally different from those of the laboratory. The material conditions of the soil must be consid- ered, the intelligence of those who are working it, and especially the relation of cost and of profit to the processes which are set up. All of these innumerable items which the scientific explorer neglects, and ought to neglect, must be carefully considered by those who are apply- ing knowledge, since they furnish the conditions under which knowl- 106 The Forest Products Laboratory edge must be set to work, if it is to produce results that are useful to the people. So it is with the Forest Products Laboratory. It is fouuded to bridge over the gap which lies between experiment and manufacturer ; it must bridge the gap between laboratory and factory; in a word, it must bridge over the great gap which lies between knowledge and life, between knowledge and affairs. And this is not all; for it is not a simple matter to set knowledge at work under the conditions of na- ture. The representative of applied science does not merely take knowledge wrought out by others and put it to work under new con- ditions. The knowledge which is present as science is not stated in the form in which it can be used, since the statement does not take into account the complex conditions under which it is to be set to work. The representative of applied science, therefore, does not merely apph/ knowledge to new conditions but he translates that knowledge into those new forms in which alone it can be applied. Thus the subject assigned to me is justified. Tlie function of an institution like the Forest Products Laboratory is primarily the trans- lation of knowledge into new terms and into such forms that it can be set to practical work in affairs. Such a translation involves not merely a knowledge of what other people have found out, but involves also scientific study and research itself. It involves, therefore, not merely an application of old knowledge but the development of a new sort of knowledge; the development of knowledge which will work under conditions which are set not only by the tangled web of nature within whicli it is working, but also by the commercial and social conditions of the men on whom the practical success of applied science must depend. Thus, as you see, out of the enormous increase of knowledge on the one side, out of the need for its application on the other side, there have arisen professions like those which are represented here today, and finally institutions like the Forest Products Laboratory, in which these professions find a home and an opportunity for service. I will not trouble you with many illustrations. I^et me take one or two from the work of the laboratory. It is necessary to find new types of wood and new forms of wood if airplanes are to be quickly and economically constructed. Hence there arises a need for water- proof glue. It would seem at first that such a need could be easily A DkcexxixVL Rfx'okd 107 satisfied. We have only to go into tlie market and purchase what is offered. But as a matter of fact if such an adhesive is to be developed it will only be after scientific study and research which will bring in the accumulated knowledge from half a dozen sciences, and the men who make that research will need high scientific qualifications on their own part. Only thus can a produce be discovered which is worthy to put ])efore the people and a product on which the people of the coun- try can depend. Or take another problem which arises not only in connection with the manufacture of airplanes but in a hundred directions involving the utilization of wood — the matter of kiln-drying. It seems at first a very easy thing to put wood into a kiln and dry it artificially. Yet you know better than I that the man who goes to work on that principle will rather spoil wood than produce good lumber. It is only as the complex conditions and ])roblems involved in kiln-drying are appre- ciated and thoroughly mastered that success is reached. Only as there are scientifically worked out processes by which the different varieties of wood may be treated, each according to its own kind and condition, can success be secured, even in a process which looks at first so simple. And if in such matters as these, which seem to be simple, scientific study and scientific organization are necessary, much more is the same necessity present in the far more complex problems which are involved in the production of paper pulp, in the prevention of de- cay of timber, in the other infinitely varied uses to which timber is put. I need not give you more illustrations, for these are enough to illustrate the principle which underlies the subject assigned to me — the need of institutions like the Forest Products Laboratory, which shall concern tliemselves with the translation of knowledge into power and so shall make available for the lienefit of the public along specific hues the enormously valuable asset whicli the M'orld possesses in the accumulated treasures of science. This necessity the government is trying to meet along one line through the Forest Products Laboratory, an institution which medi- ates between knowledge and affairs. I congratulate the laboratory on the way it lias ])erformed this duty din-ing the ])ast ten years; I congratulate it for the work wliich it lias done itself; I congratulate it as a part of the great working force of the De])artment of Agricul- ture; I congratulate it especially on tlie ])art Avliicli it lias taken here 108 The Fokest Products Laboratory in U^isconsin for our benefit as well as for the benefit of other states, on the part which it has taken in the work which our University on its side is trying to do, not only for its own state, but as a part of the national system of education. But I can not confine what I have to say to a review of the past ten years. Let us look to the future, first looking back to an earlier day. Look back, if you please, to 187G. when the L^nited States cele- brated its first centennial. How did we look at the forest resources of AYisconsin at that time? Xow look forward to the next centennial in 1976 and tell me what will be the situation then and what the neces- sity for institutions like the Forest Products Laboratory? We need not indeed look backward and forward so far. Look back less than twenty-five years to the state semi-centennial in 1898 and look forward to the centennial of the state. How have our forests disappeared in less than a quarter of a century; what will be their condition less than thirty years from noM% in 1948, in a ^^ear when the large majority of those who are here this morning will take part in the centennial cele- bration of the state? Upon what will the prosperity of this state de- pend at a period so short a time ahead of us as thirty years? Will it not be dependent upon the greatly enlarged work and success of insti- tutions — of the Forest Products Laboratory and of other institutions akin to it; and upon the intelligent and vigorous utilization, by the people, of the results that they work out? The scientific knowledge ^vhich has accumulated in the past, and which will accumulate with even greater rapidity during the coming years, must be translated into terms of power by men who make it their profession so to treat knowledge and by institutions which are established for the pin-pose of setting knowledge to work in affairs. This they must not do in any rule-of-thumb way, not by means of prescriptive rules ; but they must convert knowledge into the living and growing contribution of the human mind to the prosperity of the human race ; they must translate the knowledge gained l)y the explorer of natin-e into the power of applied science. Rcmarlxs by Mr. Weiss FoUoxcing President Birge's Speech I hope very much that those of you who have come from out of the city may find it possible to stay in Madison long enough to look A Decennial Recokd 109 also into the work of the University of Wisconsin and to see for your- selves the way in which the university has heen translating its knowl- edge into i^ower along the lines which President Birge has so kindly pointed out to us in his very interesting talk. I do not helieve his talk was at all too "higlibrow" for the friends of the laboratory, as I am personally acquainted with many of them and know tliey can grasp it and digest it. I thank you, President Birge. We now come to what I might call the third layer of this sand- wich, as President Birge has pointed it out, and it has been somewhat of a ])roblem for me to know Avhat to say in the way of presenting him. He does not need any introduction. I have not been able to talk about his work or his institution because he is going to do that; and I cannot talk alxnit liim personally because I know liim too well for that, and, furtliermore, it would be rather unfair for me to take ad- vantage of his natural modesty. So, after thinking it over, I have decided I would follow the advice I once saw written on the black- board of our laboratory. It said. "When in deep Mater keep your mouth shut." I am now going to state that we will have the pleasure of listening to the man who lias worked so loyally and ably to make the Forest Products La])oratory the institution you will see today, and, of course, that refers to none otiier than C. P. Winslow, best known to all his personal friends as "Cap". A Decennial Record 111 THE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY Carlilc P. IVinsIozc, Director, Forest Products Lahoratorij ]Mr. Chairman, Toadies and Gentlemen: It affords me a great deal of pleasure — more than I can really well express to you- — to extend to you a most cordial and hearty wel- come to this commemoration of the completion of the first ten-year j)eriod of service of the Forest Products Laboratory. I wish particu- larly to ex])ress my appreciation of the work and efforts of the Decen- nial Committee which has planned and arranged for this event, to those friends and supporters of the laboratory who by their generous con- tributions have made it ])ossible, and to all of you here who are thus lending your support and encom-agement to the organization. I am ])articularly appreciative of the untiring and effective efforts of the Chairman of the Committee, ^Ir. Howard F. Weiss, known to all of you in pre\'ious days wliile Director of the Laboratory, and I can only regret that ]Mr. ^IcGarvey Cline, the first Director of the organization, has found it impossible so to arrange his plans that he could also be here. It was my good fortune to work first under the stimulating guidance of these men when the Forest Products Labora- tory was but a thought, and it is due to their imagination, foresight, and persistence that the laboratory was conceived, organized and put upon an effective working basis. Rudyard Kipling once wrote: "Twelve himdred million men are spread About this Earth, and I and you Wonder, when you and I are dead, What will those luckless millions do?" If we change the closing lines of this stanza to read: "and I and you, AVonder. M'hen all the trees are gone, What will those luckless millions do?" 112 The Forest Products Laboratory the kindly sarcasm of tlie Kipling humor disapx^ears, and we are con- fronted with a question of vast importance for our consideration and action. The importance of the broad problem would possibly be more sharply recognized if we view the situation from a somewhat less altru- istic and international standpoint and consider only the TOO million people within the borders of the United States. Consider for a moment the extent to which forest products enter into the comforts, conveniences and pleasures of many, if not all, of this vast multitude of peoi^le. You rise in the morning from your wooden bed and walk about on the wooden floor of your wooden home; you bathe with soap probably containing or produced in part with a product from wood, annoint your face with a lotion containing alcohol very likelv pro- duced from wood paste, put on your hose manufactin-ed from M-ood libre, step into your leather slioes requiring tannin from wood for their manufacture, and then proceed to breakfast where you sit upon a wooden chair, in front of a wooden table and read the daily news from a paper made of wood pulp, printed with ink manufactured from a forest product, and received over telegraph lines supported by wooden poles. If reasonably prosperous, you now journey to your office in an automobile with wooden spokes in the wheels, probal)ly travel at least part of the way over a M^ooden pavement and finally settle yourself in your office surrounded by wooden trimmings and furniture and dig into the daily letters and reports which are again dependent upon the supply of wood pulp paper. If, by chance, you have occasion to travel to Madison to attend the celebration of the Forest Products Laboratory you board a wooden railroad car (or at least one made to appear like wood) and travel over tracks supported by wooden cross-ties. The food which you eat, the clothes which you wear, the materials and supplies necessary for the comforts of your home and the conduct of your business, all are received in containers, some of wood and some of fibre but practically all of forest products. These accustomed comforts and privileges of existence are de- pendent upon a very wide variety of industries, dependent to greater or less degree upon forest products. These supply useful and neces- sary occupation to some million or more people. They include twenty per cent of the 276,000 manufacturing plants in the country. A Decexxial Record 113 The future of these varied and tremendous industries is depend- ent upon a supply of raw material — their ultimate and greatest suc- cess dependent upon the wise selection and most efficient handling of this raw material. This means that authentic knowledge of the prop- erties of the material and how to most efficiently utilize them is, in the long run, essential to their continuation on a sound economic basis. These considerations inevitably lead us to the forests, and here again we are confronted with a demand and necessity for knowledge of the properties and possible uses and utilization of the many avail- able species. Without it, it is impossible to know which trees to cut or which to grow, what is their value, how best to utilize them, or what to do with the enormous quantity of waste material. It was such broad conceptions as these that led to the development of the Forest Products Laboratorv which was established in 1910 by the Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Universit}- of Wisconsin. Federal appropria- tions maintain the organization and provide necessary supplies and equipment. The University provides the buildings and light, heat and power, at least within certain limitations. It is a pleasure to be able here to express to the President, Board of Regents and members of the University Faculty my appreciation of the whole-hearted and effective cooperation which has been so generouslv extended to the laboratory througliout its existence. This was of particualar value and importance during the war emergency period, when the expan- sions in our organization made it necessary to utilize in part or in whole some eight additional University buildings. I wish to make particular acknowledgment to the College of Agrieidture, whose buildings were not only largely used by our organization during tlie war but several of which are still in use for this purpose. The Forest Products Laboratory is called an institution of indus- trial research. Its object is to acquire, disseminate and apply useful knowledge of tlie properties, uses, and methods of utilization of all forest products. This is a broad field of almost unlimited scope — the surface lias, as yet, been but partially scratched. It has been said that research is primarily a matter of men "who work upon the frontiers of knowledge, conquering new domains". Re- search may be done — as a matter of fact is done — individually, sepa- rately, disconnectedly, and progress of some sort will, undoubtedly, 114 The Forest Pkoducts Laboratory result. But to organize, correlate, co-ordinate and direct such effort must, in the long run, bring greater progress, in less time, with less exi^ense, and greater saving. This has been the guiding thought in the development of the Forest Products Laboratory — the systematic acquiring of useful knowledge that may be transformed into the power that builds up American industries. With the exception of a similar and much smaller institution in Canada, it is the only institution of its sort in existence. However, the importance of such work is becoming gen- erally and, in fact, internationally recognized. The Australian gov- ernment now has under way the development of a forest products laboratory and similar developments are under way by the British government in India, and, to a very limited extent, in South Africa. Former members of our staff have, within the year, left to take up such work in these countries. Norway also has similar plans under devel- opment although they have not, as yet, progressed as far as in Aus- tralia and India. AVork of this character requires the services of highly trained specialists along widely varying lines. The forester's knowledge of tree gro^\i;h is necessary to the engineer studying the mechanical prop- erties of various trees in order that he may wisely select for study those species which are or may l)ecome available for use; the engineer's knowledge is necessary to the physicist engaged in problems of drying wood in order that the effect of such treatment on the mechanical prop- erties may not be overlooked ; the pathologist's knowledge is necessary )>oth to the engineer and physicist in order to determine the effect of decay on the properties under investigation and equally is his knowl- edge necessary to the chemist pursuing his work on the development of durable water-resistant glues, on preservatives to prevent decay, and on prevention of decay in pulp wood and wood pulp. The knowl- edge of the dendrologist is necessary to all in order that the identity of the species under study may be determined witli certainty and in order that peculiarities of their structural anatomy may not be over- looked. An organization of such men provided with proper equipment, materials and facilities for Avork cannot, in the long run, fail to secure results of value. It is such an organization that we have attempted to develop here. I shall make no attempt, at this time, to describe it A Dkckxxiaj, Kecokd 115 in further detail. You will, this afternoon, get a first hand compre- liensive idea of its present seo]je. Suffice it to say that prior to 1917 it composed a personnel of approximately 80, expanding during the next 18 months to 500 and at present including slightly less than half that number. The aggregate expenditures over the entire ten-year period are in the neighl)orhood of two million dollars a yearly average of about $200,000. This is but an insignificant sum when the breadth of the field and magnitude of the problems are considered. The re- sults of much of the work cannot, of course, be (pioted in dollars and cents. Certain otlier results, however, enable the use of such a yard measure, and a few of them will, I am sure, serve to convince you that organized industrial research is a ])aying proposition. For example: The Ijuilding and construction trade uses annu- ally ai)})r()ximately five and one-half billion feet for structural pur- poses where strength is important. This material is worth roughly $200,000,000. Investigations at the Forest Products Laboratory on the mechanical i)roperties of American woods have given knowledge permitting a twenty per cent increase in allowable working stresses in many structural timbers. If the results arc actually ap])lied to only ten ])er cent of such material, the annual saving will equal $4,000,000. The claims for loss and damage to commodities in shipment actu- ally ])aid by the railroads amount to $100,000,000 annually. Proper nailing. develo])ed and recommended ])y the Forest Products Labora- tory, and a(l()])tc(l ])y tlie National Association of Box Manufactiu'- ers, and through them by many companies and shi])pers. if conserva- tively estimated to save but one ])er cent of tliis loss, means a total saving of $1 ,000.000 a year. AVork on water-resistant glues and plywood for airplanes carried on at the laboratory during the war emergency alone saved the War Department $().