The Washington herald., 1910-07-03
MELTED WOOD.
A New Material with Promise OF
Great Usefulness.

A New Material with Promise Of
Great Usefulness.
It Is now possible to melt wood by
heating it in a vacuum, producing a
hard homogeneous substance that ap-
parently has an industrial future be-
fore It. The history and present status
Of the process are given by Francis
Marie in La Nature. To melt wood zap
pears at first sight to be an impossible
fly" he remarks, but it is in fact pos
sible and practicable. Melted wood has
been hitherto only a laboratory curiosity,
but il may well be that industry shall
presently discover practical applications
OF the greatest interest. He continues:
Although wood Is eminently inaam-
mable. it melts at a relatively low tenn
perature. but in very precise conditions.
and only when il is absolutely removed
from contact with oxygen, so that its
combustion is impossible. This may be
understood when we remember what its
composition is. When its Immediately sol
uble constituents have been removed by
means Of alcohol. for instance, it gives
on analysis, organic acids. water, oily
essences, silicates. sulphates, phosphates,
chlorides, and hydrocarbonates of lime,
potash. soda, and magnesia. carbonic
acid. carboneted hydrogen. &e.-that is
TO say, solely bodies susceptible Of being
evaporated or dissolved after having CO.
operated by chemical affinity in the for
nation OF determinate substances.
Starting from these data, Messrs. Bi-
zouard and Lenoir, the former an cleo
trio engineer. the second a printer,
studied in 1891 the problem of the fusion
Of wood, and after a year of investiga-
ton succeeded in producing a sample of
melted wood which. although obtained
without special apparatus. still had re-
markable peculiarities. The details Of
the process are not exactly known; they
operated iz a closed vessel at a relatively
low temperature-that 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. a
sort of boiler having 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 stopeock
communicating with an apparatus for
exhausted the air. When the
wood thus kept In a vacuum is heated
above PSI degrees F. the water and other
volatile substances are given off first.
and are drawn off by means of the ex-
hausting apparatus, after which the heat
ing is continued for about three hours.
There then take place a complex series OF
reactions and phenomena analogous TO
those that accompany the distillation OF
wood IN a closed vessel, and In this way
all the so-ealled pyrogenous products are
separated; these in turn are drawn of.
condensed. and separated. so that they
may be utilized commercially. There
then remains in the receptacle only the
fbrous skeleton of the wood and the
mineral salts. which. taken together, con-
stitute a fusble mass.
''This is allowed to cool slowly. out of
contact with the air. and then placed in
a second boiler which. after the air has
been exhausted, is filled with nitrogen
under pressure Of Is to ? atmospheres.
The whole is heated to 1,5Oo de-
grees Fahrenheit 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 per-
| formed. we are told, without drawing on
the distillated products, resulting in about
/ two hours in the formation of a solid
amorphous mass OF fused wood. Melted
wood. the writer goes on to say, has an
lundoubted industrial future, as it has a
fine grain. takes a high polish. and is
hard and resistant II takes printing Ink
readily and may be cleaned with potash,
soda, or turpentine.