Wood Preserving Department 



By E. a. Sterling 

 Ex-Prcsidcnt American Wood Preservers' Association 



THE city of ]\Iinneapolis, which already has a larger 

 percentage of creosoted wood block streets than 

 almost any other city in the country, has recently 

 given further evidence of its conviction that this form of 

 pavement is best by contracting for an additional 350,000 

 square yards. The blocks are to be of yellow pine, 3J^- 

 inch deep, creosoted with 16 pounds of oil per cubic foot. 

 It is reported that the contract price for the blocks is 

 $1.46 per yard. This is an increase of 1-1 cents per 

 yard over the 1915 prices in the same city and represents 

 higher prices for lumber and creosote. The value of the 

 total order will exceed half a million dollars, the blocks 

 will require 1,000 cars for transportation, and will be 

 equivalent to over 12 million feet board measure of lum- 

 ber. This amount of block will pave 22 miles of 27-foot 

 roadway. It is stated that Minneapolis has expended 

 over a million and a quarter dollars for creosoted wood 

 block pavements in the last thirteen years, and the total 

 cost for maintenance has been less than a thousand dol- 

 lars, which is practically negligible. 



Increasing attention is being given to the preservative 

 treatment of farm timbers, and the lumber used around 

 homes, both suburban and rural. While fence posts 

 have been treated to quite an extent for many years, the 

 application of practice has not been very widely applied 

 to lumber and small timbers. This is partly for the 

 reason that suitable creosote or other preservatives have 

 not been available in retail quantities, and in part be- 

 cause the possibilities have never been properly pro- 

 moted. The sills and basement flooring of many farm 

 buildings, entire structures in the case of swine houses, 

 poultryhouses. board walks, gates and many other essen- 

 tial farm structures can be treated at reasonable cost 

 so as to give greatly increased life from decay. A grad- 

 ually increasing amount of literature is being made 

 available, among which may be mentioned Bulletin 158 

 on Preservative Treatment of Fence Posts, issued in Au- 

 gust, 1915, by the Agricultural Experiment Station, at 

 Ames, Iowa. Previously a bulletin on the same subject 

 was printed by the Maryland Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, and the National Lumber Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation now has a bulletin on the Preservative Treatment 

 of Farm Timbers on the press. It is also understood that 

 the Forest Service has compiled additional information 

 of a very complete character, which will be published in 

 the near future. 



That the American Wood Preservers' Association is 

 vigorously carrying out its policy of developing standard 

 treating practice, and giving educational publicity to the 

 wood-preserving industry, under the new administra- 

 tion, is indicated by the energetic work of the Executive 

 Committee in outlining projects for the present year. 

 New appointments have been made on the various stand- 

 ing committees, and the personnel insures the greatest 

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possible activity and the best results. Special attention is 

 to be given this year to educational publicity, both of the 

 methods and results of proper preservative treatment, 

 and of the aims and benefits of the association. At a 

 dinner of the Executive Committee, standing committee 

 members, and others in Chicago, in March, President 

 Carl G. Crawford outlined the policies which he expects 

 to carry out, and called on the various men present for an 

 expression of their views. 



Creosoted wood blocks, already extensively used as 

 paving material for city streets, have been coming into 

 use as flooring for the last four or five years, according 

 tc the Forest Service. Its durability, noiselessness under 

 heavy traffic, and sanitary properties are its chief ad- 

 \antages for paving and also give it special value for 

 making floors, especially for use where heavy trucking, 

 the moving of heavy machinery, or other severe use 

 makes the maintenance of floors a serious problem. Its 

 rather high cost is its chief disadvantage. Wood block 

 is now widely used for flooring in factories, warehouses, 

 machine shops, foundries, various types of platforms, 

 wharves, and docks, and for such miscellaneous purposes 

 as hotel kitchens, hospitals, laundries, and slaughter 

 houses. Possibly one of the oddest of these uses is for 

 the floors of wild animal cages and runways. Notwith- 

 standing the recent increase in the use of wood block for 

 these purposes, it is believed that the growth of this 

 industry will be even more rapid in the future. These 

 floors are well liked by the workmen because they are 

 easy on the feet. 



Afost of the blocks for these floors are now made of 

 southern yellow pine. Hemlock, larch, Douglas fir, black 

 gum, beech and maple are also used. The blocks are 

 sawed from long sticks of timber and are treated in huge 

 steel cylinders from (; to 7 feet in diameter and 100 feet 

 or more in length. Creosote oil is run into the cylinders 

 and pressure is then applied to force it into the wood. 

 The oil is a product obtained in the manufacture of coke 

 from coal and its purpose is to prevent decay of the 

 wood, and also to prevent shrinking and swelling of the 

 floor after it is laid. 



According to statistics just compiled jointly by the 

 American Wood Preservers' Association and the Forest 

 Service at Washington, D. C, there was treated at 102 

 plants in the year 1915 a total of 141,858,963 cubic feet 

 of timber, which compares with 159,582,639 cubic feet 

 by ninety-four plants in 1914; a decrease in quantity of 

 about 11 per cent in 1915. Of the 1915 output, cross ties 

 contributed 78.4 per cent of the total, construction tim- 

 bers, 8.3 per cent, paving blocks, 5.4 per cent, piling 4.4 

 per cent, poles 1.7 per cent, and the balance consisted of 

 cross arms, lumber, etc. 



With the exception of two years, 1913 and 1914, the 

 volume of timber treated in 1915 was the largest on 

 record. 



