The Opelousas courier., 1895-11-09
WOOD FOR
The United States May BE Called Upon
I For 1t by Europe.

rhe United States May BE Called Upon
For 1t by Europe.
The department Of state will soon
Issue a report suggesting that the
United States might furnish wood for
friction matches to factories in Eu'
rope. In Germany and elsewhere on
the continent supplies of the raw mate
rial are running out, and manufacture
ers will be obliged to look elsewhere.
The best stuff for the purpose is the
aspen. The tree, which is getting to
he rare abroad. is plentiful enough In
many parts Of this country, and large
profit is likely to be obtained by ship
ping the logs across the water.
Aspen has a number of advantages
as a material for matches. 1t is free
from knots, of uniform substance and
easy to work. Being porous and
spongy, it readily absorbs the parafine
that Is used in the manufacture Of
j., Swedish matches. Obviously. it is de.
sirable that a match shall burn readi-
ly and quickly. In this last respect,
aspen for surpasses pine. poplar, lin
den and birch, all of which are EN-.
ployed for making matches to a large
extent. At present prices, a cubic
meter of aspen wood Is worth from
four dollars and five cents to six dol
lars and fifteen gents, according to
quality.
Manufacturers require that the as
pen wood shall be free d rotten pitch,
and rs far as possible from knots. The
latter point is OF Importance, because
the wood Immediately around the knot
is decayed. Logs eight inches in d.
ameter are available. but the demand
is greatest for ten-inch and twenty
inch trunks. To produce trees of such
a size requires from twenty-five to
sixty years. OF late the match.mak-
ing industry has grown to a great i'm.
portance in Germany. Factories are
scattered all over Silesia, Pomerania,
Observation-Disclosures Bavaria. Alsace-
Lorraine and the duchy of Anhalt.
The German concerns use about fifty
million cubic feet of aspen wood an,
nually, and of this three-fourths is
imported from Russia.
One notable advantage about the
aspen wood is that it Is taxable. The
timber for the purpose Ii cut ont in
blocks fifteen inches long-long
enough to make seven matches. After
being freed from the bark the blocks
are put into a machine resembling a
turning lathe, with a fixed cutting
tool, by which a continuous strip OF
veneer is turned off precisely the
thickness of a match. While this is
being done small knives separate the
sheet OF veneer into seven bands, SO
that seven long ribbons are produced,
the width of each just this length o.
the match that is to be.
Next these ribbons are fed, o
than n hundred at a time, into an
other machine, though first they arc
cut into six-foot lengths, and the
asnotty parts are removed. This con.
~trivance chops them at the rate Of
thousands a minute into maton sticks.
which are afterwards dried in heated
drums that revolve. The sticks thus
prepared are then sifted to remove all
splinters, and tho same apparatus that
accomplishes this purpose arranges
~ AiSAS oo uc w DC C~OufGulSutlY
bunes d. Finally they are dipped in
combustible mixtures. From tho
felled three to the finished 'lucifers"
all Is done by machinery.
The uniform annual growth rinps Of
the aspen give homogeneous ribbons
such as are not equaled by fir and other
woods. The absence Of grain renders
it practicable to utilize the shavinrs
for match boxes. According to the
latest and most improved methods, the
ribbons and match boxes are produced
by n machine from the same mate.
rial. Efforts have been made to en-.
ploy the always-plentiful pine, but It
not be faxed to advantage, be.
cause the annual layers are too thick
vary in their thickness. Thus the
ribbons are unequal. A single machine
will turn out fifteen million matches
In ten hours. Matches are manufac.
tured on . very large scale in the
United States. It is reckoned that
every man., woman and child In Europe
and America. taking the average, uses
eight matches every day in the year.
ST. Louis Globe Democrat.