The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-11-09
Little Known Forest Products
Widely Used.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 1916. In addi-
ton to the ordinary uses of wood with
which we are familiar, mankind is de-
pendent upon the forest for variety of
products whose appearance does not in
dictate their origin, say members of the
Forest Service. Numerous as these
products are, ard as extensive as is their
use at the present time, science is con-
stantly learning new constituents which
enter into the makeup of wood and is
finding new uses to which these con-
stltuents and those already known can be
put. Powder for munitions or blasting,
disinfectants for protection against con-
tagious diseases, and artificial silk for
clothing 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 powders
is derived from acetic acid, product of
hardwood distillation. Great Britain,it
is said, is dependent upon the United
States for acetone used in making cor
dite. Black walnut is a standard for
gunstocks, and has been so much in de-
mand 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 shortage of willow for making
wooden legs.
Pure wood alcohol is the only substance
which can be converted commercially
into formaldehyde, which is universally
used for disintection against such conta-
gious diseases as smallpox, scarlet fever.
and tuberculosis. The experts at the
Forest Products Laboratory have con-
Quoted extensive experiments on the
production of grain or ethyl alcohol from
wood and have been successful in expert
mental work in raising the yield and
lowering the cost of production, IT this
process can be put on a commercial basis,
the foresters say, it will result in put
ting the millions of tons of coniferous
sawdust and other material which is now
wasted every year to profitable use.
By converting cellulose. one of the
elements of wood, into a gelatinous ma
terial, known as viscose, a wide field is
opened up for the utilization of wood
waste, and a new line of products, vary
ing all the way from sausage castings to
tapestry, is added to the already lengthy
list. Many of the so called ''silk' socks,
neckties and fancy braids now on the
market contain 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 favorably
with the best on the market, has been
produced expermentally at the Forest
PRODUCTS Laboratory from longIeaf-pine
miIiwaste. This kraft paper is brown
in color and is very much stronger than
ordinary papers. 1t is used for a variety
of purposes, and. cut into strips, is spun
or twisted into thread which is then
woven into onion and coffee bags, mat
ting, sultcases and wall covering, similar
to Surlap, and furniture closely resemb
ling that made from reeds, as we'll as
other articles of common use.
Within the past year the Forest Prod
ucts Laboratory has, by cooperating
with manufacturers, succeeded in get
ting a dye made from mill waste of
Usage orange put on the market as
substitute for fustic, which we import
from Jamaica and Tehuantepec.
These are only few examples of vari-
GUS 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, and new discoveries are
constantly being made. Incidentally,
the, Forest Products Laboratory, at
Madison, Wisconsin, was the first of it's
kind in the world and is probably still the
best equipped. With the possible excep-
ton of Germany, no other country has
done as much as the United States sys- |
to investigate the possibili-
ties of its forest resources.