20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Februai-y 25. 1917 



sole. Ernest H. Shackeltou, the antarctic explorer, after long and try- 

 ing experience on glaciers and moraines, equipped his sleds with hickory 

 soles during the expedition of 1908-9. Tlie sleds were eleven feet long, 

 two and a half wide, and the soles were split out instead of being sawed, 

 the purpose being to get rid of all crossgrain. The soles were four 

 inches wide and they outlasted every other material, even German 

 silver, when subjected to similar use. 



The rural user often tries out a wood for its hardness and wearing 

 qualities long before the manufacturer thinks of it. Take the wooden 

 wedge, known as a glut, with which the pioneers split the hundreds of 

 millions of fence rails that fenced the farms in early times. The glut 

 is a small piece of wood, its average size not exceeding one-half of one 

 board foot, yet as an implement of industry and development, its in- 

 fluence has been almost beyond measure. The Indians used gluts of 



softness is its best selling card. ' ' Arkansas soft pine ' ' is widely adver- 

 tised; but this tree is really the shortleaf yellow pine which grows all 

 over the South, and which is generally a pretty hard pine ; but climate 

 and soil made the wood softer in parts of Arkansas and Louisiana, and 

 that fact is advertised to the ends of the earth. 



In many uses more or less limited in their scope, a wood's softness 

 often recommends it highly. The lead pencil is a well known example. 

 Pencils are made of dozens of woods, but southern red cedar surpasses 

 all others in its whittling qualities, due to softness and brittleness com- 

 bined. Softness alone is not aU in this instance, for there are more 

 than one hundred woods in this country softer than pencil cedar. It 

 cannot be pointed out too often that a very popular wood seldom de- ' 

 pends upon a single quality for its popularity. 



^^n 



HICKORY SLED AT SOUTH POLE 



the hardest woods they could get and in many ways made them do the 

 work of axes in splitting and chipping. Dogwood and locust served 

 for Indian gluts in the East and huckleberry tree in the West. The 

 pioneers found no better woods for gluts than the Ind'ians knew. Dog- 

 wood was preferred. In splitting softwoods like pine or basswood, 

 gluts of dogwood or huckleberry, tree could be driven to the head in the 

 solid log without splintering or fraying the glut. Hardness was given 

 its supreme test. 



Pattern makers choose for patterns which must meet long serxace. 



LIGNUM-VIT.\E BEARING FOR STEAMBOAT SHAFT. ALSO WOUDEN 

 CASTOR FOR FURNITURE 



such woods as mahogany and cherry, which are very hard, and at the 

 same time are little liable to check or warp. 



Shuttles for textile mills are extremely exacting. Only two American 

 woods have been found wholly satisfactory. They are dogwood and 

 persimmon. One dogwood shuttle may wear as long as a hundred made 

 of some other wood which, if judged by appearances only, would not 

 be regarded as much inferior to dogwood. 



Where Softness Is Valued 



Hardness is not always a necessary quality. In fact, the majority 

 of users esteem softness above hardness in selecting wood for use. 

 Hardness is no consideration with those who use any of the white pines, 

 in the East or West; any of the firs; any of the cedars: some of the 

 yellow pines, and most of the trees in the willow, basswood, and mag- 

 nolia families. These woods are liked because they are soft and cut 

 •easily and the carpenter's day's work makes a big showing. The 

 planing mill puts them through in a hurry. They nail well. The very 

 liard woods go into special places, but those which are soft are used 

 widely and in great quantities. 



The popularity of "cork pine" — a fine grade of white pine- — was 

 due to its softness. California redwood is handsome and light, but its 



Steel Cars Doomed? 



Lumbermen in Cincinnati recentlj' have been asking themselves 

 the question "Are steel ears doomed — a failure?" ever since a very 

 leading statement was issued, recently, by a prominent railroad man. 

 According to gossip at Cincinnati in railroad circles, it is declared 

 that numerous railroad officials have expressed themselves that it 

 is only a question of time when steel cars will be replaced by those 

 made of wood, although of a different type or pattern than those 

 in general use a few years ago -before the cry for steel cars was 

 raised. 



It was not so long ago that Congress came within an ace of passing 

 a law making steel passenger coaches obligatory on all roads. Cin- 

 cinnati officials are quoted as saying it is fortunate the act failed 

 to pass, as they declare wooden cars with steel frames withstand 

 shocks better than all-steel cars. 



"It is safe to say," one railroad man in an official position is 

 quoted as .saying, "that the all-steel car, as it is known today,, 

 within ten years will be out of use and in its jilace will be found 

 the wooden car with the steel frames, which experience has shown 

 is better able to withstand a collision than all-steel cars. Danger 

 of fire under present systems of heating is practically eliminated." 



Passing of the Waterpower Sawmill 



The little water power sawmill is passing away. It has been pass- 

 ing during many years, but there are stQl a few more to take theb 

 departure. No statistics tell how many there are now or how many 

 there once were. They are so small that no one considers it worth 

 while to count them; consequently they are like the game birds which 

 once abounded, they are disappearing without attracting much atten- 

 tion. An obscure item in a recent government report throws a little 

 light on the subject, but throws it indirectly, for the item reads: 

 ' ' The value of millstones produced in the United States dropped from 

 $200,000 in 1880 to $43,000 last year." 



At first glance that appears to have nothing to do with little 

 water power sawmills, and at best it is only indirect evidence. Mill 

 stones are for grinding grain in rural communities. A long time ago 

 all grinding of grain was done with stones, but better processes are 

 employed now in most places outside of extremely rural communities. 

 Consequently the demand for millstones is decreasing. 



Tlie little water power sawmill and the little grist mill usually went 

 together. The man who had a sawmill needed only to put in another 

 wheel and a trundlehead, and he was ready to install millstones and 

 complete a grist mill. That was the old way of doing it. The old 

 way is going out. The figures or miUstones show that the decline 

 since 1880 has been nearly eighty per cent. On the assumption that 

 the little sawmill and the little grist mill went together, it means 

 that where there were one hundred of these little mills in 1880, there 

 are only twenty-one now. The figures may not be precise, and some 

 things are taken for granted in reaching the conclusion; yet it is an 

 interesting deduction and seems to throw a little light on the rate at 

 which the rural water power sawmill is passing away. 



It is our own fault if we find life monotonous, and it is also time to 

 seek some of the new ideas and fresh thought that brings relief. 



