THE USES OF WOOD 



WOOD USED IN VEHICLE MANUFACTURE 



BY HU MAXWELL 



Editor's Note.— This is the tenth story in a series of important and very valuable articles by Mr. Maxwell on wood and its 

 uses. The series will thoroughly cover the various phases of the subject, from the beginnings in the forest through the processes 

 of logging, lumbering, transportation and milling, considering in detail the whole field of the utilization and manufacture of wood. 



NEARLY every kind of tree that grows to usable size 

 in this country fills a place in vehicle manufacture 

 or repair, either in shop or factory, or on the farms 

 or highways where wagons and sleds are made or mended. 

 So wide is the range of vehicles, as to sizes, kinds, and the 

 places which they are expected to fill, that nearly any 

 billet of wood, large or small, may give service as a sled 

 sole, singletree, pin, crossbar, standard, spreader, neck 

 yoke, axle, or something else that is helpful in making or 

 mending vehicles. Statistics compiled in factories show 

 much but not all of the wood consumed by vehicle 

 makers or repairers. Teamsters on highways, farmers 

 in fields, workmen with teams everywhere, need wood 

 at times to make repairs, and often they go to the 

 nearest forest, if one is convenient, and cut the piece 

 they need. The people who do this put to use, some- 

 where and at sometime, ])ractically every kind of wood 



that grows in America. It is a sort of unwritten law that 

 the driver of a vehicle must be able to make repairs of 

 certain kinds when he happens to be out of reach of a 

 shop. It has always been so ; for Homer, writing of the 

 siege of Troy, refers to a similar custom then : "His 

 sounding ax lops green limbs from a sycamore to spOKC 

 a chariot wheel." The drivers of sleds, carts, and 

 wagons have been swinging their axes ever since that 

 time in woods and forests to procure wagon n)aterial 

 to meet emergencies. 



However, a discussion of the vehicle industry must 

 here be confined to a narrower range than that which 

 goes back to Homer's time, or to the activities of the 

 repair man who mends and patches by highways and 

 waysides wherever accidents occur. Up-to-date manu- 

 facturing and present day statistics must hold chief place. 



Investigators for the government have gone pretty 



RAW MATERIAL FOR AXLES, HUBS AND FELLOES 



This scene is in the hardwood region of Arkansas and is strictly up to date. The high grade oak is on its way to the mill for conversion into 

 wagon stock to meet a portion of the extraordinary demand for tens of thousands of Iieavy wagons for our armies in foreign lands. Only the 

 best wood is acceptable for this use. 



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