()00.000 in their procurement of such material during a twelve months ])eriod. Investigations carried on at tlie laboratory during tlie ])ast year regarding the use of liuU fiber and second cut cotton linters for pulp and paper have made available 200,000 tons for this purpose and have resulted in the establishment of large plants with potential production of 300 tons per day and an annual sales value of $15,000,000. 116 The Forest Products Laboratory Improved methods of turpentining de\'eloped by the Forest Service resulted in increased yields and less in jury to timber with net savings aggregating $4,000,000 per year. These few examples alone show combined annual increase in production and decrease in waste aggregating $30,000,000. They should serve to crystallize for you tlie value and im]:)ortance of indus- trial research. Results, of coiu'se. cannot be obtained over night. Patience is required and efforts are not always quickly crowned Avitli success — but it cannot be doubted that over any reasonable period of years, economies resulting from organized research so greatly exceed the expense involved that there can be no question of its desirability. The lumber and wood-using industries represent some of the greatest and most important manufacturing and industrial develop- ments of the country. Of the nation's industries they rank second in invested capital, first in labor employed, and second in annual value of products. The Forest Products Laboratory is the only institution of organized research engaged upon the problems of these industries, and those problems yet imtouched and imex]dored are many and of far reaching importance. What, for example, of the possibilities which may result from the de\xlopment of permanently durable and waterproof glues or adhesives and their application to the use of material too small or of too poor a grade for other service — what of their application to forest economics through the increased value thus given to small second groA\i:h material? Wliat of the sul])Jiite-pulp liquor problem involving the ])ossibility of utilizing the 55 per cent of the wood fed into the pulp digesters and now lost in the w aste sul- phite liquors? What of the problems of packing, boxing, and crating of various materials and commodities for shipment and transporta- tion when conservative estimates sliow a possible theoretical annual saving to the country- of three hundred million dollars ( What of the need for improvement and the method of treatment and handling of piling and dock timbers in Avater infested with marine borers which destroy the piling w^ithin 18 months after placement and cause an annual replacement aggregating millions of dollars in the various harbors of the nation? What of the waning supply of hardwoods and the need for authentic knoM'ledge of the properties of South American and other foreign woods as compared to those of our own country for which they may ultimately be needed as substitutes? A Decexxial Record 117 Slight progress and success applied to only a small per cent of even the limited field above suggested, will result in annual savings greater than the total expenses for the entire Forest Products Lab- oratory for the past ten-year period. Such savings, of course, will not result only from research within the confines of the laboratory; but will necessitate the dissemination and application of these results in industrial service. Your help is particularly needed in this phase of the work. NEW BOXES FOR OLD— SOME WAR TIME BOX WORK OF THE LABORATORY Trench Mortar Shell Boxes 4.7 Inch Shell Boxes U. S. Army Rifles Box Browning Automatic Rifles Box A Decennial Record 119 IXTRODl CTORY SPEECH Burr fV. Jones, Toastmaster Yoii had an opportunity today to witness an exhibition such as you would not find any other place on the face of the globe. It is true that several ])eople have imitations of oiu' laboratory. They have one in Canada; they have one in Australia; Great Britain has started two or three in far off India and Africa; but none of them can offer such an exhibition or compare with such an exhibit as you have seen today. This was the original Forest Products Laboratory. For some time it was the only one. It had a very modest beginning — several gentlemen worked here in two or three rooms out in Wingra Park. They corresj^onded with some others in other parts of the country. Some of the wise men in Washington — there are always a few wise men in Washington — be- came interested, and our Board of Regents, who were always pro- gressive, became interested; and it was finally arranged, as you heard today, that the Regents would erect a building and that the govern- ment at AVashington would furnish the money to maintain it. So the work went on. We here in ^Madison did not hear very nuich about it until we got into the Avar, and then we began to hear a good deal. We used to hear that the government had recognized its child and appreciated the great service M'hich the Forests Products I>aboratory could render. They had a comparatively small number of men on the force, but dur- ing the war they had five or six hundred. Instead of one building which they had occupied they then occupied the most of nine or ten, and they were aiding the government in many ways. I suppose that the human mind can hardly conceive of the vast amount of shipping which it was necessary for our government to begin to send over the seas. I can best illustrate it perhaps by the incident of the boy M'ho was told by his teacher to find out from his father what a million dollars meant. The boy went to his father and asked him. The father was rather amused and interested at the pre- cocity of his boy and answered, not very prudently, "A million del- 120 The Forest Products Laboratory lars! A million dollars is a hell of a lot." The boy gave his teacher this valuable information in the language of his father, and the boy got a licking. Now this illustrates in a waj^, in somewhat emphatic language it describes, the vast amount of material which our government had to send across the seas. They came to this laboratory for advice. I sup- pose that those who originated the idea never dreamed that this insti- tution out here would be aiding our great government, in a war with the great nation of Germany, to send bej^ond the seas such articles as munitions, rifles, and all kinds of accessories of war. Yet, such was the fact. At this time we began to hear about the work of the lab- oratory. We began to hear, and have heard ever since, that while it has been in existence, hundreds of men have come here. Several hun- dred men from the great industries have come to take their short courses of instruction. Such companies in the United States as the General Electric, the Western Electric, and many others of the great corporations have sent their representatives here to learn something which would aid them in carrying on their practical work. The liberal representation of lumbermen, those interested in manufactures, here today illustrates their view of the importance of this work. I listened today to Dr. Birge and Governor Philipp, and I heard Mr. Winslow talk a little about the work which had been done here. I talked a little with him before, and I talked with Mr. Weiss, and it seems to me that they are the two most modest fellows I ever saw. Why, as Mr. Winslow made his speech today, telling in liis modest, quiet way of the work of this institution, if he had been followed by one of those orators (properly coached, and told what ought to be said), one of the orators from the Chicago Convention— the Repub- lican Convention — or the San Francisco Democratic Convention, with his foghorn voice and his swinging arms, I don't know what we might have done. We might have gathered in processions and wrapped the flag around Mr. Weiss, Mr. Winslow, Governor Philipp and Presi- dent Birge, but it has not been the method of the laboratory to indulge in that kind of publicity. Now we are going to hear from a gentleman presently who knows not only about the work of this institution, but about forestry in gen- eral. When I was a lad living on the old farm I mistrust that if any- one said to a group of farmers that it would be a good thing to send A Decennial Record 121 fellows to a college to learn about forestry he would have been ridi- culed. They would all have felt that there was no need of sending a man to college to learn to split rails, or cut saw-logs ; but we have one here tonight, a real forester, Avho has been in college, and the account that I may give of him sounds like a fairy tale — reared in California, educated at the State University, then at Yale, he first took control of forest matters in the Appalachians, was then called back to the Sequoia forest, then to the great forests of Montana and Idaho, then to Washington, and hke so man}' of our other patriotic college men, he was called to France. First he was called upon to aid in recruiting twenty thousand foresters. I imagine when Alexander, Caesar, and Bonaparte carried on their wars they did not recruit foresters, but this gentleman who is to talk tonight did. He went over to France, and there in the forests of France he ran sawmills and he ran the lumber- jacks, and helped win the war. He came back and is now connected with the government forestry service, the Chief of the Forest Service. I take great pleasure in introducing Colonel Greeley. NOTABLE DECENNIAL, FIGURES DIRECTOR C. P. WINSLOW. FORESTER W. B. GREELEY, FORMER DIRECTOR H. F. WEISS A Dkcexxial Record 123 FORESTS AND XATIOXAI. PROSPERITY WiUiam B. Grcclct/, Forester, U. S. Forest Service This inorniiig when I entered the hotel and approaehed the gen- tleman in charge of the check rooms he pointed to a group of gentlemen in the lohhy wearing this little white ribhon and said, "Be this the imdertakers' convention f I said, "Xo, sir, this is a convention of woodusers." Then, "Well, them undertakers use lots of wood." So I think ^Ir. Winslow should have capped the climax by referring to the wooden coffin in Avhich most of us hope to repose our weary bones after the game has been played to the last goal. Someone has suggested to me that I am supposed to make a key- note speech tonight. I know that keynote speeches are popular pastime this summer, but I want to assure you that I have no keynote ambitions. In fact, judging from the experience that I have just come from — I think the very last speech I made prior to this — I come to you in a very humble frame of mind. I was talking to a group of ranchers, road builders, etc., out on one of our Colorado forests. We M'ere talking about timber, the resources of that region, and I got up })efore them with a good deal of enthusiasm and talked a])out what the Forest Service was going to do, what we were going to do with onr timber, with our water power, our grazing lands, etc., and really, I suppose gave the impression that I possibly was the sole owner and dictator of tliis vast public domain. Well, after the ceremonies were over one of the old-timers, a man who had grown up in that country since early boyhood, in the audience approached me. The "my" and "our" in my speech had not set just right on the old man's system. He said, "Young fellow, your talk sounded to me a little bit like the time when tlie devil took our Eord and blaster up on high mountain and showed liim all tlie domains of the Avorld and said that all of those should ])e his if he would cmly do what Mr. Devil said, and the durned old coot did not own a single acre of it." There is no occasion for keynote speeches. The things that have brought us together are the simple fundamental things and the sort of 124 The Forest Products Laboratory things that we should approach in the hght of sober, every-day, well- known truth. These are days when the whole world is being reconstructed. The stage is set for a new era in international relations and industrial com- petition. The times make it worth while to consider some of the things Avhich in the new rivalry of w^orld progress M'ill make nations strong. We hear much about the oil fields of the world and how tlie industrial control of the harrassed old planet will lie with the people who control the bulk of its crude oil. Yet, oil is but an example of the many raw materials which modern civilization demands. And while keeping a watchful eye upon new and undeveloped sources of raw material, surely we must not overlook the resources which nature has put in our own hands. Many of us who served in France were able to see at first hand the conditions of life and industry in a country where population has crowded close upon natural resources, w^here for the masses living has become close and hard, and, even to maintain standards of comfort far below what the average American demands, a degree of thrift and fru- gality beyond our comprehension must be constantly employed. In France wood is a commodity of a totally different character from what it has been in the United States. Even with the care and intelligence applied unremittingly to French forests, lumber is priced as an im- jjorted luxury. Xo one can become familiar with that country without appreciating how this fact handicaps the comfort of living and the industrial opportunities of the French nation. The gleaning of the forests for little fagots, the very scaffolds used in city building, which are made out of small poles carefully lashed together and used over and over again, tell the story. With all their beauty and picturesque- ness, the rural districts of France often leave an impression of decad- ence. A new structure of any kind is a rare sight and moss-covered stone buildings of the time of Jeanne d'Arc must serve the French farmer of today. Only a people great in industry and foresight could, under such limitations, have built up M^thin an area less than that of our single largest state, the great industrial nation that France is today. The lesson which such things bring home is, in a broad way, the same fundamental truth which underlies many economic problems of A Decennial Record 125 the present time — not alone those of America, but of the whole world as it strives to get back to normal industry. It is an old and simple axiom : Aside from the will to work wliich is the foremost quality of any strong nation, its economic and social progress depends in the iong run upon the foresight and efficiencj^ with wliich its natural resources are used. This is simply an attempt to restate, crudely and partially, tlie conception of national conservation M'liicli was embodied in our pubhc thought and policies by President Roosevelt fifteen years ago. It is the viewpoint of the pubhc welware in the long run Avhich two great leaders, President Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, brought to bear upon our forest resources, our national M^ater powers, and our national deposits of coal and oil. The Forest Products Laboratory at Madi- son, which now completes its first decade, stands as a visible and prac- tical expression of the thought of these leaders in the field of forest conser\-ation. To make the most of our forest resources Mr. Pinchot and his associates foresaw that knowledge of the use of wood must progress hand in hand with the national movement to assure a sufficient supply of this essential raw material. Each had an integral part in forest conservation. It was not enough to create National Forests in wJiich the Federal Government might embark in tlie business of timber production and to assist the private owner in keeping liis woodlands productive. It was equally necessary to build up a practical science of wood use, — to determine how to get the right stick into the right place where its strength or durabihty would count for the most ; how to make one railroad tie do the work of two or three, by prolong- ing its life and service; how to utilize tlie enormous quantities of waste material in our forests and sawmills; how to reduce manufacturing losses and better the methods of employing wood in the infinite number of American industries which require it, from the paper mill to the automobile factory ; and what fresh supplies of wood could be found for this or that industry as old sources of raw material were exhausted. The Forest Products Faboratory M-as built by men who saw that to answer these questions and others like them was as necessary as to stop forest fires; that the wood technician in the factory must supple- ment the woodsman in the forest. And they not only built the Lab- oratory as an efficient unit of itself; they built it into and made it part of one of the most virile and far-sighted movements toward using nat- 126 The Fokest Pkoducts Labokatoky ural resources for national efficiency in the long run tliat the world has ever witnessed. Much in the way of i)ractical forest conservation has been accom- plished by this vigorous and growing movement. One hundred and fiftj'-five million acres of Xational Forests have been established and partially developed for the maximum public service in producing tim- ber and forage and protecting water sources. Some thirty of the states have enlisted in the suppression of forest fires, and in spreading the gospel of wise use of timber-growing land. Aluch has been done in our industries to prolong the life of wood and utilize materials pre- viously wasted. And yet we must recognize today that forestry is still just wdiat President Roosevelt called it fifteen years ago — one of the most important internal problems of the United States. The after- math of the M ar has indeed brought home its magnitude and its seri- ousness much more sharply than any previous event in the history of this country. Consider for a moment our situation today as a people of wood users. The United States at this moment is short at least one million homes. In comparison with the need, new dwellings are being con- structed at a snail's pace because of the high cost of lumber, other building materials, and of labor. From the shortage of homes arise exorbitant rents, crowded living conditions, and lowered standards of comfort and family life. The average farm in the United States needs about two thousand board feet of luml)er every year for new buildings and improvements. Because the average farmer can not o])tain lum- ber at prices within his reach, farm development is handicapped and the efficiency of agriculture suffers. This is a factor of no slight im- portance in our vital problem of food supply and living costs. We need six and one-quarter million cords of wood a vear to make our newspapers, magazines, books, pasteboard boxes, and other prod- ucts manufactured from wood pul]). We are meeting this need at present only by importing a tliird of our paper or paper-making mate- rials from Canada. We recjuire from one hundred to one hundred twenty-five million railroad ties eacli year to kee]) u]) and extend our railroad lines, aside from enormous quantities of tim])er used in other forms for railroad construction and the ])uilding of cars. We have to have at least six ])illion feet of timber yearly for boxes, crates, and bar- rels, a requirement which is steadily increasing. In several highly de- A Decennial Recokd 127 veloped agricultural