HARDWOOD RECORD 



39 



QUICK ACTION 



There are hundreds of stories current about Clinton Crane, but 

 one of his notable characteristics is the remarkable promptness with 

 which he does business. One would scarcely think that a man of 

 his ponderous weight had either such mental or physical activity 

 as he has. His weight is not far short of three hundred pounds, but 

 he will tire out a one hundred and fifty pound man of half his 

 years in hustling over his lumber yards, or in the woods for that 

 matter. 



A few years ago the flooring of the central bridge of Cincinnati 

 was found to be in bad condition, and an order was issued by 

 the municipal authorities to either refloor the bridge promptly, or 

 close it to traffic. The company said that it would be impossible 

 to get the lumber necessary for the purpose sawed inside of sixty 

 days, and that it was absolutely absurd to think of it. The city 

 engineer, who was in the conference, said: "Just wait a minute." 

 Reaching for the telephone, he called up C 3658. Getting Mr. 

 Crane on the wire he said : ' ' This is the city engineer. It takes 

 six hundred thousand feet dimension to floor the central bridge. 

 How long will it take to get it out and deliver it?" 



"West Virginia sjirucc or hemlock, you say," came over the 

 wire. "When can I deliver it? I can deliver it in a week or ten 

 days. I can commence delivery tomorrow. ' ' 



As a result "of the conference Mr. Crane was in the engineer's 

 otEce inside of thirty minutes, closed the contract and had every 

 foot of lumber sawed, cut to exact dimension, delivered and spread 

 over the bridge within 'en days. 



ANOTHER CRANE STORY 



As before noted, there are a lot of stories told m the Queen 

 City country about "Clint" Crane. Mr. Crane is absolutely demo- 

 iratie. He talks to anybody and everybody he chooses, at any old 

 time, and doesn't hesitate to express his opinion on any subject 

 at all times. Once in a while he goes up against it, as is related 

 in an anecdote of his encounter with a street boy, whom he found 

 comfortably seated in a street car one day, while two ladies were 

 standing. 



Mr. Crane said to the lad, ' ' You should get up, young man, and 

 give one of those young ladies your seat. ' ' 



The boy was of the peculiar gamin type, and retorted: 



"Wot fell. Why don't you get up and give 'em both a seat?" 



' \ ;y;ixt^taiTOaiiSTOit!)tTOatwst^^^ 



THE EASE WITH WHICH THE PUBLIC IS FOOLED 



It is marvelous with what ease the unthinking public is bunkoed 

 into beliefs that are at once untenable and silly. The use of cer- 

 tain words in advertising matter has almost a magic effect in 

 influencing public opinion. The moment an advertiser talks about 

 the "hygienic" or "sanitary" qualities of a given product, 

 whether it has any increased sanitary or hygienic merits or not, 

 the announcement is sure to add to its selling qualities. The same 

 is true of the word "fireproof." If a clever advertiser should 

 carry the announcement of fireproof guncotton or fireproof blasting 

 powder, he would probably be able to secure orders on the bare and 

 unproven statement. The announcements which stimulate in so 

 marked a degree a demand for a line, of goods involving the word 

 fireproof qualities of steel, are perhaps the most untruthful of any 

 of these fake advertisements. 



When you can get the average man to calmly think out the 

 proposition, he immediately realizes that steel is not fireproof; 

 neither is granite fireproof; neither is concrete fireproof; neither 

 is wood fireproof. Iron and steel are about the best possible 

 conductors of heat that can be named, and in comparison wood is a 

 fireproof material of infinitely more merit. The steel in a safe is 

 not what makes it fireproof. The fireproof qualities of a steel safe 

 are involved in the insulating material which is packed within the 

 outer and inner casings. When a glib promoter or salesman of 

 stovepipe steel filing cabinets, office furniture, doors and interior 

 finish talks about the fireproof qualities of this kind of plunder, if 

 you would seriously think it out for yourself for a moment, you 

 would wonder how you were gullible enough to even give the state- 

 ments consideration. 



Steel is non-inflammable; concrete is non-inflammable; cast iron 

 is non-inflammable; granite and sandstone are non-inflammable, 

 but none of these materials is fireproof or even fire-resisting. When 

 the inflammable contents of structures built of any of these ma- 

 terials become ignited, the buildings have little more permanency 

 than a wood building of the most fraO construction, and the mo- 

 ment the extinguishing agency of water is put on buildings of this 

 type, they collapse. 



On the other hand, wood under certain conditions is ignitable 

 and inflammable, but under proper construction it is very slow 

 burning. The Equitable building in New York was supposed to 

 be a fireproof structure. It was built of stone, steel and tile. 

 Fire occurred in this building recently and it was gutted from 

 basement to roof. The moment the firemen turned the water into 



it and onto it, the walls cracked and the entire interior went into 

 the basement. The only wood in the building was in the window 

 sash and the flag pole, and these are in existence today, while the 

 iron, steel, tile and marble were wrecked. 



The Fisher Body Company of Detroit recently erected a new 

 plant, the floors of which are made of 8x12 timbers, spiked solid, 

 on top of which are two inch top floors. Before the building was 

 occupied a bonfire was built in the middle of one of these floors 

 as a test of the fire-resisting qualities of the structure. This fire 

 was maintained for twelve hours, and resulted in very little dam- 

 age, even to the spot where it was located. It is alleged that a 

 ten dollar bill repaired the damage. This is what is known as 

 slow-burning construction, and has the approval of the best experts 

 in the fire insurance business, in the belief that this type has more 

 fire-resisting qualities than any of steel, concrete or tile. A so- 

 called fireproof building filled with materials that will burn is not 

 fireproof, but slow-burning wood constructed buildings have fire- 

 resisting qualities that are not to be equalled by any of the wood 

 substitutes. Every insurance man as well as every fireman knows 

 this. Still the public continues to be bamboozled by people in- 

 terested in the marketing of steel and cement products, in the 

 belief that they are getting something better, more permanent 

 and safer in buildings made of these materials than those made of 

 wood. 



STEEL INTERIOR FINISH 



The foremost products of steel doors and trim analyze, in an 

 alluring pamphlet, that "the positively fireproof building has come 

 to us with the automobile, the aeroplane, the wireless, and other 

 wonderful improvements of a wonderful age, but as a necessity 

 rather than a luxury." This steel door is made of thin sheets of 

 metal, stamped into form, the rails, stiles and muntins are hollow, 

 and a portit)n of the hollow space is plugged with pressed-into-form 

 cork scraps, a fire-resisting material of about as much utility as 

 celluloid would be. 



The writer of this article, in examining a section of one of these 

 doors at the Cement Show at Chicago, a few days ago, asked the 

 demonstrator why chunks of this material were inserted in a 

 portion of the air spaces. 



"Oh," he replied, "that is done to deaden the reverberation of 

 the door when it is closed." 



"It isn't intended as a fireproof expedient then, is it?" 



"Oh no, it is just put in to kill the reverberation of the metal." 



These doors are "doped" with a finish to imitate various woods, 



