Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-10-26
DRYING KILNS.
Artifcial1y Dried I.umber-The Difficulty V
that Pianomakers and Cabinctme ers
have to OVPrcome.

Thoroughly dried lumber is hare
to buy nowadays" said the manager
of piano manufact3ry in this city
''and if You don't have dry lumber IL
making pianos you might as well not
make them
How 90 you manage, then, fol
you make many pianos?" the reporter
asked.
I'VE have dry rooms. or kilns, in
which we put tie lumber and season
it ourselves. If it were not for oul
dry rooms we would have TO shut up
shop. We buy the best seasoned
lumber that we can get, and leave il
in our dry kilns from one to three
weeks. Then we take ont board
and try it, and if it is not thoroughly
seasoned we shut up the kiln again
How do you tell when it is sea
soned?"
"In several ways. We examine the
sawdust, crumple up the shavings,
observe the odor of the wood, and
the way the saw OF plane goes through
1t. Even then we are often deceived.
and when the wood is made up and
vanished it cracks, warps OF splits.
plainly showing that it was not fully
dried.
Dried lum Der is necessary not only
in the making of pianos, but also in
the manufacture of furniture, mould
ings. and all kinds of wood work.
Iii guarantee that you've seen the
back of a fine looking hardwood bed
stead split from side to side. or the
Int OF desk cracked, TO say nothing
Of windows and doors shrinking SO
that you have to Use the widest kind
of weather strips to keep out the
wind. Well, all this comes from
using nnseasoned lumber 1t makes
up neatly enough, but when it is ex-
posed to the action oft atmosphere
and the moisture in the pores of the
wood evaporates, there's bound to be
shrinkage and something's got to
give.
What is the cause of the scarcity
of seasoned lumber?'
The great demand for lumber in
the East for building and manufac-
turing purposes compels the West
ern lumbermen to ship their lumber
before it is thoroughly seasoned.
Half dozen years ago it was custom
ary to take the lumber from the saw
and pile it in the open air. where it
would be left from eighteen months
to two years before it was considered
in sufficiently good condition for
shipping. Now six months is held
to be a good long time. The conse-
quence is that there is comparatively
very little dry lumber in the market"
How is lumber dried artificially9"
There are half a dozen ways.
Heat is the great principle in them
all. There are driving kiins of all
sizes and almost all shspes. Some
are heated b.. steam pipes, some by
furnaces, and some by hot air. In
some a vacuum is created, and in
o'ihc oiiifitSSeu ali IL uheu. lie
great thing, to my mind, in drying
lumber is to get good circulation
of air about it. The moisture comes
to the surface and is dried off. A
lately invented drying apparatus
consists of an arrangement by which
a very large volume Of air is thrown
into the kiln at one end and exhausted
at the other. Every two minutes all
the air in the kiln is changed A fan
blower entraps the air and forces it
through heating apparatus before
it gets to the kiln. 1t is so arranged
that the air may be heated to any
degree desired, and different kinds
of lumber are differently treated.
This process dries green lumber in
seven or eight days
How long would it take the same
lumber 10 dry in the open air?"
'Anywhere from one to two years.
Some people say they would not use
kiln dried lumber, but they are in
the minority. Pianomakers and cab
inetmakers could not get along with
out drying kilns."
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