regions an assured supply of containers for shipping farm j^roducts to market has become a serious problem in itself. A group of oiu* important nianufactin-ers, the makers of wood veneers, handles, vehicles, furnitin-e, and agricultural implements con- sume one and one-half billion feet of timber yearly. It is upon this group, perhaps, that the growing shortage of timber falls most heavily, since they require largely high grade hardwoods and other timber which the virgin forests of the United States furnished so lavishly, but M-hich it is now becoming more and more difficidt to find in suffi- cient quantities. All told, we demand of our forests about fifty-six billion feet of timber yearly, aside from well over one hundred million cords of small material for fuel and various chemical products. There is nothing comparable to this enormous use of wood in the history of the world. AVe are preeminently a wood-using nation. It is wood that has devel- oped our farm lands, that has largely built and equipped our railroads, and that supports many of our most valuable and distinctive manufac- turing industries. We use from two to four times as much wood — for every member of our population — as the most highly developed coun- tries of Euro])e. Tlie abundance and general distribution of our native forests have liad a tremendous part in the domestic and industrial de- velopment of tlie United States and in its commercial supremacy. We can not face the future without a so])er and intelligent consideration of that fact. Even M'ith the large substitutions of other materials for lumber, the United States Avitli its growing poj)ulation can not greatly reduce its present total use of wood without serious injury to its liome ])uild- ing, its agriculture and its manufactures. And we must find out how to supply our own needs largely from our own resources, for it is doubt- ful if lumber imports can be greatly increased within reasonable prices. So much do we ask of our forests. How far can our forests fill this order? The original forests of tlie I'nited States are supposed to have covered eight hundred twenty-two million acres. Over two-thirds of this area has been cidled. cut-over, or burnt. There are left today about four hundred sixty-three million acres of forest and cut-over land of all sorts, M-hicli contains about two thousand two hundred and 128 The Forest Pkoducts Laboratory foui-teen billion feet of timber of merchantable sizes. Three-fifths of the timber originally in the United States is gone. All told we are taking about four times the amount of wood out of our forests every year which we are growing in them. We are cut- ting more of every class of timber than we are growing. We are even using up the trees too small for the sawmill, but upon which our future lumber supply depends, three and one-half times as fast as they are' being produced. Of still greater significance is the fact that the timber left is not in the right place. The crux of timber depletion is the exhaustion, or partial exhaustion, of the forests most available to the great l)ulk of our population, agriculture, and manufactures. One timber region after another in the eastern states has been cut out. Less than five per cent of the virgin forests of New England and about twelve per cent of her original stand of timber are left. New York, the leading state in lumber production in 18.50, now manufactures only thirty board feet per capita yearly, or not more than a tenth of the require- ments of her own population and industries. Pennsylvania was the leading lumber manufacturing state in 1860. She now cuts less than the amount consumed in the Pittsburg district alone. The original pine forests of the Lake States, estimated at 350 billion feet, are now reduced to less than eight billion. In 1892 the sawmills in the region bordering the Great Lakes cut nine billion board feet of lumber and largely supplied the softwood markets of tlie Prai- rie and Central States and eastward to New England. Today their yearly cut is a single billion. These four densely populated regions, stretching from the Atlantic to the Prairies, which formerly were lum- ber exporters and still contain enormous areas of forest land, are now partly or largely dependent upon timber grown and manufactured elsewhere and are becoming increasingly dependent upon timber which must be shipped the width of the continent. The bulk of the building and structural timbers used in the east- ern and central states during the last twenty years was grown in the pine forests of the south. But the cut of southern pine is now falling off and within another decade promises to exceed by little, if at all, the requirements of the southern states themselves. The shifting of the hardwood industries has followed much the same course. The princi- pal reserve of hardwoods is in the Southern Mississippi Valley and A Decexxial Record 129 even here it is doubtful if the cut of hardwood lumber can be materially increased for any great length of time. The scarcity of high grade oak, poplar, ash, hickory, walnut, and other standard hardwoods is now confronting manj^ industries with a difficult situation. One-half of the timber remaining in the Continental United States is in three states bordering the Pacific ocean. Sixty-one per cent of it lies west of the Great Plains. Since 1894 western timber has been filling gaps in the eastern and middle western markets. Within the past year it has assumed a dominating place in the principal mark- ets of the Lake States and has largely replaced southern pine at many consuming points in the Central States. It is estimated that within the next decade the shortage of nearer timber will compel the Eastern and Central States to increase their annual consumption of western timber by eleven and one-half billion board feet. The true index of timber depletion is not in the quantity that is left but its axjailahilitij . This is shown partly in the cost of trans- porting the average tliousand feet of lumber from the sawmill to the user. Piior to 1850 when the great bulk of our lumber was manufac- tured near the points of use, the transportation cost averaged less than $3.00 per thousand board feet. Today it is probably $10.00. In another decade, at the freight rates now prevailing, it will reach $15.00 per thousand feet. But aside from rising freight costs, the exhaustion of nearby supplies of timber imposes upon the consumer all the disad- vantages of being dependent upon distant and restricted manufactur- ing regions. These include congestion of transportation, the effects of labor shortages and bad weather in limited regions, and a narrowed field of competition. Xot only is tlie quantity of timber left in the United States being used up much more rapidly than wood is being grown ; the availability of the remaining timber to the average consumer is steadily decreasing. The situation which confronts us now will be different only in degree if we allow the western forests also to be exhausted and are compelled to import most of our lumber from Siberia or South America. Doubtless the extreme conditions of the present lumber markets will ])e relieved in no great length of time and more moderate prices will prevail. Tlie outstanding fact remains, however, that lumber price levels liigher than those existing before the war must be expected be- cause of the depletion, or approaching depletion, of our forest regions 130 The Forest Products Laboratory east of the Great Plains. We are fast losing the great leveler of lum- ber prices, the competition between different forest regions available to a common market. The scarcity of forest products of high quality, cut from old growth timber, m ill not be readily or quickly overcome. Meantime forest depletion is going steadily on, unchecked. It must lead inevitably to rising price levels under normal conditions. It will contribute to sudden and excessive increases in lumber prices in any future transportation, labor, or other crisis. The real cause of our timber depletion is idle forest land. Short- ages of wood have not resulted primarily from the use of our forests, but from their devastation. The kernel of the problem lies in the enor- mous areas of forest land which are not producing the timber crops that they should. There are 326 million acres of cut-over timber lands bearing no saw timber in the United States. Their condition ranges from complete devastation through various stages of partial restock- ing or restocking with trees of inferior quality, to relatively limited areas which are producing timber at or near their full capacity. On eighty-one million acres there is practically no forest growth. This is the result of forest fires and of methods of cutting which destroy or prevent new timber growth. There were twenty-seven thousand re- corded forest fires in 1919, burning a total of eight and one-fourth million acres. During the preceding year, twenty-five thousand fires burned over ten and one-half million acres of forest land. An addi- tional large acreage was burned each year, of which no record could be obtained. The area of idle or largely idle land is being increased ])y from three to four million acres annually as the cutting and burning of for- ests continue. The enormous area of forest land in the United States not required for any other economic use, estimated at four hundred sixty -three million acres, would provide an ample supply of wood if it were kept productive. Depletion has resulted, not from using our timber resources, but from failure to use our timber-growing land. It is unthinkable that the United States should be compelled to steadily contract its use of timlier — down to the level of civilized exist- ence as in other countries of western Europe. We are not an old world nation. We still have millons of acres of raw agricultural land to be developed. We still have millions of homes to be built and thou- sands of miles of T-rails to be laid. We are at the threshold of the A Decennial Recokd 131 greatest opportunity to expand our world trade in manufactures which we have ever had. It is unthinkable, I say, that, in the face of these vast requirements and opportunities, the people of tlie United States should be content to watch one of their essential and readily renewable raw materials become steadily scarcer and less available; that they slioidd acce])t famine prices on timber as a normal condition, with en- forced contractions in its use, embargoes, and governmental restric- tions. And such a course is as unnecessary as it would be disastrous. We have an ample area of forest-growing land, over and above any probable demands for farm crops, most of it indeed unfit for culti- vation — an area ample to meet all of our timber requirements if its timber-growing capacity is but put to use. From every hand, during the last few months, we have been told to increase production as the cure of our economic ills. I submit that increased production from land is as necessary as increased production by human labor. The idleness of millions of acres of forest-growing land may be even more disastrous in its ultimate effects than the idleness of hundreds of thou- sands of skilled mechanics. And we have in America today an area of idle forest land equal to the combined forest of Continental Europe aside from Russia. The answer to the forestry problem of the United States is not to use less wood but to grow more — to put our idle acres of burned and logged-off timber land at work growing trees. This is not inherently a difficult thing to accomplish. It is not the Utopian dream of a tech- nical enthusiast. Three-fourth of it lies in preventing forest fires. But it does require an aggressive national policy of reforestation. It requires concerted action by the national and state governments to do the things which must be done by ])ul)lic agencies. It requires the active ])artici])t!ti()n of the private forest owner. It requires a clear definition ol' ])ublic and private responsibihties as to timber-growing land, with an equitable showing of the cost. There is no phase of our M'hole problem of an assured and perpetual supply of timber that can- not l)e met by sinqile and obvious measures once the constructive effort and ca])acity for organized coo])eration of the American people are put beliind tliem. It is no exaggeration to say that abundant and well distril)uted forests have been a vital factor in the prosperity of the Ignited States. It rests with us to say whether they will continue to be, or wliether we 132 The Forest Products Laboratory must readjust our internal and industrial development within the next half century to a basis where wood is an imported luxury. The last two years have shown all too clearly what that actually means. We can no more continue to draw indefinitely upon the timber stored up by natiu-e than we can draw upon the natural fertility of our farm lands without maintaining and restoring it. Let us safeguard the sources of our national wealth and show that we have the thrift and constructive ability to use them with intelligence and foresight. Be marks of 31 r. Jones Following Colonel Greelei/s Talk When I was a student in our university — you can tell from my looks how long ago — there were four classes of men who were properly supposed to come to college or university: the prospective lawyer, the doctor, tlie preachers, and the teacher. If one had announced that he intended coming to our university to become a forester he would have been thought a freak. We had one engineer, I remember, a long lank fellow. We sympathized with him. We thought he was going to be so lonesome in the world. We little realized that before the present time, thousands of engineers would have left our university and engi- neering would be among the greatest of the industries in America. Sometimes it is difficult to tell what jDrofession one should join. I heard of one good father and mother, w4th their only son John, who were asked what they were going to do with him. The father said he had talked of this a great deal with the mother and they concluded that John must be a lawyer or a doctor, and on thinking it all over they had concluded that they would rather take him law than his medicine, and he was going to be a lawyer. We have here tonight one of that class belonging to the teaching class, one who elected to become a professor. We who live in Madison knew him very well. We knew his father and mother and his grand- father and grandmother and everyone before him. I knew liim par- ticularly well because I was his nearest neighl^or. I watched his antics and his pranks as a boy, and they were just as harmless as the pranks and antics of other boys. I supposed that in a little while he would grow up and marry and settle down and become a hardware merchant or a lumber merchant following the ways of his ancestors. By-and-by A Decexxial Record 133 we heard that he was a shark in inathematics, and we began to hear that he was a shark in physics. We did not know any more about physics than we did about Hebrew, but we were glad to have a shark among us. After a while we were glad that he became a professor in our university, and we were prouder still, though somewhat sad, when lie M'as called to Yale. Then after he left us we began to hear that he was one of the greatest physicists in America. We were glad to hear also afterwhile that he had concluded to come back to his old university, his old city, and his old fishing grounds. Then the war came on, and we began to hear that our friend was experimenting out on T.ake Mendota to further the demands of our country for means to check the advance of the Kaiser and Hinden- burg and their submarines in their attempts to sink the navies of the Alhes. We thought it was a pretty big job he was undertaking, and a rather small field for his operations, but we had faith in him, and presently we heard of his experiments along the Atlantic Coast; and then we heard that he had actually invented a device that would detect the coming of the submarines. Then we heard that he had been called over to England to consult M'ith the scientists and the naval experts of the Allies — and finally he came back. He is here tonight. He has been called upon to step into the breach to take the place of a celebrated engineer who had intended to come. I have the pleasure of introducing Professor ]\Iax ]Mason who will speak to you. BENDING OF HEAVY WHEEL RIMS A Decexxiai. Record 13.3 THE SUBMARINE DETECTOR ProfcsfiorM(hv Mason, Universiti/ of IVisconshi Ladies and Gentlemen : Our experience in the attempt to develop some ways which would aid in combating the German submarine warfare began shortly after our entrance into the war with a meeting called by the National Re- search Council in Washington. Physicists from America were sum- moned to hear a discussion of the ways and means of meeting the sul)- marine combat by the British and French naval and scientific men who were sent to America for the purpose of giving American research a running start : and in the course of two or three days we were told of the naval methods of combating the submarines and of the scientific research which had already been started and which had resulted in the perfection and installation of some detective devices. We were shocked at that time to realize that the enormous loss through the sinking of ships— that was in the early days of 1918 — were being accomplished by a marvelously small number of submarines. From the experience of the British and French navies combined it was estimated that only 12 or 14- submarines were on duty at one time, and we left that conference with the thought that if 12 or 14 can do this damage, and if submarines can be constructed rapidly and manned rapidly, what an enormous amount of waste would result in the near future. At that time tliere was no adequate defense against submarines. The British naval officers summed it up in this way : "I have not much to tell you of our submarine work. It consists of the following action. AVe get a wireless message that a ship has been torpedoed and we send out a boat to pick up the survivors." About that time the navy's use of depth charges and the institution of the convoy system effectively changed things so that the situation cleared up greatly. In the early days a destroyer would take one or two depth charges and some cans of TXT. 300 pounds each, and if they were dead certain they were near the submarine they would drop a can of TXT thinking they had probably destroyed it. In later days destroyers went 136 The Forest Products Laboratory out with their ship decks loaded with depth charges up to 100 in num- ber and toured over the sea, dropping in a definitely ordered spiral as many as 60 depth charges in 10 seconds of one another; and, of course, if they did not destroy the submarine they shook up the personnel so enormously that it became very unpleasant in the submarine. The great problem was to find where it was, and that was the problem which the National Research Council wished to solve. What detective device could be used to determine the position of the subma- rine when completely submerged? I will not and can not give you in a short time the number of devices which were attempted to detect submarines. Probably if you took a large text book on physics and read every chapter you would not find any physical phenomenon which was not attempted, which was not utilized in some way, to attempt to detect submarines by virtue of that phenomenon — light, sound, heat, electricity, magnetism, everything — but the thing that seemed most promising was sound, for a machine can not move without making a considerable noise. Unfortunately a submarine does not make much noise. The efforts we made in Wisconsin towards detecting subma- rines were based upon the method of determining their position by the