Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1916-10-27
Little Known Forest
Products Widely Used


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
makeup of wood and is finding new
uses to which these constituents
and those already known can be put
Power for munitions or blasting,
lisinfectants for protection against
contagious disease, and artificial
silk for clothing are among the
products obtained in whole or in
part from wood.
Charcoal, as everyone knows, is
essential for the manufacture of
black powder. All of the acetone
used as a solvet in making nitro
cellulose 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
cordite. Black walnut is stand
ard for gustocks, and has been so
much in demand for the past two
years that our supply of this valu-
able 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 formaldchyde,
which is universally used for disin-
lection against such contagious
diseases as smallpox. scarlet fever,
md tuberculosis. The experts at
the Forest Products Laboratory
have conducted extensive expert
ment5 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 produc-
ton. If this process can he put
on a commercial basis, the foresters
say, it will result in putting the
millions of tons Of coniferous saw
dust and other material which is
now wasted every year to prof.
table use.
By converting cellulose, one of
the elements of wood, into a
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 al
r ady 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 inves
LEGATIONS of the methods of making
newsprint paper, and of the pro =
duction of paper from woods hither
to unused for that purpose, which
have been conducted, kraft paper,
which compares favorably with the
best on the market, has been pro-
duced experimentally at the Forest
Products Laboratory from long
leaf pine mill-N aste. 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,
mating, suitcases and wall covering
similar to burlap. and furniture
closely resembling that made from
reeds, as we'll as other articles of
common use.
Within the past year the Forest
Products Laboratory has, by CO.
operating with manufacturers, sue
ceeded in getting a dye made from
mill waste of Usage orange put on
the market as as substitute for
fustic, which we import from
Jamaica and Tehuantepet.
These are only a few examples
f the various lines of work carried
on at the Forest Products Labora-
tory, 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. Incl
dentally, the Forest Products
Laboratory, at Madison. Wisconsin
was the first of its kind in the
world and is probably still the
best equipped. With the possible
exception of Germany, no other
country has done as much as the
United States Systematically to
investigate the possibilities of it's
forest resources.
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