The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-10-14
MELTED WOOD
A New Material, With Promise Of
Great Everyday Usefulness.


(Translation in the Literary Digest.)
1t is now possible to melt wood. by
heating 1t in a vacuum, producing a
hard, homogeneous substance that ap-
parently has an industrial future be-
fore it. The history and present sta
tus of the process are given by Fran
els Marie in La Nature. To melt wood
appears at first sight to be an i'm
possibility" he remarks, but it is in
fact, possible and practicable. Melted
wood has been hitherto only a labora-
tory curiosity, but it may we'll be that
industry shall presently discover
practical applications of the greatest
interest. He continues
Although wood is eminently in
flammable, it melts at a relatively
low temperature, but in very precise
conditions, and only when it is alb
solutely removed from contact with
oxygen, so that its combustion is i'm
possible. This may be understood
when we remember what it's compost
ton is. When it's Immediately solu-
BILE constituents have been removed,
gives on analysis organic acids, water,
oily essences, silicates, sulphates,
phosphates, chlorides, and hydrocar-
Donates of lime, potash, soda and
magnesia, carbonic acid, carbonated
hydrogen, etc-that is to say, solely
bodies susceptible of being evapor-
ated or dissolved after having coop
Grated by chemical affinity in the for
nation of determinate substances.
Starting from these data, Messrs.
Bizouard and Lenoir, the former an
electrical engineer, the second a prin-
ter, studied in 1891 the problem of the
fusion of wood, and after year of
investigation succeeded in producing
sample of melted wood which, al
though obtained without special ap-
paratus, still had remarkable pecul-
iarities. The details of the process are
not exactly known; they operated in
closed vessel at a relatively low
temperature-this is about all that
we can gather from the technical
journals of the period
But their work has been taken up
by others, and now there is a full
operative technic that enables us
easily to obtain excellent results A
metal receiver, sort of boiler hav-
ing a double bottom through which
superheated steam passes, is filled
with Bits of wood; it is closed by a
lid similar to that used in autoclaves,
and provided with a tube and stop
cock communicating with an appar-
atus for exhausting the air.
When the wood thus kept in a vacuum
is heated above 2S4 degrees F. the
water and other volatile substances
are given off first, and are drawn off
| by means of the exhausting appara-
tus, after which the heating is con-
tinued for about three hours. There
then take place complex series of
reactions and phenomena analogous
to those that accompany the distilla-
ton of wood in a closed vessel. and
in this way all the so-called pyrogen-
Gus to those that accompany the dis
tillation of wod in a closed vessel. and
in this way all the so-called pyrogen-
Gus products are separated; these in
turn are drawn off, condensed and
separated so that they may be utiliz-
ed commercially. There then remain
| in the receptacle only the fbrous
skeleton of the wood and the mineral
salts, which, taken together, consti-
tute a fusible mass. This is allowed
to cool slowly, out of contact with the
air, and then placed in second boil
err which, after the air has been ex-
hausted, is filled with nitrogen under
a pressure of Is to 2 atmospheres.
. The whole is heated to 1900
degrees F. for two hours, and at the
end of this time the wood is melted
into a homogeneous hard mass"
The melting-process may also be
performed, we are told without draw
ing off the distillation products re-
sulting, in about two hours, in the
formation of solid amorphous mass
of fused wood. Melted wood, the writ
er goes on to say, has an undoubted
industrial future, as it has fine
grain takes high polish, and is
hard and resistant.
1t takes printing-ink readily and
may be cleaned with potash. soda, or
turpentine.
1t may also be easily cast and
nodded into all sorts of shapes, and
by adding preservatives to it during
the melting process it may be rem
dered practically indestructible.
Torturing eczema spreads its burn