sound they make. That is not an easy problem. The submarine makes a noise hke that of a humming bird in a boiler factory, the factory corresponding to the ship and the humming bird to the submarine to be detected. You can imagine what it would be if you were clattering down a cobblestone street with a threshing machine and an electric automobile was somewhere distant and you were trying to determine just where the automobile was at every instant. You could not do it. The plan which occurred to me in relation to the detecting device was to work with sound in some such manner as we are familiar with in light. You cannot see a star in the daytime but if you sufficiently screen off the disturbing light from the skies and utilize a deep well or a telescope you can see it in the daytime. If you can get some method of intensifying sound from one direction only and shutting it off from all other directions you might be able to detect a fair portion of one sound by thus eliminating the others, and the instruments we developed were based on that theory. We started working here witli the generous and cordial support of the University of Wisconsin re- gents. We soon moved to New London, and there under the naval A Decexxial Recokd 137 ausi^ices continued throughout the war. A special board of the navy was formed to deal with anti-submarine devices, and under their direc- tion rapid experiments developed, with the training of pliysicists and the installation of devices. I have a few slides illustrating this work which we will go through and I will attempt to describe, Avithout going into technical detail, some of the features of the work. (The remainder of ]Mr. ^Jason's siDcech was descriptive of the slides.) A Decennial Record 139 IXTRODUCTORY SPEECH John FiAl'II, CJiainnan, Forester, Pcnusi/lvania Raihcai/ Sf/s-tcm Ladies and Gentlemen : It must be a great satisfaction to the committee on arrangements for this Decennial Celebration of the Forest Products Laboratory as well as to the members of that organization to see this large attendance on the second day of their celebration. It shows that you enjoyed the instructive and interesting program of yesterday. Those of you who were not here yesterday will doubtless be sorry that you did not come. Those of you who have been here before are glad that you have come again and those who are in Madison and at the laboratory for the first time will undoubtedly go away resolved to come again. A good many people who would have liked to be here were unable to come, and if you will indulge with me a moment I would like to have you hear what they have to say in regretting their inability to join you. * Here is a letter addressed to Director Winslow by Mr. McGar- vey Cline whom you heard mentioned yesterday as the first director of the Forest Products Laboratory. "In this mornings mail. I received a program of the Decennial Celebration of the Forest Products Laboratory. It recalled to my mind the early struggles which led to its establishment. My hope in those days was to build so well that the work which the laboratory represents should take such deej) root that it would be immune to the storms and upheavals wliich so often disturb the continuity of research work. My pride in tlie laboratory is almost paternal, and I congratu- late you most heartily upon what you have done in making it almost an essentiill element in the evolution of the forest-using industries. "I regret keenly, however, that I cannot be present at the Decen- nial Celebration. I would enjoy so much being with you and other members of tlie Old Guard when you celebrate the successful com- pletion of the tentli year in the life, which I hope will endure to a ripe old age. "Give my regards to Weiss. Greeley. Burgess, President Birge and any other old friends of mine who are with you during the period of festivitv." 140 The Foeest Products Laboratory We have a letter from Dr. Stanley Coulter whom all of you know as one of the most prominent men in conservation movements : "I acknowledge with thanks invitation to be present at the De- cennial Celebration and regret that it was not received in time to allow me to arrange my j^lans so as to be present. As a matter of fact it was forwarded me here. "The work of the Forest Products Laboratory has been of such scope and significance that anyone interested in conservation prob- lems would feel eager to have a part in a celebration recognizing its past achievements and at which one would doubtless learn something of its plans for the future." Those of you who have been in touch w^th the development of the naval stores industry and the conservation of rosin due to the improved methods of tapping yellow pine trees for resin are familiar with the name of Dr. Charles Herty who did such excellent pioneer Avork in the development of the present methods of turpentining. Dr. Herty wires congratulations and best wishes to the Forest Products Laboratory regretting his inability to attend the Decennial Celebration. Xot only Dr. Herty who started the work but those who have benefited by the researches of the laboratory in pine distillation feel regret at not being here. We have from the Turpentine and Rosin Producers' Association a telegram reading as follows — "Congratula- tions on accomplishments during your ten years at Madison." Not only in the United States are there those who wish the lab- oratory well but Ave have from Erie, Pa., a telegram from the repre- sentative of the Norwegian Government — "Heartiest congratulations to you and all your friends at your grand institution." The following letter from Cheltenham, England, was received— "I thank you and your committee for your invitation to attend the Decennial Celebration on July 22nd, but regret that it is impossible for me to attend. I take this opportunity of expressing to the General Committee and esi3ecially to Professor Winslow, the great assistance which the publications which he was good enough to send me, have been to the Committee on Aeroplane Timber, of which I was Chairman, and thank you most heartily on behalf of the Committee for these most valuable papers." As you all know there is in the United States a Cham])er of Com- merce which represents in the business life the institution which is sup- A Decexxial Record 141 posed to correlate all of the activities of the various chambers of com- merce and boards of trade. Its president writes : "I wish again to express my regret that I shall be unable to attend the Decennial Celebration of the Forest Products Laboratory, to be held at Madison, Wisconsin, on July 22nd and 23rd. "I am happy to advise you, however, that I have found opportu- nity to ask iMr. E. W. McCullough, who will hand you this letter, and who represents the Chamber as the Chief of its Department on Fabri- cated Production, to attend. His Department is naturally related to the enterprises the Celebration is calculated to forward." Those of us who have been coming to the Forest Products I^ab- oratory with any regularity do not hesitate to suggest to the rest of you that you get the habit. It will not hurt. You will be unable in these two davs, which are so filled with various other functions, to ffet thoroughly acquainted with the work across the street, but if you could spend a period of reasonable length, undoubtedly you would get very much from the laboratory. Then, should you later come back, you would undoubtedly find changes in the personnel, for the valuable services which its members can render to industrial institutions result in many of them being taken aw\ay, but you would find constantly there the same spirit, the spirit that more actively each j'car develops along the line that the Forest Service stands for, that is, usefulness and serv- ice to the people of the coimtry in providing the wood necessary in its every day life. You are going to hear today about some of the problems con- nected with the industries depending upon the forest. The first of these is that which to each of you represents what you get in the news- papers every day and in the magazines you read, forming the aston- ishing amount of 35 pounds of paper to each man, woman and child in the United States every year. When you think of the paper that is used for other purposes besides newspapers it makes the total of over 100 pounds of all kinds of paper consumed by each of you every year. It is natural to assume that in the production of that vast amount of material there are a great many problems and on those problems we are going to hear from Mr. Everest, General Manager of the IVIarathon Paper ^Nlills Company. A Decexxial Record 143 SO:SIK PROBLEMS OF THE PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY D. C. Everest, Sccrctdrij and General Manager, MaraiJion Paper Mills Com pan if Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : In 2)resenting some of the j^roblems in which the Pulp and Paper Industry is interested, I intend to deal only with those which relate to the work of the Forest Products Laboratory and which we expect to be able to solve by intelligent cooperation with this institution. In tlie beginning I wish to say that even though this laboratory has been in existence for ten years, Paper and Pulp manufacturers have not taken advantage of its remarkable facilities to any great ex- tent, and, as a matter of fact, only comparatively few yet realize what a wonderful asset we have in tliis institution. What I have said of the Paper and Pulp industry, I believe applies equally as well to other branches of industry represented here today and tliose which have to deal with forest products in any form. Had we as manufacturers of forest materials awakened to the value of the laboratory to us and taken the interest in it, which is now apparently manifested, there Mould be fewer problems of our various industries today. ]Men connected with this institution have, from the time of its establishment, been anxious and wilhng to cooperate with manufacturers in any way and have only been prevented from render- ing greater service on account of the failure of manufacturers to ac- quaint tile laboratory personnel witli the problems confronting them. For ten years tlie men here liave tackled every prolilem which has been put \\\) to them and have rendered invaluable service to those who have realized tlie necessity of such work and have made use of the labora- tory in the manner intended when this institution was established. The ])resent situation in the paper industry, abnormal as it is, has directed the attention of more manufacturers to the need of imme- diate and definite action in attacking the various problems with which they are confronted. The attitude in the jjast has been to take advan- tage of the improvements only as they have been made by a few pro- 14.4 The Forest Products Laboratory gressive manufacturers, and a tendency to procrastinate, even in this, has been rather common. The condition of the industry looking to the immediate future demands that these problems be attacked in such a manner as to produce definite results in the shortest time, for with the growing scarcity of pulp wood in the eastern and central states and our increasing dependence upon Canada for the supply of raw mate- rial, a situation has been created, which can be rightfully viewed with alarm. While some research either in a haphazard manner or follow- ing a carefully coordinated plan has been carried on by the paper in- dustry, it is safe to say that only those organizations in which the program of research was definite have succeeded in placing the manu- facture of their products upon a sound basis and are now able to take full advantage of their foresight. When research is mentioned among paper mill men, and other timber users, too often the audience is unsympathetic if not hostile, and the tendency of many mill operators has been to look with dis- favor upon the efforts of investigators along scientific rather than the immediate practical lines. In spite of all this, the pulp and paper section of the Forest Products Laboratory has been striving for the past ten years with funds and personnel inadequate for the work in which they are engaged to solve some of the pressing problems of the industry. The field is a large one, and most of the work pioneer in character. How success- ful they have been in their work may be judged from the following recital of the major problems which they have attacked and are now studying. The need for definite specifications to cover the purchase of pulp wood has long been recognized. That the present basis of purchase, using the cord as the unit of measurement, is inaccurate cannot be doubted. The ordinary piled cord 4'x4'x8' may, depending on the diameter of the bolts, freedom from knots, etc., contain by actual measurement from 104 to 65 cu. ft. of solid wood. Further, the pres- ent method of buying wood does not make a proper allowance for the percentage of decay. More than four years ago an attempt was made to interest pulp mills in this problem, but until very recently nothing has been accomplished. However, field work financed by the Ameri- can Pulp and Paper Association is now under way, and no doubt exists but that the results accomplished will meet expectations. A Dpxexxial Record 145 Closely connected with this problem, and of more vital impor- tance due to the growing scarcity of pulp woods, is tliat of rossing. chipping, drying and baling of pulp wood preparatory to delivery to the pulp mill. With the vast pulp wood forests of the West practically untouched, it is felt that some such method as this may offer a solution to the decreasing supply of pulp wood in the East. This is now a cost of transportation problem. For many years the enormous amounts of the unavoidable waste in the lumber industry has challenged attention. Few pulp mills, however, have been in a position to utilize this waste, and have de- pended upon round wood for their supply. Conservation of timber resources will in time compel the utmost utilization of this waste, and the time is not far distant when lumber mills will undoubtedly under- take the barking of edgings and slabs, chipping and screening the wood and selling, in the case of hemlock, the bark to the tanneries. Tlie utilization of hemlock bark obtained from the barking drums has already been the subject of study upon semi-commercial scale, and and it only remains to bring the tanner and pulp man to a mutual imderstanding of each other's problems. The burning of such bark is indeed a great waste if the value for tanning purposes as shown by the semi-commercial test is actually proved in the commercial tests to be made, and there now seems to be no question about its being worked out satisfactorily. The increasing cost and scarcity of wood labor has both reduced the supply and increased the value of hemlock bark. And in addition, the inability of the lumbermen to deliver peeled pulp wood to the pulp manufacturer has further increased the cost of this commodity. The woods of the national forests, particularly those of the West, have been the subject of an intensive investigation looking toward their utilization by both mechanical and chemical processes. All the more important pulp wood species have been investigated, and samples are available on practically all the woods of importance from a pulp- making standpoint. Local and economic conditions still remain to be studied, and since a great deal of this work was done prior to 1914, the greatly changed conditions necessitate a further survey. Sulphite pulp can best be produced from the non-resinous woods, and the decreasing supply brings into importance the possibility of reducing resinous woods by this process. A successful solution of this 146 The Forest Products Laboratory problem would make available many cheap woods whicli cannot now be used and to a decided extent assist in overcoming the wood shortage. The possibility opened by the use of liquid sulphur dioxide, which can be obtained from the smelters, in the manufacture of sulphite acid has been a subject of much speculation, and while semi-commercial scale studies have pretty clearly indicated the results to be expected, it still remains for a mill scale demonstration to be made. The largest source of this material is, of course, in the West, and in addition to offering an outlook for an extremely ob j ectionable nuisance, it would go far to eliminate the damage to which all vegetation in the vicinity of a smelter producing such fumes is subjected. In line with the policy of conservation of by-products, investiga- tions have been planned and carried out on the uses of waste sulphite liquor for the production of alcohfol, binders, tanning materials, etc. When one considers that approximately one-half the weight of the wood is dissolved during the course of the coking treatment and ordi- narily runs to waste, some idea may be gained of the immensity of this problem. It may be that in time to come, the relative importance of the products of pulping may be reversed, as was done in the coke in- dustry. Hardly a sulphite mill exists but that experiences trouble with "pitch", and in spite of this, but little has been accomplished along the lines of pitch elimination. The laboratory equipment is too small to permit a comprehensive study to be made of this problem, but analyses in conjunction with changing cooking conditions will doubtless throw a great deal of light on the subject. The study of fundamental cooking conditions in the soda and sulphate processes led to the development of a modified method of producing sulphate pulp. By this method decreased chemical and steam consumption and increased yields were obtained, and while it has been impossible to conduct an entirely satisfactory mill scale trial, no doubt exists that this method is worthy of wide use. Although sulphate pulp is not usually considered as easy bleach- ing, indications are that it can be successfully bleached, yielding a fair color with a higher ultimate yield than w ood pulped by the soda or sul- phite process. A pulp- and paper-making trial has just been com- pleted where southern pine pulped by the sulphate process has been bleached, and used to a large extent in the production of a satisfactory A Decennial Recokd 147 magazine sheet. This has been done witliout undue cost or sacrifice in yields. One of the questions which is very frequently the subject of conversation when sulpliate mill men get together is the relative ad- vantages of diffusers and pans. This problem, however, can only be successfully attacked upon the mill scale, and the same applies to a study of the cause of corrosion of diffusers. The successful recovery of chemicals from the waste liquor has always been of great importance, and any means which can be devised to raise the percentage of recovered chemicals would immediately be reflected in a decreasing cost for manufacture. Here again but little can be done upon a small scale. Paralleling the recovery of by-products from sulphite liquors, distillation of those obtained in the soda or suljDhate process offers a means of more fully utilizing the present waste. It is definitely known that valuable j^roducts exist in the black liquors, but their recovery upon a commercial scale is not yet a complete success. Salt cake has been universally used in the sulphate process to make up the chemical losses, but the use of niter cake offers certain advantages wliich, however, are offset liy a few serious drawbacks. If opportunity could be given for a thorough investigation into the use of niter cake, this problem might be solved. A constant source of trouble in the sulphate mill is found in the refractory material used in lining the smelters. While the conditions existing in a sulphate smelter doubtless offer great difficulty, it is not inconceivable tliat by intensive study a solution for