32 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



corollary with the statement of the steel iiiau quoted in this 

 article, who says that ' ' this country has gone mad on steel and 

 concrete. ' ' 



If there is any one science in which quite a portion of the busi- 

 ness public of this countrj- (save the lumber industry) excels, it 

 is in the matter of scientific publicity. 



The question of what constitutes the secret of business success 

 was recently projected, with the query: "Is it selling the people 

 what they want?" 



The cogent reply came, ' ' Ko, not exactly. It is educating them 

 into wanting the things you have to sell." 



There are other ways to inspire an inclination to purchase 

 goods that are not involved in a display advertisement in either 

 the newspaper or magazine. It is the insistent promulgation of 

 supposedly authoritative statements exploiting the quality, desir- 

 ability and value of certain articles. 



It has been observed that the scientific salesmen is capable of 

 selling "chunks of blue sky." The public is very gullible, and is 

 too much inclined to let the interested promoter fix its opinions. 

 It seems almost impossible to get the public to differentiate 

 between non-inflammability and fireproof qualities in given 

 materials. One casually concedes that iron and steel will not 

 burn. Hence, when the manufacturer advertises the fireproof 

 qualities of filing cabinets, oiEce desks, doors, interior finish, et 

 cetera, the claim is likely to go unchallenged. Unthinkingly, one 

 will ^ay: These are good things; steel will not burn; a piece of 

 office furniture made of steel is fireproof. 



This is far from the truth. Think it out. There is not a. 

 building regulation law or a building inspector in the country 

 who will permit you to erect columns of steel to support a 

 building unless these columns be encased with fireproof material. 

 A conflagration of even a most moderate character would result 

 in almost the instantaneous destruction of a building supported 

 by unprotected steel posts and girders. There is no pretense in 

 the scientific mind that steel of itself is fireproof. It is not even 

 fire-resisting. It is simply non-inflammable. 



With this fact in mind, how is it possible to "con" the public 

 into the belief that stovepipe steel, when stamped into form and 

 made into office filing cabinets, of&ce desks, doors or interior finish, 

 has any essential fireproof qualities, or in any wise would effect 

 added protection against fire? Many architects accept steel doors 

 as a novelty, and, since nothing has been presented against the 

 claims of the makers that they are fireproof, they use them and 

 accept them as a temporary fire retardent, simply because of their 

 non-inflammability. However, they will not stand up under oven 

 an ordinarj' fire for more than a limited period. 



The absurdity of using a steel door in an otherwise fireproof 

 partition and considering it fireproof, while steel columns and 

 beams in the same building must be protected with hollow tile or 

 other material to render them acceptable as fireproof, would appeal 

 to the sense of humor if it were not too serious a proposition to 

 be considered humorous. 



A salesman for wooden filing cabinets recently encountered a 

 buyer who had become obsessed with the idea that it was the 

 right thing for him to purchase a large equipment of steel filing 

 cabinets. He said to the salesman: "Our cabinets will contain 

 some very valuable papers, and we therefore have decided to 

 install metal furniture for the sake of protection." 

 "AVhy?" queried the salesman. 

 "Because metal is fireproof and wood is not." 

 "1)0 you want to protect your cabinets or your records?" asked 

 the salesman. 



"The records, of course," said the buyer. 



The salesman asked for a second interview, and thirty minutes 

 later returned wtih a sheet of steel, six inches square, of the same 

 gauge that is employed in the making of steel cabinets, and a 

 piece of oak, six inches square, of the same thickness as is 

 employed in the making of wood cabinets. 



Lighting a nearby gas jet, the salesman asked the prospective 

 buyer to hold the sheet of metal two inches above the flame. The 



prospective buyer did as he was asked. Inside of ten seconds he- 

 dropped the metal, with the exclamation, "Gee, that's hot!" 



"Now do the same thing with this piece of oak," said the- 

 salesman. 



