Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-12-01
Good use for Sawdust,

what shall We do with the sawdust is
question which puzzles the economic
brain OF the man who realizes that the
utilization Of the fast depicting forests is
accompanied with an amount of absolute
wastefulness simply appalling. make it
INTO railroad car wheels, " says an enthusi-
astic inventor Of Chicago, who has dis
covered means of compressing sawdust,
bran, tea, and kindred bulky substances
into from one-,enth to one-thlrd Of their
original bulk The Lun,berman some
weeks since spoke of this invention in
terms somewhat of disparagement. which
1t subsequently modified on seeing speci-
mems of sawdust and bran compressed into
remarkably small compass. Its credu-
lily is further shaken on being shown
model of car wheel consisting of an iron
/. rim OF seven inches outward diameter by
one-half inch thick, fitted with well pro-
portioned hub, the space between the hub
and rim filled with pine sawdust, pressed
In 30 solidly that We are ready TO believe
the assertion that, resting the ircn rim
upon bearings, pressure equal to % tons
applied to the hub failed to develop any
signs OF weakness. We hesitate IL. these
days Of progress to assert that anything is
impossible, and we begin to think that even
sawdust possesses elements of value hith-
erto ursuspected, and that the day may
come when the filed grounds adjacent TO
all saw mills may be seen to have a great
value in the mechanical development and
utilization of the now useless debris placed
upon them 10 get it out of the way. Saw
dust car wheels, sawdust brick, sawdust
fence posts, railroad ties, and even saw
dust window and door frames, wainscoting
and mouldings, begin to appear among the
possibilities of the immediate future. Saw
dust hair pins, watch chains or cases, and
sawdust knives and forks, or sawdusi
shovels, pitch FORKS, or hoes, will probably
not be urged upon this generation, which
will .emain satisfied with utilizing saw
dust IN place of the more expensive bass
wood in the manufacture of hams and
cakes of soap, but the field OF possibilities
is still large enough to utilize n vast amount
of this valueless material. Seriously, how
over, the compression of brsn and oats
into one-tenth of their Original bulk, with
cut injury to the substance, means cheaper
transportation, which will enable their
shipment to foreign lands at u profit which
their bulk has rendered impossible, while
with the freight on tea from China, cost
ing about s25 per ton cn account of the
space it occupies, compression INTO one
third It's bulk would mean a saving CT |
from three-qua1ers of cent. 10 one cent |
pound on freight and labor of handling. |
II is not by any means impossible that we |
NAV buy ''brick of tea" IN the near !
future which We can carry home in our |
vest pocket, or that the housewife may |
keep her truant husband at home evenings |
to saw the coffee up into thimblefuls suit |
able for tie preparation Of the morning |
draught. Verify 1t would seem that with the |
recent discoveries OF the Rip Van Winkie |
of the press, who after being absent from |
home for year had to have a pilot TO |
show him about the city of his former resi- |
dence, and who in his absence developed |
sixty year stock of pine on the Memo |
minee, and about as large supply through
out the State of Michigan, there is no
danger after all of timber famine, at /
least so long as the sawdu st holds out.