this problem can be found. Woods which are pulped by the alkali process lend themselves very readily to recovery of various products prior to pulping. So far, however, tannin is the only product which is now recovered on a com- mercial scale, but the high rosin and turpentine content of the southern pines suggest that before long these materials will also be recovered, Tliis problem can be very successfully attacked upon a laboratory scale and has already been too long delayed. There are but few quarries in this country wliere a successful grade of stone for pulp grinders is found, and the cost of the work necessary to experiment witli ne^v deposits is practically prohibitive unless the investigations can be first carried out upon a laboratory A Decexxial Record 149 scale. Closely connected witli this problem is that of developing a suitable artificial stone, and while many abrasive materials have been suggested, and some tried, the problem is not as yet solved. But here again the laboratory can be of great assistance. The importance of keeping under control the production of me- chanical pulp is receiving increasing attention, and a number of years ago was the subject of some study. Since that time, however, no op- portunity has been presented for the laboratory to continue this work, althougli mill organizations are carrying on investigations along this line. The loss of fibre in Whitewater has been the subject of much discussion in the past, both from the standpoint of stream pollution and improving plant conditions. Because of the large volume of water which must l)e handled in order to recover the relatively small amount of fiber, certain difficulties present themselves at the start. But prog- ress has certainly been made in the solution of this problem, and much more can be done if the matter is made the subject of an intensive study. The effect of the various factors entering into the beating of pulp is not entirely understood, although progress is being made along these lines. In spite of the work tliat has been done with experimental beat- ers it is not yet possible to apply the results obtained upon a small scale to mill conditions. In connection with the conservation of Avaste materials, the recov- ering of various waste papers such as paraffine and asphalt commands attention. Because of the difficulty of collecting these ^vaste products, but comparatively little progress has been made, although the labora- tory tests have successfully demonstrated that the impregnating mate- rial can be recovered without undue cost and the extracted pulp made into a satisfactory sheet. One mill is now being })uilt for the extraction of paraffine and the manufacture of the -waste pa])er into pulp. The study of a substitute for sulphate of alumina is a problem of utmost importance at this time, and if transportation conditions re- main as they are today, and seemingly no miracle is going to happen to change these conditions under from three to five years, then Me shall need some substitute for this commodity whicli we can obtain easily, possibly from some materials now employed in our pulp-making indus- try. The conditions in the manufacture of sulphate of alumina todav 150 The Forest Products Laboratory are a serious problem for the paper manufacturers. I understand some work has already been done along that line. The study of paper specialties such as fi})er containers, indurated ware, molded articles, artificial silks, twines and textiles requires a highly organized research body, and progress has necessarily been slow along these lines. Work has been done in an attempt to develop water and grease proof containers, and a certain degree of success has attended the efforts. Various raw materials other than wood are receiving an increasing amount of attention from the trade, and utilization of one such mate- rial : namely, cotton linters, has been successfully carried to commercial scale operations. Others such as the various grasses, straws and crop plants should be the subject of investigations, but must await the solu- tions of those problems which are more pressing, and which promise more valuable results. Studies on the chemistry of pulps have been confined principally to the research carried on in the European countries, although the sub- ject is of great importance in connection with the use of chemical pulp for manufacture into various cellulose derivitives. The lack of this knowledge was very forcibly brought home during the war when in- vestigations of the suitability of chemical pulps for manufacture into nitro-cellulose were seriously hampered by our ignorance of the sub- ject. In the study of ]3ulp wood and wood pulp decay, chemistry will, undoubtedly, play an important part in determining the various de- composition products formed by the decay organisms. However, it must be remembered that in all cases where a chemical study of pulp or wood is made, complete data must be available relative to the pre- vious treatment which the material has undergone. Too much M'ork has already been done upon pulps whose origin was unknown. Of the various studies mentioned, this one alone requires the services of sev- eral highly trained men, and results could in no case be expected under several years' time. The beginning of the study of this problem of deterioration in pulp wood and wood pulp to any great extent in the laboratory was t)rought about by the experience we were having at the mill in which I am interested, with fungus growth in stored and purchased pulp. Owing to the serious problems of transportation during the war it became necessary to purchase wood pulp in full cargoes and store it A Deckxxial Record 151 rather than to depend on regular shipments by rail of freshly ground wood. This storing of large quantities of pulp and particularly in view of the high market value at the time, soon impressed one with the enormous loss due to deterioration both in money and quality of prod- uct. When this problem was taken up with the laboratory it was found that practically all the funds were tied up for other work and that even tliough the funds were available, the necessarj^ pathologists and others necessary to the prosecution of the work must be found. It was impossible to do an\i;hing until funds could be supplied and according to regular practice this would mean waiting until appropriations were made and the money available after July 1st. This meant a delay of nearly a year and consequently I undertook to raise sufficient funds from concerns engaged in pulp and paper manufacturing to defray the expense of this work until regular governmental appropria- tions would be made to cover it. Twenty-three concerns contributed ^10,500.00, about one-fourth of the concerns addressed on the subject replied to the first appeal and the reasons given by others for not con- tributing after the second and third appeals were made, showed that there was either a lack of knoM'ledge on the part of many manufactur- ers both as to tlieir own needs and as to the ability of the Forest Prod- ucts Laboratory to handle such questions, or there is an epidemic of "tightwaditis" in this country when it comes to sensible propositions which are to be of benefit to our business and the country generally. Let some one present a proposition involving the expenditure of mil- lions of dollars for the assistance of some fool thing or other and men seem possessed to be the first on the list to give their personal or com- pany funds, but a sensible program looking to the conservation of one of the greatest assets this country possesses is passed up without giving any financial aid and by offering excuses, usually too thin for any use. INIany said we are studying this problem in our laboratory, but we had all done that for years and were no nearer a solution of the problem than wlien we started. It requires the best men obtainable in the coun- try in several different lines and it must be patent to every one that a coordinated program being carried out in one place under such condi- tions as exist here would yield better results than if men equipped with only general chemical knowledge and working individually should imdertake the study of this problem in private laboratories. 1,52 The Fokest Products Labokatory Some rejjlied that this should be a government matter and the government should provide funds, etc., not seeming to realize that funds were not then available and that the loss to every manufacturer due to a delay of six or eight months in the solution of such a problem meant many times the amount they were asked to contribute. If the Forest Products Laboratorj^ is to be of the greatest possible assistance to the pulp and paper industry closer cooperation must exist with the mills, for the final test of any laboratory trial must take place in the mill. Too often information vital to the successful prose- cution of a problem is withheld or full and hearty cooperation is lack- ing. If the mills refuse to give the laboratory their full confidence and at the same time maintain a critical and unsympathetic attitude but little real progress can be made on those problems in which the industry is vitally interested. If, however, they look upon the laboratory as a part of their own organization and treat it as such, correcting its mistakes and commend- ing its successes, the greater portion of any research problem is already solved. For an organization of this character to be so seriously hampered, both as to equipment and personnel, is fatal to a rapid solution of the many problems with which it is confronted, and it is, of course, im- possible to carry on intensive studies of the many pressing questions. Should a mill organization desire work done, the results of which would be of benefit to the whole industry, a cooperative arrangement can be made similar to the ones now in force with respect to pulp wood and wood pulp decay and pulp wood measurement. Or one or more men, financed by the mills, could be detailed at the laboratory for an in- tensive study of some problem under the direction of the laboratory organization. Either of these suggestions is in accordance with the laboratory policy of furthering the advance of exact knowledge of the industry with which they are so closely connected, and their adoption by any organization is most heartily welcomed. In summing up the problems of the pulp and paper industry, perhaps the one which is as important as any is in seeing that ample appropriation is made for the continuance of this work, so that with the necessary funds, the personnel of this laboratory may be built up to a point where we may rest assured that the problems confronting us may be solved. The personnel is the foundation, and the whole thing A Decennial Record 153 depends on it. The Secretary of Agriculture has been Avorking to have the salaries of these men and women jnit on a basis comparable to sal- aries paid in private industry for like service, and in this we must assist him in every way possible. Adequate salaries must be paid. The necessity of such action rests not only on the paper and pulp industry but on every other branch of forest products conversion in- dustry in the country. From my conversation with lumbermen and others connected with wood-Morking industry, I am convinced there is a woeful lack of information as to tliis work and tlie possible advan- tages of it to the individual concern. Take, for instance, this problem of deterioration of pulp wood and wood pulp. Experiments have demonstrated enormous losses in yield from infected wood and a falling off in quality which is surprising. Heretofore, deterioration of pulp wood and other forest products has been looked upon as a matter of course and no great effort made to correct it. We have heard of the rapidly decreasing timber supply, public men howl about it, and newspapers harp on it continuously. Conservation has been preached by every man who could get an audi- ence. Lumbermen and others of days gone by have been criticised for M'hat was at that time an unavoidable waste of unsuitable timber and what was a necessary waste to open up what is now our best agricul- tural territory. Criticism of everj-body and everything has been the order of the day, but when it comes down to a proposition to finance this laboratory, the only department of the Forest Service which can point the way to conservation of our natural timber resources after they are removed from tlie land, it is only after the greatest effort on tlie part of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Chief Forester and all others connected with that department, together with the efforts of various associations of industry represented here, the splendid work of some newspapers and trade journals and the actual work in com- mittee of Congressman Xelson and Senator Lenroot, that Congress M'ould appropriate barely enougli to keej) this institution alive for another year. Another strange fact is that within a few months of the time the appropriation Mas fixed for the laboratory another committee made up of men from the same body which considered the appropriation, tack on to another bill an appropriation of $100,000.00 for the investi- gation of a substitute for pulpwood, cornstalks or sugar cane. The 154 The Forest Products Laboratory same old story of finding substitutes for puljDwood but doing mighty little to find ways to save what we have. Probably none of those who dealt with the Underwood bill recalled that there was a well established laboratory for the purpose which they had not properly supported. If these gentlemen are sincere when they howl "Conservation", then their actions in providing for this institution belie their words. ^lost people lose their sense of proportion when dealing with large problems, and unfortunately congressmen have proved no exception to this rule. We need this laboratory. Private enterprise cannot buy such facilities and conditions. You who have been privileged to see and know what is being done here must realize that if we are to solve our technical problems relating to timber, its care, perpetuation and proper use, we must back this laboratory to the limit, either by in- ducing Congress to adequately provide for it or by individual subscrip- tion if necessary. There is but one thing for the paper and pulp industry and other industries using forest products to do, and that is to work earnestly for a better understanding of the possibilities of this laboratory serv- ice both on the part of the members of their respective industries and of those who have the responsibility and power to fix the sum which shall be expended in this work, and in this manner we may expect to materially reduce the number of problems which confront the ]3ulp and paper industry and your other industries as well. I urge you, gentlemen, to give this institution the support it deserves in the solution of the scientific problems affecting our indus- tries and which are so vital to our individual success and the conserva- tion of one of the nation's most valuable natural resources. Remarks of Mr. Foley Following Mr. Everest's Talk In the early days of the world war, most of you heard a great deal about the National Council of Defense, the AYar Industries Board, and other activities of the Government at Washington. To many they were simply names. To those who spent any time at Washington they quickly became very significant factors in the wonderful work which was being done in developing the necessary forces to resist the progress of the German Army. A Decennial Record 155 Tlie talk that you heard from Professor Mason last night cer- tainly should have given you an insight into what was done by the sci- entists of this country in organizing the technical knowledge they possess and which I assume our German friends did not credit them with possessing. It was coordinating such knowledge and bringing into collaborated effort the experience and the experiments of the vari- ous scientists, individuals, and organizations of the country that made our wonderful progress possible. What was learned during the war in the way of effectiveness in such coordinative effort is being profited by to the extent that there is now being maintained an organization called the National Research Council. We are very fortunate this morning in having present to tell lis about the work of that organization its Extension Manager, Dr. Howe. 4 ?i.r-::$^ -^^^^SBf 1 I 1 . ■■p i ^ ^ ^i 'fJ§ A Decennial Record 157 AMERICA'S PLACE IX INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH H. E. Hence, Chairman, Research Eojtension Divmon, National Besearch Council Ladies and Gentlemen : The su})jec't which has been assigned to me affords a real tempta- tion to bring out the American eagle and let him scream. The easiest way would be for me to make the assertion that America holds first place, and let the other fellow attempt to disprove the statement. I think, however, that we would do well to consider how we are regarded in industrial research, what the present situation is, and what the op- portunities are for winning and holding first place. The record makes it ratlier plain. I think, that America rightfully belongs out in front leading the industrial research procession in many fields and in the majority of the fields of science America has already a very high standing. Perhaps the best tributes that have been paid to American indus- trial research have been from abroad. I can refer you, for example, to ]\Ir. Fleming's discussions in England where he has taken occasion to illustrate various phases of industrial research by reference to the Ignited States in the hope that our progress here will stimulate the efforts of our English friends who may find in our work an example worth emulating. More recently Holland, considering the establishment of a large laboratory in Java, has taken pains to investigate our Government lab- oratories, educational institutions, and the many places where research has turned to the aid of industry. Oiu" Australian friends who have been collecting data on research laboratories, routed many of their men who were retiu*ning after the war througli the Ignited States. These men Mere given the informa- tion wherever they visited, made acquainted with equipment, details of method, reports of progress made in our plans of organization, our greatest activities, and in general the points in our own experience which may aid tliem in Australia. They have already decided upon the duplication of some of the equipment to be found liere at ]VIadison. 