The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-25

A1neIICd eIIOTlS lO ODLdlH d great CT share of world trade, and it's lesses through imperfect containers and methods of packing merchandise for shipment, have combined to bring about great changes in the prepara- ton of goods for transportation. The second consideration alone was suf- ficient to emphasize the need of great CT care, for our losses due to break ! age of merchandise in transit are es- 6Snated by the United States Forest Products Laboratory at half a mil lion dollars a day.
 Combined with this is another very important factor-the amount of lum- Der used. About one-eighth of all the timber cut in the country last year was used in the packing and crating business, which was second in this respect only to the blaming mill industry. In 1918, 4,550,oOO,- 900 board feet, or five times as much as all American furniture makers us- ed, and twenty-five times as much as was used in shipbuilding. was us- ed in crating and packing.
 The amount of money expended for packing and crating by one great in- dustrial concern alone, the General Electric company. is indicative of the importance of this item. The wood used for this purpose costs the com pany fourteen million dollars annual ly, which sum does not include the cost of millions of nails, seven hun dred miles of steel strap, twenty mill lion square feet of wrapping paper and waterproof cloth, together with screening, string, screws, antitrust compound and various other mater ials.
 Laboratory methods have been em- ployed to solve the problem of satis- factory packing for shipment. Thou sands of boxes and cases full of goods are subjected to pressure or dropped from varying heights at the United States Forest Products Labor atory at Madison, Wisconsin. Others are tumbled in huge squirrel cage" testing drums-all to determine points of weakness in packing boxes and containers, and how best to rem edy them. Work along the same line is being done in the other 1aborator- les of the kind.
 Does it seem idle and expensive play to wreck hundreds of dollars worth of electric light bulbs in one day? By doing it, experts found pre- viously unsuspected sources of weakness in certain boxes, and of strength in others. From this ex- perimenting they were able to design an entirely new type of container which is today saving lampmakers thousands of dollars year.
 Experiments of this nature have shown that the greatest strength ele- ment in the average container is the mailing rather than the thickness of the wood, although, naturally, the end pieces of any box must be strong. They have also disclosed the fact that about ninety-eight per cent of the shippers of the country do not use enough nails of the right sort, driven D at the right angle. A standard plan for mailing box has been worked out as follows: In those for domes- tic shipment, using six-penny nails or smaller, the spacing, when the nails are driven into the side grain of the end of a box, should be two inches apart; and when driven into the end grain, one and three-fourths inches. This spacing should increase one-fourth of an inch for. each larger penny. For boxes for the export trade, these nails should be one-half inch closer than the foregoing scale Smooth, or even barber, nails will not stand the strain which cement coat ed nails will sustain. The strength of a packing case also depends to a considerable extent on the amount of moisture the lumber from which it is made contained, and how long the lumber was stored before being used
 Transportation facilities witf weight as an essential factor to bt reckoned with the number of time. the article shipped is to be transfer red, varying conditions of tempera ture and climate, all have to be talk en into consideration in packing goods to be shipped abroad.
 Expert packers can make the jour ney of motor from the Schenectad! plant of the General Electric Com pany to Jabl- us Siraj, Afghanistan, al free from the effects of climate a though the trip were only from on shop of the plant to another. Wate is kept out of the case by a specia fabric. If the case is double, thi waterproofing is never put betwee1 the walls, for it will crack at tn seams, just where the protection i wanted, when the wood shrinks Wood casing will shrink five to tel per cent if it has carelessly been us ed while green. The product itself not the box, may be wrapped ii tough, pitch filled paper or canva: In the case of canvas, tn. wetter gets, the more closely it clings to tn machine. It does not crack in col or melt in equatorial heat; and if
 hole is punched in it, the edges ad here to whatever surface is clos enough, thus sealing up the holes.
 Today, lying somewhere in the ia northern port of Vladivostok, ther are hundreds of big trench mirror that are wrapped iH 1t. They hay been lying there fully three year But I'm willing to wager my oes hat" says M. c. Fitzgerald, of tn General Electric Company who devis ed their packing, that not bit C moisture has condensed on those mir TOTS in all that time, that the me1 cury paint on them has not check ed, and that every one of them ready for use." The bright steel part of machinery to be shipped are coate with a slushing compound that wi not rub off but which can be re moved when desired by various so vents.
 Big machinery must breathe" if
 is to be delivered to foreign lanG in rustless condition. Durir changes in temperature, moistur condenses on the metal untess the a has free circulation inside the cor