FOREST RESEARCH-IN THE WAR AND AFTER 



BY EARLE H. CLAPP 



ASSISTANT FORESTER, U. S. FOREST SERVICE 



THE war has been full of surprises in its use of wood. 

 The first year brought a wonderful change in the 

 form of trench warfare, which carried with it an 

 unprecedented demand for wood in many forms, a de- 

 mand which, according to one French authority, utilized 

 in some cases as high as a cubic meter of wood 

 per linear meter of front. The requirements for air- 

 planes established entirely new standards, which extended 

 practically from the selection of the tree in the woods to 

 the inspection of the final product in the completed plane. 

 The commonplace wooden box assumed sufficient import- 

 ance in connection with the general question of packing 

 to warrant the formation of a special unit in the General 

 Staff and later on in all of the bureaus of the War 

 Department. Charcoal in many special forms, developed 

 through the efforts of large numbers of research agencies 

 in many countries, was a primary requisite in defensive 



ties. Gradually the work has been gaining momentum. 

 While the thought of preparation for war did not enter 

 into it materially, the experience of the past year and a 

 half has shown that in research the best preparation for 

 peace may be a long step forward in effective preparation 

 for war. A great volume of data was accumulated con- 

 cerning the stand, distribution, and quality of our forests, 

 concerning both technical and economic problems of pro- 

 duction and manufacture, and concerning the mechanical, 

 physical, and chemical properties of wood and how best 

 it can be conditioned and utilized for many purposes. An 

 organization of experts was developed which served as a 

 splendid nucleus for a large expansion and which has 

 supplied an invaluable background of knowledge, training, 

 experience, and outlook. 



The expert knowledge of wood and its problems gained 

 through years of research frequently enabled the Forest 



gas warfare and drew a large 

 part of its raw material from 

 the tropics. 



Requirements for wood 

 and wood products were sub- 

 ject to rapid change. Noth- 

 ing was acceptable because 

 it had been done that way be- 

 fore, and men who adhered 

 slavishly to precedent were 

 swept aside in the fiercest 

 competition for progress and 

 excellence the world has ever 

 known. The demand for 

 correct technical practice ex- 

 tended from the simplest 

 uses to the most complex, 

 from the pick handle, the 

 wooden box, and the gunstock to the highly complicated 

 airplane. 



Some thirty years ago the Forest Service began the 

 development of forest research as one of its earliest activi- 



A METHOD OF DETEKMIXING HIE 

 STRENGTH OF AIRPLAINE WING 

 RIBS 



An approximation of the air pressure 

 in flight is secured by applying the 

 load at many points by the system of 

 levers. This method of testing has 

 also been used to develop the strong- 

 est and lightest designs. 



Service to anticipate problems long ahead of the men 

 responsible for the utilization of results in the mili- 

 tary departments, and the general purpose of the 

 Service during the war has been to use its research 

 organization to help wherever help was needed and 

 to seek out the opportunities without waiting for 

 formal requests. The activities of the Forest Ser- 

 vice, first and last, dealt with practically every use 

 of wood in modern warfare — aircraft both heavier 

 and lighter than air and for both land and sea, 

 wooden ships, military vehicles, boxes and crates, 

 containers and packing in general, lumber and struc- 

 tural timber, offensive and defensive gas warfare, 

 grain alcohol, acetate of lime, pulp for explosives, 

 hardwood distillation for various purposes, wooden 

 limbs, fiber board, wooden pipe, implement handles, 

 rosin for shrapnel, and naval stores products, tannin, 

 noseplugs for shells, and various pulp products. 

 In order that the results secured might be known and 

 used co-operative relationships were established and main- 

 tained with practically every one of the numerous Gov- 

 ernmental agencies which dealt with the war : In the 



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