158 The Forest Products Laboratory You have heard also of the estabhshment of the Forest Products Laboratory in Canada, and the Canadian Parhament has planned the establishment of something similar to our Bureau of Standards and the Mellon Institute where the training of men as well as the in- vestigation of scientific problems will be the outstanding features. I think, therefore, that the way in which our foreign friends have investi- gated our conditions and found them satisfactory speaks very well indeed for our position and gives us some right to claim that we are well toward the front in the field of industrial research. Another j^iece of evidence on the same point is the status of indus- tries founded on scientific data. I know of no better argument to offer in urging people to undertake research in their own industries, founded upon cut and dry methods, than to point to such experiences. ^Nlany of the older institutions still use rule of thumb methods and refuse to accept the full measure of aid science affords. An exam- ple of this is the ceramics industry. On the other hand, our electrical industries and chemical industries have developed much more rapidly than the older industries and are more progressive. These new ones have founded themselves upon science and hold their present status due to scientific endeavor. In America we have many such industries ; the petroleum industry is an outstanding fact of what science can accomplish. I can remind you of the work of Frasch in the elimination of sulphur from petro- leum making it possible to use that material from Ohio, Canada and other points for illumination purposes. This, overnight, raised the price of that oil from 90 cents per barrel to many times that amount. The packing house permits us to enjoy meat products at even the present prices only because of the by-products which have been devel- oped through industrial research. At one time two per cent of the annual turnover was the net profit made by the concerns on the edible products. The electro-chemical and electrometallurgical industries are con- spicuous examples, and we might spend all of the time at our disposal on the progress made, especially during war times. The fact is that these industries gave us our abrasives and whole industries have been built up around our artificial graphite and electrolytically refined cop- per upon which all electrical industries depend. What industrial research can do in this particular field has been proved, and electro- A Decennial Record 159 lytic methods of refining metals and making steel will continue to en- gage attention for some time to come. In welding we have made quite a record. Without this research we probahly could not have repaired the German ships which were in New York harbor. This has always been a very interesting subject to me, for we accomplished in a few wrecks w^hat the Germans thought would take years to do. All ships were damaged almost exactly alike, the variations being but slight. Everybody carried out his orders, there being no evidence of individuality in the methods used ; and when the results were available from one ship, a method had been worked out for all and it was only necessary to increase the units of the repair equipment. Out of that work the American Welding Institute has grown up and is now engaged upon a study of the various methods of gas and electric welding. Perhaps there is no brighter page in industrial research in xVmer- ica than the development of the art of communication. In wireless simply marvelous progress has been made and is due wholly to re- search. Men who learned their radio during the war and have lost touch since, find such rapidly changing conditions that they must al- most begin over again. Such progress is being made in the use of new apparatus and the steps are being taken with such rapidity that in order to keep up with wireless the men must keep in touch with each development as it unfolds piece by piece. The wireless telephone strikes me as being one of the most remarkable accomplishments. That we can send waves traveling as from tlie center of a sphere witli such intensity that part of them will reach a distance from Washington to Paris or Hawaii with sufficient force to be heard is a modern miracle. You heard from Professor Mason last night about research on one ty])e of communication that was carried on in many of our labora- tories during the war. The rubber field is another glowing exam])le of what American research has done; and still anotlier can be drawn from fields of elec- tricity, chemistry and engineering in the ]Mazda lamp. The use of this lamp is said to mean a saving of $-100,000,000 annually as compared witli our old carbon electric light bul])s. Our scientific men fought with German scientists for the ])rize: both knew the advantages of tungsten filament and tliat ductile tungsten was the next step. Our men were first to solve the problem, and also to learn that the use of 160 The Forest Products Laboratory inei-t gas in place of a partial vacuum in the bulb very greatly increases the efficiency of the lamp. We like to tell of this particular work be- cause much of it began in pure science and has practically intrenched the electric lamp industry in America. Something that may be of interest, perhaps, is the work which has been done in Hawaii in the use of paper to fight weeds. It is another Yankee invention. Due to the type of soil and the heavy rainfall the weeds grew so fast that sugar cane could not be grown at a profit. On one plantation Mr. Eckhardt after many unsuccessful efforts to kill the weeds by spraying, etc., eventually conceived the idea of trying to fight them by putting paper over the rows. This is possible because under the paper you get a hot-house condition. The sharp spikes of the sugar cane have little difficulty in penetrating, while the soft tops of the weeds are unable to get through the paper. The place where the spikes strike the paper obliquely and do not get through is shown by small elevations and a knife incision permits their emergence. These rapidly overtake the ones which have penetrated earlier. A type of roofing paper was used and a few trials on several acres showed the possibility of decreasing the actual cost of production from 50 to 80 per cent, and an increase of about ten tons of cane per acre, due to the elimination of weeds. That paper was, however, a rather expensive product and the next step in industrial research was to make this type of paper from Bagasse, which is sugar cane from which sugar has been extracted. This has been worked out satisfactorily on a small scale in this country by Arthur D. Little, Inc., and a 20-ton mill is now in operation making sufficient paper to care for the need. We have heard mention made of the progress of associations in England fostered by the Government. We have in this country asso- ciations that are doing equally well and have many years of success behind them. The National Canners' Association is an outstanding example of what can be done for industry through cooperative work. It was one of the first in the field. The entire product of the industry has been imj^roved ; virtually the whole industry has been elevated. This does not mean that the products of inferior grade before this coopera- tive work began are now equal to the best, but that the poor ones have been improved and the best ones have also benefited. The men who were formerly able to make the best quality are still able to do and A Decenxial Record 161 better able with the help of research. Members who formerly fought scientific control now recognize its value and their need for it. The Portland Cement Association has also accomplished a great deal, particularly in studying types of aggregates which are suitable for concrete. Often faihu-e in concrete is due to the use of excessive water in making the batcli. This research work done by the Associa- tion proves that if care is taken to use the right proportion of cement to give the proper binder, and not to use an excessive amount of water, any local aggregate when graded and classified can be used. This is becoming the general practice for roads and pavements and effecting considerable savings. The malleable iron industry has been saved from a secondary position by the application of industrial research. When this asso- ciation began its work the members bound themselves to conform to a high standard specification administered by the laboratory. If a cer- tain foundry was tin-ning out a poor grade of iron, that foundrj^ was visited and steps taken to put its product on a higher level. Those who were making the best iron before this work was undertaken are still making the best iron although the tensile strength and other physical characteristics are higher for tlie entire industry. Individuals and concerns have been benefited witliout interfering with the progress which comes from individual initiative, and the resourcefulness of the concerns. Commercial laboratories are filling a very real need. ]Many manufacturers who can not afford to establish research laboratories and whose research problems are not receiving the attention of asso- ciations find these laboratories very useful and necessary. The Bureau of Standards, the Bureau of Chemistry, the Bureau of ]Mines and many other of the forty Government bureaus devoted to scientific research must, of course, be mentioned as factors in estab- lishing our high position in research. In the estimation of our foreign friends they rank higli. It often seems, as Mr. Everest has told us, tliat the funds are not as large as they shovild be, but the total appro- priations for scientific work constitute a sum which is not inconsider- al)le, and I think we are probably doing more than any other Govern- ment. Other Governments liave accepted our researcli results and tliese institutions have added mucli to our fame abroad as well as at A Decennial Record 163 home. But we are not doing enough and have not enough money at our disposal. The industrial fellowship plan of the Mellon Institute carries with it the idea of developing men for a particular field and at the same time solving the given problem. The success has been marked. All in all, we have reason to believe that we do stand high in industrial research. The present condition is very promising for eventual and undisputed leadership. A list of nearly 300 industrial research laboratories has been pub- lished by the National Research Council and this does not include all in the United States. The scale on which certain of our investigations are handled is now a very hopeful sign. In the National Electric Lamp Association we find something like 2,000 men on development^ work, 600 of them being highly trained technical men. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company have 1,300 giving their time to industrial research. In the Du Pont Company we find there are nearly as many engaged in industrial research, and in many other corpora- tions large bodies of scientific men constantly at work trying to estab- lish principles and gain knowledge that will improve process and product. At one time in tlie rapidly changing conditions it was considered a sign of weakness to acknowledge that things were not as they ought to be and to spend money on scientific work. Public service corporations who meet great difficulty in steadily increasing costs and fixed rates must turn to scientific work to find means of doing an increased amount of work more efficiently. As an example of the application of scientific research we can cite the long- distance telephone. When the problem was to talk across the conti- nent there were two methods of attack. One was the development of a special instrument with a loud transmitter for long distance work; the second was to find ways to use the instrument now installed. The second line of attack was folloM-ed out with the result that eventually the working radius of every telephone was increased a thousand fold without changing the instrument, while the first method would have required the re-equipment of the entire telephone system of the country. Research activities are increasing and industries are employing the very best research men they can possibly find. Today the cry is 164- The Forest Pkoducts Larokatoky for better trained men ratlier tlian merely for more men who can work along scientific lines. This is another very hopeful sign. More and more fellowships have been established and the policy of establishing fellowships can be encouraged particularly where fundamental re- search in educational institutions is concerned. The associations I have mentioned number something like twenty at the present time. The National Canners' Association today is spending as much on one problem as the whole laboratory cost at the start. They have found industrial research a very wxll-paying in- vestment. There have been a number of new associations founded for coop- erative research. A Plant Protection Institute has been formed to further the study of methods for controlling injurious insects and plant diseases. The Petroleum Institute is another good example of the trend of the times, and I might also, in this connection, mention the support of scientific endeavor along fundamental lines by individuals who have heretofore directed their attention more toward commercial lines. However, if you had not come here I might have better evidence that you need conversion to the cause of research. The fact that you are here to attend the celebration of the laboratory's great decade of industrial research should answer for you, for if you needed any argu- ment to convert you to research, you would not be attending the birth- day party. Let us turn for a moment to a consideration of what we might do to strengthen our position as a world power in industrial research. I think first and foremost we need more fundamentally trained men and women who will step into and carry on industrial research. By fundamentally trained men and women, I mean those who really know the various sciences involved and Avho can fit into any need as do the white corpuscles of the body. As you know white corpuscles can be- come brain, tissue, bone, etc. — whatever the need may he at the time. If industry is to get the most benefit from industrial research, I believe it to be essential that the laboratory be made just as important as the advertising or production department. I think such a depart- ment rightfully becomes a part of the organization, but that does not mean that such firms can not join in the cooperative solution of the fundamental questions of science. They can cooperate on such com- A Decennial Record 165 Dion i^roblems as fuel and smoke a})atenient. Improved working con- ditions and the use of the abnormal individual in industry are other good examples of cooperative work which the industries can undertake. The industries need to increase the number of unrestricted fellowships, and those industries that have profited through research should take steps to repay tlie debt tliey owe educational institutions. I do not believe in doing that sim])ly })y adding more fellowsliips, but the indus- tries ought to make an allowance for their supervision. We find that our Government laboratories are losing their best people on account of the inability to pay tliem what is necessary to relieve them of financial worry and to keep them in their employ. To discuss it further is useless; as Mark Twain said of the weather, "We talk about it a great deal, but nothing is done". It becomes very dis- couraging in many universities that steps are not taken to properly increase the remuneration of the teachers. This is one of the largest and greatest outstanding needs. Xot all teachers can conduct re- search, but wherever one is found, he should be relieved of teaching and endowed so that liis time can be spent on tliis work. Research should ])e fostered in educational institutions and the spirit of research encouraged by tlie estal)lishment of research professorships and more fellowships. The direct lielp of tlie industries to the government laboratories has been stressed. Adequate appropriations have not been secured for the Forest Products I.a))oratory. The establishment of Advisory Committees M'ho can consider prol)lems from the viewpoint of the man who must eventually make the proper application of the data discov- ered should be encouraged. I believe funds for the direct support of the types of research in which each industry is concerned should come from the groups to be benefited and not from the Government alone. I am confident when industry ])ays directly to the sunport of well establislied researcli, it has more interest and is far more liable to apply the results obtained. Industry should be })rought to realize its obliga- tion to pay its debt to science by subscribing regularly a percentage of i)rofits for the support of fundamental research. There are indus- tries where people are still living on tlie ])rofits u])on investments in brains made by their ancestors, and they do not care to make any con- tributions themselves to industrial research for their descendants to utilize. I am sure that manv of the industries have no intention of 166 The Forest Products Laboratory being parasitic, but many of them must be brought to realize their de- pendence on science, its bearing on commerce and the desirability of doing the right thing to promote work upon fundamentals. Another place where the industries can help is in the publication of bibliographies which are not properly cared for at present. There are many people who cheerfully support other forms of publication but find lists and bibliographies unattractive, even though they are essential for scientific work. There is always great difficulty in getting sufficient financial backing for such work, and yet there should be no delay in trying to find out from time to time what has been done and what is going on. The public as the ultimate benefactor of all this work clearly has its duty to perform in this connection. That it is the public to which we must look is shown by the expe- rience at the Brunner-Mond plant. The president and vice-president recently recommended that 100,000 pounds (sterling) be devoted to research in the universities, but the stockholders who had already re- ceived large dividends turned down this suggestion even though their business depends upon science for its existence and advancement. I think that sort of thing comes from the lack of a proper under- standing of science. For example, an advertisement appeared in a recent paper offering to pay a satisfactory cook $2,500, and in the same service there was also an opportunity for an experienced chemist at $1,800, and a laboratory assistant in pathology was offered $950. I presume we must have good cooks, but it does seem that a trained sci- entist should ])e worth as much. The support of the government lab- oratories by the public at large is, of course, for the benefit of us all. Most of the speeches made in Congress appear to be designed for con- sumption by the people back home. If these people back home could only be convinced that we must have and spend money in supporting scientific work in their interests, as Mr. Everest has outlined, I am sure it would be rapidly forthcoming and research could proceed on an ade- quate scale. There are many sciences available for research that have not been called upon by industry. There is, for instance, the great group of biological sciences with which industry should become acquainted, and we can render service by introducing the two parties to their mutual advantage. We have the. ability in this country to do the proper type of industrial research which will keep us in the lead. What can we A Decennial Record 1G7 do to bring about the improved conditions which I have attempted to describe? First of all, we can work through our various scientific, technical and business organizations. We can work in many instances as indi- viduals getting the story to others more effectively at times than can any organization. All the great organizations in natural sciences are represented in the National Research Council which was introduced to you by Pro- fessor jNIason last night. The Council is an opportunity for coopera- tion in science and a clearing house for research. The National Re- search Council is not a government organization, but enjoys the help of the Federal bureaus and scientists. It has a wide backing, and large funds have been obtained from certain foundations and indus- tries which wish to help in carrying on this work of encouragement and stimulation. The money for cooperative research must come from those who will be benefited, and as an example I would cite the sup- port of the committee on Forestry by the Southern Pine Association. The Council has a deep interest in all phases of industries based on the forest and its products and invites your cooperation and your use of its facilities. Whatever else the war has done for us, it seems to me that it has given people generally a little bit better insight into M'hat