The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-17
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director,
Washington, ID. c.
rHE LuMRER sITUAT1oN.

rvine ont of the great aeroplane pro-
gram which has been projected by
the American government is the lack
of wood out of which to make the
frameworks and bodies of the ma
chimes. The material chiefly used TOT
this purpose is a certain variety or
spruce. When it came to obtaining
the amount of this lumber needed, II
was found that the allies had ALREADY
contracted for practically all OF the
aeroplane spruce within reach OF the
saWmillS in this country. Building
of new mills opening of new timber
tracts will be necessary before many
of those aeroplanes are built.
Spruce For AeropIanes.
A similar scarcity of material con-
fronted the men who wanted to build
a fleet of wooden ships to carry sup
plies to Europe. But a ship may be
built of green wood, while spruce for
aeroplanes must be scientifically seas
oned, so that it will be both light
and strong.
How to supply this need for season.
ed spruce in the shortest possible time
is one of the technical problems rails
ed by the war with which the United
States Forest Service is now work.
ing. A process of drying wood in
kilns is expected to help.
This is one of many problems.
Lumber, as everyone knows is adj
vancing in cost at an unprecedented
rate, and it is always coming into
demand for new purposes.
Transformation in Use of Wood.
In fact the use of wood is under
going a considerable transformation.
Innumerable substances have been
substituted for it. Cement, concrete
and other materials are supplanting
it in building. Fiber board is being
used more and more for boxes. Bar
rels are being made of steel. There
CHI
any more except the decks. Steel
cars are being substituted for wooden
ones on all important lines Wicker
and steel are even diSplacing wood to
Wooden horse-drawn vehicles are be-
ing rapidly replaced by automobiles
and trucks made almost wholly OF
steel. The wooden windmill has given
way TO the steel one.
But as fast as wood has been re-
placed by other materials that are
cheaper, it has been used to replace
materials that are becoming prohibit
lively expensive, and there is reason to
believe that the use of wood as a sub
stitute has just begun. This substitu-
ton of one material for another has
been immensely stimulated by the
war, and Is one of the most interest
ing phases of modern industry. Soon
it will take a man of science to iden-
tify the material of which many COM
mon articles are made.
Thread from Wood.
Wood pulp, of which paper is made.
is transformed by a new viscose pro-
cess into a strong lustrous thread that
may be woven into any desired fabric.
In Japan paper garments have long
are now wearing Japanese paper gar
ments. New waterproofing processes
are rapidly overcoming the tendency
of this material to tear when wet,
1t l. Ii boot
weakness. Among the poorer classes
of Germany and Austria, paper vests,
socks and handkerchiefs have long
been in use, while coats and blankets
are padded with a soft wadding made
of wood cellulose. The same material
had been use for bandages in the
German army.
All this sounds strange to an
American, and he reflects with some
satisfaction that it will be long time
before he will be driven to wearing
paper clothes. AS a matter of fact,
est products laboratory, the American
public is even now becoming accus-
toned, for the most part unawares, to
the use of wooden clothes. So finely
can the wood be spun that even neck
ties of excellent finish and quality
have been made from wooden thread.
Then, too, wooden shoes and shoes
with wooden soles are already in use
in this country, and have been found
very satisfactory for some purposes.
A man could nearly dress himself in
wood today, and be comfortably
CARRIED. The time may not be far off
when instead of buying an Australian
cheviot or English serge suit, we will
order a Canadian blue spruce and a
white birch oyercoat.
Powder Out of Wood.
Should an invading enemy ever &C.
cupy the south, this condition would
be very speedily brought about. Wood
would become our mainstay for many
purposes. We would wear it and
make powder out of it to shoot at the
enemy.
Wooden or paper thread is now
becoming specially important because
of the scarcity of the imported jute
from which our grain sacks used to be
made. Burlap, rope and cordage are
now being manufactured from thread
spun out of wood pulp. The United
States could meet all of it's needs for
burlap and rope in this way if neces-
sary.
The forest service is now striving to
make sufficiently cheap and strong
cord out of wood pulp to take the
place of the binder Irvine used in har-
VeSting our grain crops. This has al
ways heretofore been made from sisal,
which is grown almost exclusively in
Yucatan, Mexico. The American farm
ers have become almost entirely de-
pendent upon the Mexican planters
for the cord which is indispensable
for binding sheaves of wheat and 9TH
er grain. All of the sisaI lands in
Yucatan are owned by a few men, who
| have formed an organization for the
purpose of boosting the price. Con-
gresslonal investigations of the matter
have done no good. The only solution
of the difficulty is for this country to
make itself independent of the Mexi-
can sisal trust, and this the forest
service hopes to do.
Walnut Best for Guns.
Another American wood that has
/ been made scarce by the war demand
| is walnut. American walnut is the
very best material for gunstocks. and
all of them were formerly made from