The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1916-10-26
LITTLE KNOWN FOREST
PRODUCTS WIDELY USED
Nothing Should be Allowed TO Go TO
Waste in These Trying Days


pendent upon the forest for variety
of products whose appearance does
not indicate their origin, say members
OF the Forest Service. Numerous as
these products are, and as extensive
as is their use at the present time,
science is constantly learning new
constituents which enter into the make
Lup of wood and is finding new uses
To which these constituents and those
already known can be put. Powder
for munitions or blasting, disinfect-
ants for protection against contagious
diseases, and artificial silk for cloth
ing are among the products obtained
in whole or in part from wood.
Charcoal, as everyone knows, is es-
sential for the manufacture of black
powder. All of the acetone used as a
solvent in making nitrocellulose pow
ders is derived from acetic acid, a
product of hardwood distillation.
Great Britain, il is said, is dependent
upon the United States for acetone
used in making cordite. Black wal
nut is a standard for gunstocks, and
has been so much in demand for the
past two years that our supply of this
valuable wood has been considerably
reduced and other woods, notably
birch, are being substituted. From
Europe comes the complaint that there
is a shortage of willow for making
wooden legs.
Pure wood alcohol is the only sub
stance which can be converted COM
mercially into formaldehyde, which is
universally used for disinfection
against such contagious diseases as
smallpox, scarlet fever, and tubercu-
losis. The experts at the Forest
Products Laboratory have conducted
extensive experiments on the produc-
ton of grain or ethyl alcohol from
wood and have been successful in ex-
perimental work in raising the yield
and lowering the cost of production.
If this process can be put on a COM
mercial basis, the foresters say, it will
result n putting the millions of tons
of coniferous sawdust and other ma
terial which is now wasted every year
to profitable use.
BY converting cellulose, one of the
elements Of wood, into gelatinous
material, known as viscose, wide
field is opened up for the utilization
of wood waste, and new line OF
products, varying all the way from
sausage castings to tapestry, is added
to the already lengthy list. Many of
the so-caled "silk" socks, neckties and
fancy braids now on the market con-
tain artificial silk made from wood.
About nine-tenths of all the paper
which we use is made from wood.
Besides the detailed Investigations of
the methods of making newsprint
paper, and of the production OF paper
from woods hitherto unused for that
purpose, which have been conducted,
kraft paper, which compares favor
ably with the best on the market, has
been produced experimentally at the
Forest Products Laboratory from
long leaf pine mill-waste. This kraft
paper is brown in color and is very
much stronger than ordinary papers.
II is used for variety of purposes,
and, cut into strips, is spun or twisted
into thread which is then woven into
onion and coffee bags, mattings, SUIT
cases and wall covering, similar to
burlap, and furniture closely re-
sembling that made from reeds, as
we'll as other articles of common use.
Within the past year the Forest
Products Laboratory has, by cooper
ating with manufacturers, succeeded
in getting dye made from mill waste
of Usage orange put on the market as
a substitute for fustic, which we I'M
port from Jamaica and Tehauntepec.
These are only a few examples OF
the various lines of work carried on at
the Forest Products Laboratory, say
the men in charge. Other activities,
ranging all the way from the study OF
decay in wood to that of the resistance
Of wood to fire, are in progress, ana
new discoveries are constantly being
made. Incidentally, the Forest Prod
ucts Laboratory at Madison, WIS.,
was the first of its kind in the world
and is probably still the best equipped
With the possible exception Of Ger
r.any no ether country has done 50
much rs the United States systerat-
ically 70 investigate the possibilities
of its forest resources.