The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-11-12
USEFOR SAWDUST
PROBLEM SOLVED
Two Ways Discovered to Utilize
The Unsightly Piles OF
Timber Refuse.
MAKE ALCOHOL AND GOAL"
Half-Alillion Dollar Company at
Work-Another One Now
Being Organized.
MAKE ALCOHOL AND GOAL"

Any one who travels in the lum-
herring sections Of Virginia, where from
the car windows the sawmills may be
seen ripping up the forest giants into
TIMBER. and the box factories and keg
ana barrel factories may be seen work
ing up much of that timber, Will be
struck with the awful amount of the
PRODUCTS of the forests that go to
waste: Pass by any box factory or
sawmill and you viii see odds and
ends OF timber bein. burned that IL
may be gotten rid OF. and as for the
sawdust. one will see vast piles OF 1t.
tons upon tons. encumberinG the earth,
ana absolutely worthless.
Lumber men and scientists have been
trying FOR years to find some way to
utiiize the waste from the
ana the woodworking Embellishments.
some of the odds anu ends from the
sawmills may be used as fuel in the
furnaces of the engines that make the
steam TO drive the machinery of the
ea"miiis ana factories. but not near
an or the waste material can be used
In this way. 80
Solution OF Problem In Sight.
IL seems however. that the problem
waste from the lumber working cs.
adjustments OF the country is abou,
10 be solved have just seen In
a traoe Journal that the andar Al
lying d Thompson. of Chicago, has
Slosed contracts with the Gulf Lum-
1 eh of Fullerton. La, by
pine refuse by the Classen process, the
plant to cost about $500. 900. The
at 1;nnr also has a plant
nj, GeoFsesoWn S. c.. the only other
being at Hadlock. Wash, which is
owned by the Classen hemica Con-
Fam!. RMS Is a process for the manu-
and OF ethyl alcohol from sawdust
Ethyl Alcohol Is Valuable.
,Ine ABOVE report is confirmed by a
oeesram to the Manufacturers Rec
which reads as follows:
Inc Alcohol Company will
tinn a hreproof plant here in connec-
600 to $4,000. and viii make 5000
gallons ethyl alcohol per day. Con-
stTueti9n has already begun"
G'nyi alcohol is used for chemical
valuable. BY the Classen process.
which is something new, it has been
learned 1t can be made from pine
southern sawmills and Woodworking
establishments. but only from The
pine; And then the sawdust and
muGh OF the other refuse is left to be
process can be found to utilize it.
a NirEininn In the Field.
~ a curious coincidence that just
as this Information comes as TO the
establishment of the ethyl alcohol plant
down in Louisiana. a Virginian comes
70 the front with another way to uti-
NC the heretofore entirely wasted
sawdust from the mills in the lumber
regions OF tho South.
Charles T. o'Ferrall. Jr., son of the
1ate governor O'Ferrall. as told in the
has long been studying out this prob,
lem. He conceived the idea five years
ago that the tons upon tons of saw
gust rotting in Virginia and the Caro-
Xmas could he nti1iJaI nc f,,a1 40. r~@l
as coal. He made many experiments.
nut without success. Several months
s lie learned that the very thing he
was trying to do was already being
done in a limited way in Switzerland
He hurried there TO investigate.
iSe found that a process 10 make a
superior fuel out of sawdust and the
machinery to do the work had been
patented IN that country. Mr.. Ol'eira,l
made a deal for the registration and
absolute control of the patent in the
United States, and he. in connection
with r. A. and John y. lancaster. OF
this city. is :,ow organizing a stock
company to manufacture the machines
and to convert the piles upon piles Of
sawdust in Virginia and elsewhere in
the South i:io = vecy fine fuel
Demonstrations in This City.
Last week MI. O'Ferrall was in this
city with a trunk full of sawdust
pricketts to show to some friends
49, " AHt utN tutl operates. me
brickettc. weighing a half pound, Is
the thing that is made by the Swiss
machine from sawdust. some secret
chemical process doubtless being used.
Several demonstrations were made in
the presence OF n umbe of citizens.
and IL was found that the hrickettes
burn beautifully, generate moro heat
than coal and make no smoke and lit
tie or no ashes. 1t is claimed that a
ton OF IA wdust made into the brick
cites will burn as long as a ton of
coal and make moro heat. 1t is claimed
that the brickettcs can be made as
cheap as the coal can be mined.
Mr.. O'Ferrall expects to get his COM
pany organized and put to work con-
vertinS sawdust heaps into clean and
~smokeless fuel before the next sum-
mer gets old.
1t will be the plan OF this company
when organized to sell outfits wher
ever the chances for success seem
| good. the parent company maintain
ing a connection with all OF the sub
sidiary companies.
Ii the ethyl alcohol. whatever It
is. and the sawdust brickette rave
come to eat up the sawdust piles and
make them useful they will solve a
problem that has been worrying the
sawmill men of this country from
/ time immemorial