The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-12-24

FLOUR OF WOOD.
If the Work Continues. 1t VIII Convert the
Catskills Into II Barren Country.


CATsKILL, N. Y, Dec. lathe tour
list who comes only to these lovely noun
talns in the dog days never sees them at
their best. 1t is only in the late autumn
that nature puts in her finest work. What
with clear air and fantastic clouds, dashes
of frost and patches of snow. surfaces
covered by red, green and brown leaves,
trees of every shape and color, brooks
and waterfalls, this entire district pre-
sents scene of beauty which is simply
uneQualed.
aesthetics, however. do not appeal
much to the heart of the native except
as drawing card for the summer board
er. He is a money maker and utilities
the resources of his mountain country to
the utmost. His queerest industry is the
manufacture of wood -four. No one
knows who started it, but the oldest in
habitant up here says that the honor of
the invention belongs to man named
Chichester, after whom the manufacture
ing town of Chichesterville is called.
This was some 80 or 40 years ago. For
=" iOhS tlihC tuc DuSlIleSS amounted to
nothing. During the war times it re-
celved a boom when, rs malicious report
says, the New York army contractors
used to buy up the wood flour and mix
1t with the genuine article from wheat
for the benefit of the Army of the Poto-
mac and their own pockets.
The process is very simple one. Any
wood with more or less soft fiber will
answer the purpose. The one most in
use is poplar, but bass, cottonwood or
buttonball and beech are successfully
employed.
The trees are felled and hauled to the
mill and left in the open SO as to be sea
soned. The longer they lie, the better is
the quality of wood -four produced.
Commercial demands are onerous, how
ever, and the seasoning delay is usually
a short one. They are then stripped of
their bark and the branches trimmed off
flush with the trunk, so as to make the
finished log as far as possible of uniform
shape.
1t is then put upon travelling frame
work similar to those used in steam saw
mills and moved by machinery against
the cutting attachment. This is a mass
OF steel bars of great strength fastened
together and attached to shaft which
revolves mt very high velocity. To the
bars are bolted huge steel blades similar
to the ones employed in paper board cut
ting machines. They are made of the
strongest and finest steel, and even then
require to be reSround every few days.
Each blade is set obliquely and almost
at right angles to the axis of the log.
They are SO arranged that each end de-
scribes circle a trifle different from the
one that preccdes it. Practically the af
fair is gigantic pencil sharpener with
four or more blades, and the pencil is
the trunk of tree that may be two feet
in diameter.
AS the end of the log reaches the
blades it is cut into shavings so fino that
they are nothing more nor less than rib
bons
watched one small trunk undergoing
this style of shaving, and in Il few min
utes it seemed as if Il vast portion of the
room back of the machine was filled up
with mountain of soapsuds.
The ribbons are allowed to dry, which
process is facilitated by the heat created
by the cutting and by heavy draft of
fresh air. They are then thrown into n
mill of the most primitive type and
ground into flour.
1t is not as fine as wheat flour or as
coarse as meal. 1t is extremely velvety.
but on account of the wood fiber it con-
tains it feels when compressed in the
hand rather fluffy and elastic. In color
1t varies according to the wood employ
ed. fine poplar produces Il flour that
is lovely ivory white. 4 Eastwood, cs-
pecially when some of the inner bark is
left on, makes one that is almost pink
ish alabaster.
Nearly all of the output is sold to the
papernakers. 1t is extremely cheap and
is largely employed by the manufacture
ers of that article to make the lower
grades of their goods. \ little, on ac-
count of the elasticity of the fiber, tends
to stiffen paper, but large quantity
makes it very brittle. Any paper in
which there is too much wood flour will
crack and split after standing for three
or four months. This is why so many
newspapers which have been treasured
by their owners III the most careful way
fall all to pieces when suddenly handled
after being put away long time.
The wood flour is valuable ingredient
i'll many styles of wall paper and enables
the manufacturer to produce some effects
which are not obtainable otherwise.
Mixed with boiled linseed oil, it pro-
duces variety of linoleum which is ex-
tremely fine and durable In the flour
is the basis of one of the new STYLES in
ceramics.
Farmers and hotel keepers are very