science is, what it has done, and what it can do. We should preach research to educational industries, to individuals, to industries. We must get the support required for tlie research that will keep America in the very forefront. Of all civilized countries we have the greatest responsibility in using our great reserves of natural resources, for they are almost world reserves. True conservation is based on intelligent use, and such use requires knowledge such as comes only from research. The Forest Products Laboratory with its ten years of creditable work to recommend it can surely look forward with enthusiasm to the next decade during which time, as in the past, it will do its share in making America's place unquestionably in the lead. 168 The Forest Products Laijoratory Remarks of Mr. Foleij FoUotcing Mr. Hoxce's Talk It must be a satisfaction to all of you to have heard that the lumber industry does not hesitate to take advantage of the help it can get from industrial research. Those of us who were privileged to be present when the plans of the Forest Products Laboratory were orig- inally talked over can not help but look back with admiration upon the foresight of those who gave the incentive to this wonderful organi- zation. The lumbermen of the country have not been ready to acknowl- edge the usefulness of the foresters, as have been the wood-using in- dustries, on account of the work done at the laboratory. However, there has been no group of men who have more earnestlj^ backed up the efforts of the Forest Products I^al)oratory and the Forest Service to get the money necessary to prosecute the investigations at Madison tlian have the lumbermen, and we are going to hear some of the prob- lems of tlie lumber industry presented by a member of the committee on economics of the IS'ational Lumbermen's Association. It is very unfortunate that Mr. Scanlon who was scheduled to present this paper has been unable to come, but the committee on arrangements were exceedingly fortunate in getting in his stead, at the eleventh hour, a gentleman whose wide experience amply fits him to cover the subject very thoroughly. I take pleasure in introducing Mr. Gilchrist. A MlliACM-: OK CIIE.MISTRY— CoXVKK.SIOX OK SAWJJUST INTO STOCK FOOl 170 The Forest Products Laboratory SOME PROBLEMS OF THE LUMBER INDUSTRY TV. A. Gilchrist J National Lumber Manufacturers' Association Ladies and Gentlemen: This is a pleasure even though it is a substitute arrangement. You know Mr. Scanlan who was to speak is a prominent and successful lumberman and an earnest believer in this activity, and it is my regret that he was not able to be here to present this problem in the masterful manner that he would. I have heard some of my friends say "By all means say something comphmentary about Madison". I heard yesterday our good friend Mr. Weiss, speak of the bathing facilities afforded in the vicinity. I have tried them all and I can say that after an early morning swim in this lake, one can undertake almost any obligation in connection with the problem confronting us. Our industry is credited as being the largest consumer of the products of the forest. Our chief forester, Colonel Greeley, made the statement that the forest gro^vth is but one-fourth of the normal or annual consumption. I regret being compelled to make this statement, but it seems to be the consensus of public opinion that the average lumberman is opposed to a federal, or forestry policy. I hasten to correct this idea. We lum- bermen are in sympathy with any reasonable forest policy. It is a broad problem which cannot be solved by the theoretical gentlemen, the practical ones, or the technical ones, but only by all of them working cooperatively. I have every reason to believe that they can bring forth a policy handling this most important problem that will be worth our while. We must bear in mind that we need a conservative one, one that will endure and one to which our posterity fifty years hence will say "Well done". That is our spirit, and that is what we want incorporated in that policy. We lumbermen insist that there shall be provision made for the proper utilization of the natural stands of timber by economical means. We believe that the opportunity exists for the handling of that timber A Decenxial Record 171 and without burdensome restrictions. Gentlemen, it affords me pleas- ure as a lumberman to make that statement, and I trust that the other lumbermen of my acquaintance appreciate the situation and will go forth and spread this gospel at all times. I am a lumberman. The definition of a lumberman as commonly understood by the public is one who maliciously and wantonly destroys the forests. They are presumed to be a rough set of men ; men without char- acter. Being frontier men, naturally they are presumed to be devoid of the niceties that go to make life worth living, an uneducated class. Their mathematics are presumed to be sadly neglected. Even as much as in the case of my early acquaintance, Capt. Jack Downer, a master of a lake lumber cargo steamer. In the early days of the lumber indus- try, in the vicinity of the Great Lakes, small steamers were used to transport the cargoes of lumber from point of manufacture to the lower lake ports, the points of consumption. Upon departure from tlie port of loading, a document was handed to the ship's master indi- cating the quantity of lumber and the freight rate per thousand feet expressed in shillings. The cargo upon this particular voyage con- sisted of 392,782 feet of lumber at a rate of 13 shillings. Captain Jack's early education had been much neglected. The period of the voyage was three days. In order to determine the amount of freiglit money to be collected, the captain spent all of the three days in a vain effort to determine the sum. No two computations resulted ahke, and as the voyage was nearing completion, with the table in front of him covered with bits of paper in his effort to arrive at this result, in exasperation Captain Jack beat the table forcibly with his fist and ex- claimed, "Why in h— 1 don't they make these rates $1.00 or $2.00 so that a man can figure them". Wastes were excessive in the harvesting of the forest, the me- clianical appliances were likewise destructive and wasteful about the mills. But, gentlemen, bear in mind that the lumber business, no dif- ferent from any other commercial industry, is an economic problem, and failure confronts it if pursued in any other manner. Within my memory, the early lumberman was unable to indulge himself in any of the modern luxuries — his food was of a substantial character, ])ut consisted principally of beans and salt pork — for the 172 The Forest Products Laboratory reason that the profits were such as did not permit of more. The early, successful lumberman was a student of economics in his own way, and those who were not failed. The successful ones interpreted the term, "merchantable" — that which could be harvested at a profit — accu- rately, and there are many instances of financial disaster of those who failed to comprehend. The term "lumber king" and "lumber baron" were earned only by those who deserved it, and came only to those with foresight, wis- dom, and above all, with the ability to discern the economics of the problem. The term, "merchantable", is a variable one in the classification of either timber or its products. It differs at this date from that of thirty years ago ; it differs today as to localities ; for instance, low qual- ity timber classed as mecliantable in the state of Xew York would likely be classed as being below that term in the states of Texas or California, namely, unprofitable to harvest. Therefore, care must be taken in discussing problems of our industry, as they are purely problems of economics. Other industries possess the same and similar problems. Gold mining in the West was no exception. Witness the tailing piles of these early mines being worked by Chinamen. The famous Black Hill gold mining district of the Dakotas, a low valued ore for years, wasted a value of eighty cents per ton in tailing, when their raw material was presumed to carry but some $2.30, as it was more economical to return to the raw material supply than attempt too great an extraction. The sugar producer permits a waste of two to four per cent of sucrose and replenishes with raw material. I retired from the lumber business and for some years engaged in the production of sugar. In one employment I had a preceptor, a gen- tleman trained in the Eiu-opean school of economics, a most competent sugar man. One day in discussing our problems, he stated, "Gilchrist, I was 15 years in learning American methods of sugar manufacture". The explanation M'as based upon low Eiuropean wages and high cost of raw material compared to high American wages and low cost of raw material. It is a simple problem in economics. A number of years ago. when this wonderful Forest Service was organized, young men representing this institution appeared before us lumbermen at our conventions. These young men upon all occa- A Decennial Record 173 sions were most affable, and they frequently addressed us. We in- dulged them. We were good natured. Some of the statements made by these young college men — always good looking and enthusiastic chaps — we poor lumbermen engaged in wallering logs from the swamps envied them, for sure they possessed a degree from some uni- versity as foresters, and, therefore, we solicited their advice — but — some of the proposals made by these young men were interesting at least — but blamed impractical. Frefjuently they indulged in predic- tions as to the financial outcome of our industry; on some occasions they indulged in comments indicating that portions of our industry could fairly be classified as profiteering were w^e to advance the price of our commodity. I am free to admit that many lumbermen considered the com- ments of some of these young foresters as right impertinent. I Avish some of these young men, after an experience of some fifteen years, would review their notes of these addresses, and, of course to them- selves, conclude M-hat changes they Avould make in the advice offered at that particular time. The evolution was and is as my sugar friend explained — Ameri- can industry can not be conducted upon European principles. The forester's training is by European instruction or its influence upon such instruction. Required — American instructions applicable to American industry. I offer a ray of hope. The modern American lumberman while a frontierman of necessity, for timber is only available in such vicini- ties in the main, has himself develo])ed. At least 25 per cent and possibly 40 per cent of the present generation of lumbermen of my acquaintance who are directing a modern lumber business are college men. While sucli training is not of prime necessity to the success of the lumber business, it indicates a ty])e of man whose ])rain is ])resumed to have been afforded an o])portimity to develop. Therefore, these men, usually being ones of influence, should be more receptive to prob- lems required in the advance of our industry. Certain activities of this wonderful institution, the Forest Prod- ucts I.,aboratory, are attracting the earnest attention of members of our industry. Being engaged in the commercial side of the lumber business, I hear comments of the most favorable nature, that I fear do not come to the ears of those sincere men engaged in directing this 174 The Forest Products Laboratory activity. The packing box investigation is of inestimable value. The problems associated with the seasoning of lumber are so far reaching that it in itself is a subject for discussion that would engage attention indefinitely. However, these are problems of the products of the for- ests only. There is another field of activity that requires exploitation. It has to do with the prevention of wastes and the use of the unpreventable wastes — if there be any. Many lumbermen believe that the policy of harvesting the mature stands of timber, by the most economical means, at this time or as soon as possible, is proper. The imposition of burden- some restrictions that retard such a pohcy we believe to be uneco- nomical. To a degree this is a mechanical problem. Our industry has been classed, and rightfully so, as a mechanically progressive industry. The development has been directed along the lines of labor-saving devices. The success of such development is observed in the sawmill proper, where particularly laborious tasks have been eliminated. However, there remain certain tasks which are particularly laborious in certain portions of our operations, and I will touch upon some of these later. We have, however, as an industry, neglected mechanical develop- ment M^hich tends to reduce waste. It is indicated by surveys of some specific branches of lumber production that about one-third of the cubic contents of the tree ulti- mately reaches the form of lumber. Some seven per cent of loss occurs in the form of stumps. Another seventeen per cent occurs in the me- chanical losses of sawdust and shavings. These three items of losses are worthy of attack. A survey of a yellow pine operation indicated that there existed a preventable loss of an amount of 450 feet per acre, or approximately two per cent of the original stand of timber on this area. This was preventable by severing the stump at a line six inches above the ground level. A premium was offered the woodsmen who did this cutting to encourage them to reduce this stump height, explaining to them that they too were indirectly interested in the perpetuation of the life of the sawmill institution, and by so doing an additional amount of some 300,000 feet of timber might be removed from each section of land cut. This method of cutting is most laborious. Men must crouch in an awkward position. Many of the men objected, in spite of the induce- A Decennial Record 175 ments offered. I pay tribute to the proprietor of this business who perfected this seemingly shght economy, for the obstacles were many.. There exists no mechanism that accomphshes this task to perfec- tion, the common and principal fault being a lack of portability of such machines as are now available, due to excess weight. The task that confronts us is one of mere engineering — to establish rules covering the creation of suitable mechanism. Who better can accomphsh this than an engineer cooperating with the woodsmen? ^ Funds in hmited quantities are available for the establishment of a piece of mechanism to assist in the inquiry into the possibilities of circular saws. This is being conducted by the National Lumber Man- ufacturers' Association. The excessive saw kerf in the apparatus used in certain required operations about the sawmill is well known. A sawmill operation is a commercial institution and can poorly serve as an experimental laboratory. It is common knowledge that certain re- cently developed alloys in steel have solved many manufacturing prob- lems in the metal tool trades— in our own industry in the planing mill. The planing mill equipment of ten or twelve years ago is now obsolete. The manufacturers of saws have been limited in their possible experi- ment and development, for present sawmill equipment prohibited experimenting. The factor of speeds of cutting points, an important element in production, was defined ; the human element likewise is in- volved, having to do with the care and sharpening (filing) of saws. The saw manufacturer is hedged in by the steel manufacturer, the sawmill machinery builder, and the sawmill operator. Without the cooperation of all of these, no progress can be made. It is proposed to install equipment for experimental purposes of a type where speeds are available to a degree that does not now exist in commercial mechanism. The saw manufacturer, the steel producer, the metallurgist are invited to investigate and cooperate in these de- velopments. They are responding with a will, and so the sawmill ma- chinery builder and the lumber producer hope for progress. It is to be desired that the progress, for the present at least is to be in the direction of reclaiming some of these losses attributed to saw- dust, and not in increased capacities. This problem is merely one of economics. It must be made a profitable one. Therefore, with this in mind, a survey of such losses, their allocations, and whether they are ^'^^ '^'i"'^ FoKEST Pkoducts Lahoratory of a preventable nature should be made. This should be followed bv -i later survey to determine if they still exist after the introduction of mechanism that is to be developed to utilize them in some ])rofitable manner. This is a momentous problem and one that manufacturino- lum- bermen and stumpage owners should pay for. for they alone benefit dn-ectly thereby. I submit to you gentlemen this statement of condi- tions, and ask for your sincere assistance in support of an activity to spread this information to the lumbermen themselves, for "If there be any criticism to be passed upon the lumbermen it is that they have kept their achievements too much to themselves. Thev have been satisfied to make a large amount of worthless land extremely valuable, and have not taken the trouble to explain their work to the people at large. This IS a period of great publicity and large advertising, and the lumber industry must realize this fact in order to keep abreast of the times" This quotation, substituting the name of lumbermen for iron ore miners, is from a poblic document treating of iron ore deposits in the state of Minnesota, and indicates the pleasant relations that exist be- tween commercial and technical branches of this particular industry, and is a sentiment that I wish might be encouraged and intensified be- tween the practical lumbermen and the technical division of the forest products industry. APPEXDIX REGISTRATION LIST Forest Products Laboratory Decennial Celebration, Madison, Wisconsin, July 22 and 23, 1920 Ackerman, E. D., Waterproof Adhesives Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Adams, F. R., Pacific Lumber Co., Chicago, 111. 7\lexander, John E., Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co., Port Edwards, Wis. Alexander, John E., Mrs., Port Edwards, Wis. Alexander, L. M., Pres., Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co., Port Ed- wards, Wis. Alexander, L. M., Mrs., Port Edwards, Wis. Altman, N. A., J. W. Butler Paper Co., Chicago, 111. Anderson, W. R., Publisher, "Packages", Milwaukee, Wis. iVngier, F. J., Baltimore & Ohio R. R., Baltimore, Md. Babbitt, W. C, Gen. Sec'y., Xatl. Assn. of Wood Turners, South Bend, Ind. Baker, John S., Baker Mfg. Co., Evansville, Wis. Baker, Wm. B., Secy., Nat'l Assn. Chair Mfgrs., Chicago, 111. Barr, H. G., J. I. Case Co., Racine, Wis. Barth, Kurt, Barrett Co., Chicago, 111. Bartle, F. C, Mrs., Madison, Wis. Bartle, Gladys. Madison, Wis. Bartle, Vernetta. Madison, Wis. Bauer, Carl, Doesch t^ Bauer Co., Chicago, 111. Belknap, G. F., Aeroshade Co., Waukesha, Wis. Birge, E. A., Pres., University of Wisconsin, Madison. Wis. Bitting, A. W.. Dr., Glass Containers Assn., Chicago, 111. Blackburn, Robert, Wilbur Lumber Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Blanco, J. P.. San Juan, Porto Rico. Boehme, E. E., International Creosoting Co.. Galveston, Tex. Boettcher, Albert E., Milwaukee Chair Co., Milwaukee, Wis. 180 The Forest Products Laboratory Bolz, H. C, Bolz Cooperage Corp., St. Louis, Mo. Eolz, P. T., Pres., Bolz Cooperage Corp., St. Louis, Mo. Brandenburg, O. D., Pres., Democrat Printing Co.; Mng. Editor, Madison Democrat, Madison, Wis. Brantingham, C. S., Emerson-Brantingham Co., Rockford, 111. Brantingham, C. S., Mrs., Rockford, 111. Bray. Chas. P., Baggage Mfg. Assn., Conway Bldg., Cliicago, 111. Bremer, G. B., J. J. Fitzpatrick Lumber Co., 3Iadison, Wis. Brown, H. H., Pejepscott Paper Co., Brunswick. IMaine. Bryant, R. C, Yale University, New Haven. Conn. Buckstaff, R. N., Buckstaff Co., Oshkosh, Wis. Buehler, Walter, Barrett Co., New York. X. Y. Burgess, C. F., Pres., C. F. Burgess Laboratory. INIadison, Wis. Burgess, Mrs. C. F., Madison, Wis. Card, J. B., Central Creosoting Co., Chicago, 111. Caswell, A. B., Pfister k Vogel Leather Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Chapman, Arnold, International Alcohol Corp., Xew York, N. Y. Cheyney, E. G., LTniversity of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn. (Chief, Division of Forestry) . Clark. Allen W., American Car & Foundry Co., Jeffersonville, Ind. Clark, Mrs. Allen W., Jeffersonville. Ind. Clark, W. A., Chief Engr., Duluth & Superior R. R., Duluth, Minn. Clausen, F. H., Van Brunt Mfg. Co.. Horicon, Wis. Compton, Wilson, Sec.