The business man did as requested, and at the end of minutes 

 he was still holding the piece of wood, which had simply become 

 blackened on the surface, but did not ignite. 



The salesman booked the order for the wooden furniture. 

 Steel is one of the best conductors of heat in existence. Hard- 

 wood is fire-resisting and slow-burning. 



Do you not recall as a boy j-our futile attempts to start a wood: 

 fire either in the kitchen stove or in the woods ' Do you not 

 recall how you had to reduce your dry wood to shavings and fine 

 kindling, and then only succeeded in igniting it after a draft 

 was applied? 



This anecdote of the furniture salesman tells the whole story. 

 Metal is fireproof and it will not actually ignite and blaze, but 

 it is not heat-proof. The sides of a metal filing cabinet are less 

 than a sixteenth of an inch in thickness. The instant they come 

 in contact with fire they absorb heat. Not only do they absorb- 

 it — they transmit it to the contents of the cabinet, which very 

 soon are ignited. Again, metal retains the heat, which is con- 

 stantly gaining in intensity. The contents of the cabinet will char, 

 buckle, and often ignite. 



In contradistinction, oak, mahogany, gum, or any other of 

 sundry varieties of hardwoods will resist fire. Wood is an abso- 

 lute non-conductor of heat, and will resist an ordinary blaze for 

 a long time. The flames will scorch and blacken the varnish, and 

 perhaps the .wood will char, but the charring itself offers addi- 

 tional protection, as is demonstrated by the old-fashioned log 

 fire in an open grate. The big sticks will blaze merrily until their 

 outside loose covering is consumed. Soon the surface becomes 

 charred and the logs burn slowly, often merely smoldering. 



Do you recall your experience with a good chunk of a back log 

 in a camp-fire? Was not your fire built against it for a week 

 with a constant blaze before the stick was burned in t-ivain? 



Bear in mind, in the purchase of oSice furniture, that w-h.-xt you 

 are seeking to do is to protect the contents of your cabinet, and 

 rot the cabinet itself. There certainly is no other argument, save 

 the alleged fireproof qualities, in favor of metal office furniture, 

 or furniture for any other purpose, since the manufacturer of 

 this new-fangled stuff' finishes it as nearly as possible in the simili- 

 tude of wood. In fact, these manufacturers advertise their product 

 as being as handsome as wooden cabinets. 



When a metal cabinet encounters fire, the metal ('X|iaiids. Under 

 this expansion something must give. I'^ven the metal warps, ojien- 

 ing '.i|i the crevices between the rivets. Expansion increases 

 with the heat until the rivets are actually ripped out, causing th& 

 cabinet to fall apart and the contents to drop out into the flames. 

 Even if the cabinet does not fall apart, the flames in the crevices 

 come in direct contact with the contents and that of course is fatal 

 to their preservation. When water is applied to heated metal 

 furniture, it buckles and twists and warps, making furtlier open- 

 ings for the soaking and destruction of the inflaniinalilo contents. 

 If the cabinet be of wood, the water causes tlir drawi-rs to swell 

 and closes up the crevices tighter than ever. 



Think the subject out for yourself, and you will decide that 

 metal filing cabinets and other office furniture are absolutely 

 fraudulent in comparison with the beautiful wood cabinet work 

 that the average business man employs in his office, and the 

 same thing is true of the stovepipe steel doors and interior finish 

 so persistently toiiled ns fireproof by llic imblicity promoters. 



WOOD IN BUrLBING CONSTRUCTION 



The National V\re I'rotective Assmial imi of Boston, in its 

 booklet, entitled "Factories and TIhmi' Fire I'rotectinn. " on page 9, 

 recites: 



"Timber beams offer greater resistance to fire than wrought 

 iron, steel or incased iron pillars, and :\re preferable in building 

 construction. It is obvious that when steel beams or posts are 

 used they should lii' jiroperly jirotected, as steel or wrought iron. 



