The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-11-10
BY DAVENPORT STEWARD
NEA Service staff Correspondent

of the wary
BY DAVENPORT STEWARD
NEA Service staff Correspondent
OLUSTEE, Fla, Nov. 5 - A
revolutionary process for dras-
tically increasing production OF
extremely war-important naval
stores" is no longer q German
secret, but is working for Uncle
Sam, thanks to the success OF U.
S. Forest Service scientists here
in cracking the riddle.
Naval stores" is the CONNER
cial term for tar, pitch, turpen-
tine and other products from
resinous pine trees. Their war
uses are many. Rosin is used in
the interpreting of tent ia
brics, in making bullet-proof
glass for bomber-plane noses,
as a substitute for fats in soap,
as q skin disease preventative, as
a binder in shrapnel, as bedding
for shipment of live shells, as a
substitute for arsenates, as insu-
lation in ship construction and
in smoke-screens used by the
Navy, to list just q few.
The Army uses a turpentine
by-product to top-dress concrete
roads. Another by-product Is a
source of synthetic rubber and
turpentine itself goes into the
manufacture of pharmaceuticals,
paints and varnishes, besides
having scores of other everyday
uses.
SET PRODUCTION RECORD
Another index to the import
ance of naval stores is this: by
a mighty effort throughout the
100 mile-wide coastal belt of
slash and long leaf pine country
stretching from the Mississippi
we'll into South Carolina, 1941's
production Of 285, 900 units will
be lacked up to an estimated
$4,000 units this year. Yet Sec
rotary of Agriculture Claude
Wickard has asked that, despite
the increasing labor shortage,
$4,000 units be produced in
1943. That's q lot Of naval stores,
for a unit Is one 50-gallon bar
rel of turpentine and 8 1-3 bar
rels of rosin at 500 pounds to
the barrel.
But it looks as If Secretary
Wickard's prayer may be an
swered, as q result Of the u. S.
Forest Services new process for
stimulating the flow Of resinous
gums by as much as IS per cent
above normal.
Naval stores are obtained by
distilling the trees natural gum,
which flows from the wounds or
"streaks" into containers. In the
still the pine gum vapor con-
denses into water and turpen-
tine. The turpentine floats on
top of the water and Is drained
off.
The gum residue in the still Is
rosin, which is discharged into
watts, where it Is strained
through two layers Of wire and
one of cotton batting laid on fine
wire. While molten 1t Is Labeled
into barrels, where it solidifies.
Credit for this country's pro-
gress in the field Of chemical
stimulation largely goes to
Michigan-born T. A. Liefeld,
quiet-spoken Forest Service sill
viculturist. News Of the German
discovery reached this country
in 1897, and he has worked in
this field almost exclusively
since then. He has spent 10 Of his
IL years in the service in the
Olustee Experimental Forest.
Last year Liefeld and his as
sociated-R. A. Chapman, A. G.
Snow, Jr., and r. p. True -
found that Q 40 per cent sulphu'
ric acid solution applied to fresh
"streaks" Clipped In the faces
of gum-producing slash pine
stimulated the gum flow by So
Der cent. A half q thimbleful Of
this solution, sprayed or brush.
ed on, turns the trick.
But the 40 per cent solution
| did next to nothing in stimulat.
ing the gum flow from long Leaf
pine. It was only this year, after
experimenting with rs or &c
chemicals, that the doctors ir
forest green" achieved success,
with this species. finding that q
90 per cent sulphuric acid solu'
ton worked like magic. The,
also found that . Is per cent %