-Mgr., National Lumber Mfgrs. Assn., Chi- cago, 111. Cone, A. B., "Lumber World Review", Chicago, 111. Conrad, Elizabeth, Madison, Wis. Conzet, G. M., Fire Inspector, State of ^linnesota, St. Paul, Minn. Cooper, R. E., Spanish River Pulp & Paper Co., Soo, Ontario. Cornell, Her])ert W., Milwaukee, Wis. Corry, W. J., Foster Creek Lumber & Mfg. Co., Madison, Wis. Cox, W. T., State Forester, St. Paul, Minn. Coye, C. W., Industrial Specialist, Grand Rapids, INIich. Crawford, Carl G., American Creosoting Co., Louisville. Ky. Curtis, C. E., Wisconsin Cabinet & Panel Co., New London, Wis. Cushman, R. E., Northwestern Timber Co., ^lendota, 111. A Decennial Record 181 Dalil, R. D., Shevlin, Carpenter & Clarke, ^Minneapolis. ]\Iinn. Dana, S. T.. U. S. Forest Service, Washington, D. C. Davies, Luther, Oshkosh, Wis. (lAuiiberman). Defebaugh, Carl W., "American Lumberman", Chicago, 111. Demartini, F., Sec, Baggage Mfgr. Assn., Conway Bldg., Chicago, 111. Dudley, J. E., :Madison, Wis. Dudley, J. E., Mrs., Madison, Wis. Dumond, Louis A., Chicago Assn. of Commerce, Chicago, 111. Dunlap, Frederick, University of Missouri, Columbia, ]Mo. Esau, Ralph, Barrett Co., Chicago, 111. Everest, D. C, Secv. and Gen. INIgr., Marathon Paper Co., Wausau, Wis. Fitzpatrick, J. J., J. J. Fitzpatrick Lumber Co., Madison, Wis. Foley, John, Pennsylvania R. R. Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Frantz, S. G., Crossett Lumber Co., Crossett, Ark. Fredrickson, E. A., Virginia & Rainy Lake Co., Mimieapolis, Minn. Fredrickson, S. D., A. D. & J. V. Fredrickson Lumber Co., Madison,, Wis. Frick, O. H., :Milwaukee, Wis. Fuller, L. E.. Editor, "The lAimber & Veneer Consumers", Chicago, 111. Furlong, Edward, "Packages", Milwaukee, Wis. Gilchrist, W. A., National Lumber Mfgrs. Assn., Chicago, 111. Goodman, R. B., R. B. Goodman Lbr. Co., Marinette, Wis. Goshnes, C. E., D. L. & W. Railroad, Paterson, X. J. Grady, W. H., American Creosoting Co., Louisville, Ky. Graves, L. W., J. P. Devine Co., Buffalo, N. Y. Greeley, W. B., Forester. L^. S. Forest Service, Washington, D. C. Green, George R., Pennsylvania State College of Forestry, State Col- lege, Pa. Greider, C. E., B. F. Sturtevant Co., Chicago, 111. Greider, C E., Mrs., Chicago. 111. Grow, J. H., Allis-Chalmers :SIfg. Co., Milwaukee, Wis. 182 The Forest Products Laboratory Gullickson, O., Pres., Chicago Furniture Assn.; also Churchill Cabi- net Co., Chicago, 111. Gulhckson, S., Churchill Cabinet Co., Chicago, 111. Hamilton, C. L., Weyerhauser Forest Products Co., St. Paul, Minn. Hanson, Adolph, J. I. Case Co., Racine, Wis. Harder, Geo. N., Eib Lake Lumber Co., Rib Lake, Wis. Harrington, C. L., Wisconsin Conservation Comm., Madison, Wis. Hemingway, E. E., Wisconsin Timber & Land Co., Mattoon, Wis. Hendricks, Mr., Madison, Wis. Henning, S. B., Anderson-Tully Co., Memphis, Tenn. LEenrv, A. T., Morgan Co., Oshkosh, Wis. Henry, G. E., Editor, "Barrel & Box", Chicago, 111. Hickey, E. H., Sec.-Treas., "Packages", jNIilwaukee, Wis. Hirt, J. F., Vice-Pres., Management Service Co., Chicago, 111. Hogue, C. J., West Coast Lumbermans' Assn., New York City. Holbrook, L. W., Asst. Treas., Shevlin Co., Minneapohs, Minn. Holderness, Robert M., Bain Wagon Co., Kenosha, Wis. Honnell, F. IL, AVilson & Co., Chicago, 111. Horn, S. F., Editor, "Southern Lumberman", Xashville, Tenn. Hosford, Roger S., American Tel. & Tel. Co., Xew York, N. Y. Hosmer, Ralph S., Dept. of Forestry, Cornell L^niv., Ithaca, N. Y. How, H. W., J. P. Devine Co., Buffalo. X. Y. Howard, H. C, National Assn. of Box Mfgrs., Chicago, 111. Howe, H. E., National Research Council, Washington, D. C. Howson, E. T., "Railway Maintenance Engineer", Chicago, 111. Hoyt. H. B., Supt., Timber Preserving Plant, B. R. & P. Railroad, ' Bradford, Pa. Hubbard, C. W., Pres., Northwestern Timl^er Co., Mendota, 111. Hurd, N. L., Mid-West Box Co., Chicago, 111. Imrie, J. E., Cutler Desk Co., Buffalo, N. Y. Imrie, J. E., Mrs., Buffalo, N. Y. Jackson, Carl D., Railroad Commission, INIadison, Wis. Johnson, B. A., Editor, "Lum])er World Review", Chicago, 111. Jones. B. W., Lawyer, Madison, Wis. Jones, Mrs. B. W.,'Madison, Wis. A Decennial Record 183 Jones, G. W., Appleton, Wis. Jones, J. E., Southern Pine Assn., New Orleans, La. Jones, T. E., Athletic Director, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Joyce, A. R., Joyce-Watkins Co., Chicago, 111. Judd, Roy, Oxford, Wis. Karges, E. F., Karges Furniture Co., Evansville, Ind. Keig, J. R., Treating Inspector, A. T. & S. F. R. R., Chicago, 111. Keith, L. P., National Ebr. Mfgrs. Assn., Chicago, 111. Kelly, T. E., Madison, Wis. Keyser, Henry, Western Grip k Trunk Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Kimberly, H. H., Morgan Co., Oshkosh, Wis. Kittridge, J. Jr., Forest Service, Washington, D. C. Knowlton, H. A., Reed College, Portland, Ore. Kraber, G. L., Turbine Air Tool Co., Cleveland, Oliio. Krafft, V. W., Sec, Associated Cooperage Industries of America, St. Louis, Mo. Krenz, M. B.. :Mrs., Chicago, 111. Lamb, Geo. N., American Walnut Mfgrs. Assn., Chicago, 111. Landstrom, O. E., Rockford Veneer & Panel Co., Rockford, 111. Leicester, W. F., Casein Glue Manufacturing Co., Chicago, 111. Lemke, O. C, Underwood Veneer Co., Wausau, Wis. Leopold, Fredrick, Leopold Desk Co., Burlington, Iowa. I>ester, S. A., Doyon & Rayne Lumber Co., Madison, Wis. I^ong, H. A., Automotive Wood Wheel Mfgrs. Assn., Chicago, 111. Lovejoy, P. S., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Lunenschloss, L. L., Foster Creek Lbr. & Mfg. Co., Madison, Wis. MacLean, ^M. 31., Chief Chemist, Dodge INIfg. Co., Mishawaka, Wis. Mallen, H., H. Z. ^Mallen Co., Chicago, 111. ]\Iandenl)erg, E. C, Barrett Co., Chicago, 111. Marscliall, A. J., ]Marscliall Dairy Laboratory, INIadison, Wis. Martin, Gus, Doesch & Bauer Co., Chicago, 111. Mason, INIax, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Mason, ]Mrs. 3Iax, Madison, Wis. ^laurer, E. R.. University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. JNIauthe, Wm., Casket :Mfg. Assn. of the U. S., Fond du Lac, Wis. 184 The Forest Products Laboratory Maxwell, Hu, "American Lumberman", Chicago, 111. McCaffrey, jNL E., University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. McCullough, E. W., Chamber of Commerce of the U. S. A., Wash- ington, D. C. McKeever, Francis H., 4-Ones Wirebound Box Mfgrs. Assn., Chi- cago, III. McLarsen, A., Alfred Decker & Cohn, Chicago, 111. McLoughhn, J. M., Gen. Mgr., Wisconsin Cabinet & Panel Co., New London, AVis. McNair, C. J., Jr., Northwest Paper Co., Cloquet, Minn. Mead, Geo. W., Pres., Consohdated Water Power & Paper Co., Grand Rapids, Wis. Meeker, E. W., Editor, "Hardwood Record", Chicago, 111. Meeker, E. W., Mrs., Chicago, 111. Merritt, L. G., Merritt Engineering & Sales Co., Lockport, N. Y. Merritt, L. G., Mrs., Lockport, N. Y. Miller, R. B., State Forester, Urbana, 111. Moak, E. R., Managing Editor, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wis. ,; ^' ! Moon, Franklin, Syracuse University, Syracuse, X. Y. Moronej^ Robert E., Dallas, Texas. Morris, Fred H., Union Cedar Co., Toledo, Ohio. Morris, Leslie, Chicago Mill & Lumber Co., Chicago, 111. JNIowry, Don E., Sec, Madison Assn. of Commerce, Madison, Wis. Nichol, F. M., Turbine Air Tool Co., Cleveland, Ohio. Norberg, Elizabeth, Portland, Ore. Osborne, A. L., Oshkosh, Wis. (Xatl Lbr. :Mfgrs. Assn.). Paul, C. E., Construction Engineer. National Lbr. ]Mfgrs. Assn.. Chi- cago, 111. Tesivy, Geo. W., Dean, School of Forestry, Oregon Agric. College, Corvallis, Ore. Peery, Thomas D., Grand Rapids Veneer Works. Grand Rapids, Mich. Peters, T. G., Forest Service, Washington, D. C. A Decenxial Recoed 185 Pettiboiie. G. D., Xational Assn. of Upholstered Furniture Mfgrs., Chicago, 111. Philipp, E. L.. Governor, Commonwealth of Wisconsin, Madison, A\^is. Pratt, C. A., Tucoma. Wash. Prien. J. C, Passenger Agent, C, M. & St. P. Ry., Madison, Wis. Pullen, King H., Southern Pine Assn., Xew Orleans, La. Quinn, D. L., Chicago Mill & Lumber Co., Chicago, 111. Quinn, D. L., Mrs., Chicago, 111. Quisna, C. L., Weyerhauser Forest Products, St. Paul, Minn. Padsch, R. M., Thilmany Pulp & Paper Co., Kaukauna. Wis. Rayne, Fred W., Doyon & Rayne Lumber Co., ^Madison, Wis. Redman, Kenneth, B. F. Sturtevant Co., Chicago, 111. Reiff, E.. Casket Mfgrs. Assn. of of America, St. Paul, Minn. Rhodes, E. R., Standard Furniture Co., Herkimer. X. Y. Rhodes, J. E., Southern Pine Assn. Xew Orleans, La. Rice. Claude H., 3Iilwaukee Chair Co.. ^Milwaukee, Wis. Robinson, B. B., Hayes lona Co., lona, Mich. Sackett, H. S., Asst. Purchasing Agent. Chi., :\Iilw. k St. Paul, Chi- cago, 111. Salt, W. S., Container Club, Chicago. 111. Sameit, H. J., Acting Sec, Xational Implement & Vehicle Assn., Chicago, 111. Sassey, F. L., J. J. Fitzpatrick Lumber Co., Madison, Wis. Schmid. R. V.. Kimberley-Clarke Co.. Xeenah, Wis. Schmidt, H., Elgin Butter Tub Co., Elgin, 111. Schorger, A. W., Chemist, C. F. Burgess Laboratories. Madison, Wis. Schorger, Mrs. A. W.. Madison, Wis. Schuette, Henry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Schuh, J. P., Pres., Schuh-ISIason Lumber Co., Cairo, 111. Schuh. Julius, Mrs., Cairo. 111. Schuh, Margaret. Cairo, 111. Schulte. W. B.. C. F. Burgess Laboratories, Madison, Wis. Schultz, Marie, Chicago, 111. 186 The Forest Products Laboratory Schultz, Otto, Pres., National Piano Mfgrs. Assn. of America, Chi- cago, 111. Schultz, Otto, Jr., Chicago, 111. Sensenbrenner, J. Leslie, Kimberly-Clarke Co., Neenah, Wis. Shelly, W. P., Shevlin, Carpenter & Clarke Co., Minneapolis, Minn. Sliger, O., Mengel Co., Louisville, Ky. Slocum, Bert, Madison, Wis. Smith, Kent, Shevlin, Carpenter & Clarke Co., Minneapolis, Minn. Smith, Lowry, Asst. Division Engineer, Northern Pacific R. R., St. Paul, Minn. Smith, M. W., Duiron Co., Dayton, Ohio. Snider, Margaret, Madison, Wis. Sterling, E. D., Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Co., White Lake, Wis. Sterhng, Elsie, White Lake, Wis. Stocking, E. J., Central Creosoting Co., Chicago, 111. Stuart, M. H., National Basket & Fruit Packing Mfgrs. Assn., St. Joseph, Mich. Swan, O. T., Northern Hemlock & Hardwood Assn., Oshkosh, Wis. Swan, O. T., Mrs., Oshkosh, Wis. Tamlin, B. C, National Assn. of Corrugated Fibre Box Mfgrs. Assn., Chicago, 111. Taylor, C. M., Pennsylvania & Reading R. R., Port Reading, N. J. Taylor, Hugh K., Editor, "Lumber", St. Louis, Mo. Taylor, Lucy S., Madison, Wis. Taylor, S. D., Perkins Glue Co., South Bend, Ind. Taylor, W. D., Mrs., Madison, Wis. Thielens, A. B., Studebaker Corp., South Bend, Ind. Thomas, Leon I., Editor, "Factory", Chicago, 111. Thompson, P. M., Science Master, Windsor Collegiate College, Windsor, Ontario. Thorkelson, H. J., Business Mgr., Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Tiemann, J. H., Mrs., Madison, Wis. Tuttle, L. S., Minneapohs, Minn. (Wholesale Lumber Dealer). Van Camp, E. E., American Hardwood Mfgrs. Assn., Memphis, Tenn. Van Camp, E. E., Mrs., Memphis, Tenn. A Decexxial Record 187 Vilas, Dr. C. H., Board of Regents, University of Wisconsin, Mad- ison, Wis. Vogel, Fred A., Pfister & A'ogel Co., Milwaukee Wis., Representing "Tanners Council." Waldron, Eloise, Fargo, Xorth Dakota. Waldron, M. B., Agric. College of North Dakota, Fargo, N. D. Ward, A. F.. National Assn. Basket & Fruit Package Mfgrs. Assn., Plymouth. Ind. Weiss, H. F., C. F. Burgess Laboratories, Madison, Wis. Weiss, H. F., :SIrs., 31adison, Wis. Werbelo, F. C, Shawano Box Co., Shawano, Wis. Wetmore, R. W., Sec'y and Treas., Shevlin Co., Minneapolis, Minn. AVheary. Geo. H., Hartniaun Trunk Co.. Racine Wis., Representing Baggage ]Mfgrs. Assn. Wheaton, W. R., Manager, Pulpwood Co., Appleton, Wis. Wheaton, W. R., Mrs., Appleton, Wis. Wheeler, W. C, Student. University of Wisconsin, Madison. Wis. White, Thos. A., Pres.. Crane & :MacMahon, Inc., St. ^Nlarv's, Ohio k St. Mary's Wheel & Spoke Co., St. Mary's, Ohio. Windoes, Ralph F., Editor, "Furniture Mfgr. k Artisan", Grand Rapids, Mich. Winkenwerder. Hugo, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. Woodford, E. G., YaM-kev-Bissell Lumber Co., White Lake, Wis. Woodford, E. G., Mrs., White Lake, Wis. Wright, Dorothy, ]Madison, Wis. Wulpi, M., Plywood ^Manufacturers' ^Vssn., Chicago, 111. Yager, Louis, Engineer ]M. of Way, Northern Pacific R. R., St. Paul, :Minn. Yager, ]Mrs., St. Paul. ]Minn. Young. Edward J.. Foster Creek Lbr. & Mfg. Co., Madison, Wis. Young, Howard S., National Basket & Fruit Pkg. Mfgr. Assn., Indianapolis, Ind. Zelmer, Geo. R., Morgan Co., Oshkosh, Wis. Zelmer. Mr., Jr., Oshkosh, Wis. Zoelle, F. J., Passenger Agent, C. k N. W. Ry., Madison, Wis. A Deckxnial Kkcord 180 FORMER STAFF MEMBERS FoiiEST Products Laboratory Left the laboratory prior to July 1, 1920. S. F. Acree Manager, International Chemical Products Co. Eureka, Montana. Shirley W. Allen Charles T. Barnuin Francis ]M. Bond H. Stanley Bristol Frank E. Bonner Samuel Butterman James T^. Brownlee Forest Supervisor, Angeles National Forest Los Angeles, California. Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. General jNIanager, Corticelli Silk jSIills, Florence, Massachusetts. Department JNIanager, Baeder-Adamson Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Assistant Chief Engineer, U. S. Forest Service, Washington, D. C. Proprietor, Monarch Textile Company, Chicago, Illinois. Assistant District Engineer, \Z. S. Forest Service, Denver, Colorado. 190 The Fokest Products Laboratory Horace T. Burgess McGarvey Cline Robert E. Cooper Ollison Craig Richard A. Colgan Waynesville, Ohio. Vice-President, Florida Pine Company, Consulting Engineer, Consolidated Naval Stores Co., Jacksonville, Florida. Resident Engineer — Soo Mill, Spanish River Pulp & Paper Co. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Research Engineer, Underfeed Stoker Company, Detroit, Michigan. Forester, Diamond Match Co., Chico, Cal. Rufus Crane Assistant Professor of Engineering, Ohio Wesleyan University, Deleware, Ohio Clarence W. Coye C. K. Cooperrider Fredrick Dunlap Technical Expert, W. H. Coye Organization, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Grazing Examiner, U. S. Forest Service, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Consulting Forester, Columbia, Missouri. A Decennial Record 191 Edward P. Devlin Arthur J. DeSmidt Joseph D. Deihl Walter C. Daley Armin Elmendorf Nils B. Eckbo Lerov P. Elliott Ernest D. Fahlberg Jenness B. Frear Chemist, Pitcaim Varnish Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Confectionery Manufacturer, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Vice-Principal, Boys' Technical High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Central Waxed Paper Company, Chicago, Illinois. Consulting Engineer, Haskehte Manufacturing Corporation, Chicago, Illinois. In Charge Kiln Drying Research, Forest Department, Government of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa. Dean, Vocational Courses, Bradley Pol>i:echnic Institute, Peoria, Ilhnois. Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. SpeciaHst in Boxing and Crating, American Radiator Company, Buffalo, New York. 192 The Fokkst Products Laboratory Clark W. Gould Frank J. Hallaiier S. B. Henninff Henry J. Hegel M. H. Hostman Eugene F. Horn Jacob M. Johlin, Jr John A. Jess Don P. Johnston Forest Examiner, Office of Products, U. S. Forest Service, Portland, Oregon. Edward J. Young, Lumberman, Madison, Wisconsin. Technical Advisor on Gluing Prol)lems, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Charge Collection and Claim Divisions, General Electric Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pacific Coast Representative, In Charge of Industrial Sales and Engineering, American Radiator Company, San Francisco, California. Linha Paulista, Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil. Syracuse, University, Syracuse, New York. Consulting Mining Engineer, Jasper Park Collieries, Limited, Royal Mineral Association, Duluth, Minnesota. General Manager, Johnston-McNeil Company, Naval Stores. Okechobee, Florida. A Decennial Record 193 J. X( Jensen A^'ilhml TI. Kempt'er xVrcliitectural Engineer, 175 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois. Cattle Kanclier, Deer Park, Florida. Simon Kii'scli Botanical Tval)()rat()ry, McGill University, ^Montreal, Canada. Fredrick W. Kressn ^Manager, Continental Tur])entine and Rosin Company, Faurel, Mississippi. Harrv X. Knowltoii Boxing and l^acking Specialist, General Electric Conij^jany, Schenectadv, X^ew York. Carl A. Kupfer California Representative, X^orth Coast Dry Kiln Conij)any, Berkeley, California. Jesse B. Kommer: Associate Professor of Mechanics, University of Wisconsin, ^ladison, Wisconsin. James C. Uawrence President, American Chemical ]\rachinery Co., Chester, Pennsylvania. Joseph P. Mehlig University of Wyoming, Fa ramie, Wyoming. lOJ- The Forest Products I^rABORATORv Leslie K. ^Morris »ngiiieer, Chicago ]Mill and lAiiiiber Company, Chicago. Illinois. Ayilliani AV. Morris Consulting Forester and I^andscape Architect, Fine Bluff, Arkansas. Teodido J. Medicielo Road Construction Engineer, City of Tacloban, I.,eyte, Philippine Islands. Samuel ^Nlorrell Chief Structural Engineer, Sanitary District of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Edward R. ^Nlaurer Professor of Mechanics, College of "Engineering, University of Wisconsin, ]Madison, Wisconsin. George C. ]\IcNaughton Plant Superintendent. The ]Mead Fibre Company, Kingsport, Tennessee. Andrew H. ]McKenzie Kansas City Fibre Company, Kansas City, Kansas. Charles R. Xorris ]\Iechanical Engineer, Development and INIaintenance of Plants. Haskelite IManufacturing Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan. A Decennial Record 195 Hobert C. Paliuer Chief Chemist, The Newport Company, Pensacohi, Flori(hi. E. W. Peters J- Aroii (k Company, Inc.. 95 AVall Street, New York, New York. Kobert E. Prince Sn])erintendent, A(hims and Elting Company, Chicago. Illinois. Don L. Quinn ^Manager Research Department, Cliicago ]Mill l^- laimber Company, Chicago, Illinois. S. W. Schorger Chemist, Tlie Bnrgess Laboratories, Madison, Wisconsin. C. v. Sweet In Charge Enm])er and Drying Research, Forest Researcli Institnte, Dehra Dun. V. V. India. Edwin SutcTiiicister ^^'^^ief Chemist, S. D. Warren Com])any. Cum])erland INIills. Maine. O. L. Sponsler Researcli Fellow, Stanford University, Palo Alto. California. Louis Suetter Technical Expert. W. H. Coye Organization. Grand Ra])ids. ^Michigan. iDO The Fokest Products Labokatorv Clyde H. Teesdale John H. Thickens Chnton K. Textor J. R. Watkins Howard F. AV eiss Grand Rapids, ^Michigan. Vice President and General Manager, The INIeade Fibre Company, Kingsport, Tennessee. Chemical Engineer, Xorthwestern Paper Company, Clo([uet, Minnesota. Research Engineer, Chicago ]Mill and lAmi])er Company, Chicago, Illinois. Treasurer, The Burgess Lal)oratories, ^Madison, Wisconsin. O. L. E. Weber Lage Wernsted James B. Yule Vice President and General Manager, Watal) Paper Company, Sartell, Minnesota. U. S. Forest Service, Portland, Oregon. Assistant Engineer, U. S. Forest Service, Missoula, Montana. K C. State College