The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-04-02 00:00:00

A NEW USE FOR SAWDUST AND
STRAW.

The Building and Engineering Times points out that
in America a very important use has been found for
sawdust. By compression it is found to become
sufficiently dense and compact to serve all the pur-
poses for which the strongest wood is now required;
it is stated that the blocks of pressed sawdust are
capable of standing a pressure of twenty-three tons to
the square inch. The quantity of sawdust made in
America is something fabulous ; and if a really useful
product can be obtained from it, the value of what is
now not only waste, but a troublesome accumulation,
will be great indeed. A more startling substitute
still for planking has been manufactured from straw.
It is asserted that the inventor, car manufacture
timber to any desired length from twelve feet and
upward, and to 32 inches in width, at a cost compet-
ing with the better grades of pine. Such artificial
wood has several distinct advantages. It can hold a
nail as well or better than wood, and of course cannot
contain knots or decayed parts. It is capable of
takin,-a Invh dezree :,f nohsh and finish.

Sara Bernhardt last week gave six performances in
New York State—at Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, Syracuse,
, She re-
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Philadelphia
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after Ealiter.
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MR. BRASSEY ON NAVAL
VOLUNTEERS.

On Tuesday, at Liverpool, Mr. Brassey, M.P.
Civil Lord of the Admiralty, distributed prizes to
members of the Liverpool Brigade of Royal Naval
Artillery Volunteers on board her Majesty's ship
Eagle. Mr. Brassey in the course of his speech, said
The Naval Volunteer movement merits encourage-
ment on many grounds. It is an additional link
between the Navy and the civil population. The brave
fellows who man our fleets are of necessity a class
apart, and the volunteers, who are brought into close
contact with them when under instruction, are the
only members of the civil population with whom the
blue-jack ets of the Navy are associated while on active
service. If it is an advantage to the Navy to be thus
associated with civilians, naval influences will be not
less valuable to those who join the Naval Volunteers.
Discipline, self-sacrifice, and devotion to duty are
the root and source of naval efficiency, and it
were well for everyone of us to receive a training in
such a school as the Royal Navy. There are those
who view with regret the growth and tenacity of the
volunteer movement. They think it keeps alive a
military spirit. Such a result may be regretted by
philosophers, but it will not be unwelcome to those
who are responsible for the defence of the country.
We are perpetually threatened, and to be prepared
at all points is the best means whereby war can
be averted. It was truly said by Lord Palmerston
that a country can never negotiate an honourable
peace, nor exercise a wholesome influence abroad,
unless men are imrressed with the belief that
under just provocation it can fight and means fight-
ing. A high state of civilization is not without
its attendant drawbacks. The drudgery of the desk,
and the confinement of our industrial occupations, are
unfavourable to physical development. We should
encourage everything which tends to infuse a manly
spirit into our sedentary existence. The rashness of
the sportsman in the hunting-field may rise into cool
courage in the din of battle. If it were only as an
athletic exercise for the young men in our seaport towns
I venture to think that the Naval Volunteer movement
would deserve support. But the drills and exercises of
the volunteers must be viewed in a more serious aspect.
Limited as their sphere may be in the active opera-
tions of war, the assistance which the Naval Volunteers
might be able to render in an emergency should not
be undervalued. The recent reductions in the num-
ber of blue-jackets in the Navy have been explained
in the House of Commons, and I only allude to the
subject now in order to state that I see no possibility
of an addition to the 'personnel of the Navy without a
much more considerable expenditure than any Govern-
ment is likely to propose. It becomes therefore a
matter of serious importance to increase the strength
and efficiency of our auxiliary forces. We must make
the most of our Naval Reserves, and we certainly
cannot afford to despise the services which the Volun-
teers are thoroughly capable of rendering in coast
defence. Let it be remembered that every effective
volunteer sets free a blue-jacket, a marine artillery-
map, or a marine, to man the fleet which must be
maintained at sea to guard our communications and
to fight our battles. . . .