TWO TRUCK LOADS OF LUMBER READY FOR STEAMING — 



QUARTER INCH QUARTER-SAWED WHITE OAK, AND 



THREE AND FOUR-INCH QUARTER-SAWED 



WHITE OAK 



but contribute to its drying more promptly and in better condi- 

 tion than if it had not been thus treated. These various methods 

 of steaming or water soaking lumber have been practiced by a 

 good many people and in an indifferent, expensive and haphazard 

 wav for many years, but it has remained for the manufacturers 

 of the Kraetzer preparator equipment to render possible the steam- 

 ing of lumber under pressure in a scientific and accurate way by 

 giving wood of various kinds and thicknesses just the proper 

 amount of steam pressure and time to put it in the best possible 

 shape for prompt seasoning, without multiplication of the defects 

 that the lumber may or may not have contained. 



The concern which has most recently tried out this steaming of 

 lumber under pressure with the Kraetzer equipment, and under the 

 direction of the company, is Eusse & Burgess, Inc., Memphis, 

 Tenn., which installed the apparatus about a mouth ago. 



The pictures accompanying this article were made at this instal- 

 lation. The house named has taken a great deal of pains to handle 

 the steaming of gum, oak and other woods with great accuracy, 

 and certainly the results attained, according to the observation 

 of the writer, would indicate that this house has mastered all the 

 serious problems involved in the seasoning of refractory southern 

 woods in a most satisfactory manner, although a full demonstra- 

 tion of the results on three and four inch oak can not be ac- 

 curately determined until additional time elapses. Certain it is, 

 however, they have succeeded in drying gum three-fourths of an 

 inch and less in thickness in such a satisfactory manner in the 

 open, after this steaming treatment, as to be able to load for 

 export shipping dry stock in from six to ten days from the saw. 

 This lumber went into the cars absolutely unwarped, unchecked, 

 and just as straight as it came from the mill. Its color was uni- 

 form, and it is certain that there is no apprehension concerning 

 the possibility of staining in transit. 



The opportunity possessed by Russe & Burgess, Inc., by a com- 

 plete demonstration of the efBcacy of this system of steaming lum- 

 ber under pressure and blowing it out in the open, is most excel- 

 lent, as they handle chiefly types of wood that previously have 

 been very difficult to season promptly without the development of 

 a good many defects incident to the long time and rehandling 

 required. Beyond this they have installed a system of transfer 

 and storage tracks for lumber piled directly from the mill to trucks 

 that will surely cut the cost of handling lumber in half, and per- 

 haps effect a still greater economy. 



When fully carried out in logical development, this system of 

 lumber handling from the transfer chains to railroad cars will in- 

 voIto the loading of the lumber almost directly from the assorting 

 chains to the steaming trucks in units of about five thousand feet; 

 the moving of the lumber over a transfer table to the preparator; 

 steaming it under pressure from five to twenty minutes, accord- 

 ing to kind and thickness; shoving the load out on transfer tracks 

 to storage tracks; and permitting it to blow out until in good 

 shipping condition. An acre of ground equipped with storage 

 trackage will accommodate about 750,000 feet of lumber, so it will 

 be seen that it does not take a very large acreage to carry all 



TRUCK LOADS OF THREE-EIGHTHS INCH GUM BLOWN OUT IN 



FIVE DAYS AFTETl STEAMING READY FOR SHIPMENT. 



THIS LUMBER HAS .<!INCE BEEN LOADED 



FOR EXPORT 



the stock necessary for even a mill of substantial capacity until 

 the stock is dry enough to either load on to cars or to transfer 

 into dead pile in storage sheds. 



It has been found that the steaming of lumber under moderate 

 pressure results in the ejection of much liquid or semi-liquid mat- 

 ter during the process, and tests have shown that inch quarter- 

 sawed white oak has been reduced in weight by steaming and air 

 drying 1,500 pounds in forty-five days; red oak nearly 2,000 

 pounds in forty-five days; gum more than 2,500 pounds in forty- 

 five days; poplar about 1,750 pounds in forty-five days, and cypress 

 about 1,500 pounds in forty-five days. Of course, this reduction in 

 weight will vary somewhat according to the character of the drying 

 conditions prevalent, but the initial ejection of moisture by the 

 steaming process is accomplished regardless of out-of-door atmos- 

 pheric conditions. 



This steaming of lumber under pressure has been found more 

 efficacious immediately after the lumber is sawed than when it has 

 been partially dried, although one important user of the equip- 

 ment puts his partly dried lumber through the steaming cylinder. 

 Lumber yard cost as ordinarily practiced varies with localities 

 and the character of the labor, but few are able to put lumber 

 in pile and take it down again with the incidental rehandling of 

 "outs," at less than one dollar a thousand feet. In many in- 

 stances the cost runs much higher than this. Lumber handled by 

 the Kraetzer system can be piled on the steaming trucks, steamed, 

 transferred and loaded onto cars or in shed, at an average cost of 

 fifty cents a thousand. This, however, is but" one of the smallest 

 items involved in the economy of handling lumber in this way. 



Assume, if you please, a mill cutting hardwoods which has an 

 output of 40,000 feet daily of No. 1 common and better lumber, 

 or a total annual cut of ten million feet of No. 1 common and 

 better. It further may be assumed that this stock is carried on 

 sticks only four months, and has an average value of twenty-five 

 dollars per thousand, and represents a permanent investment of 

 one hundred thousand dollars in yard stock. It is contended that 

 this time of holding the stock until it is in shipping condition can 

 be reduced to an average time of thirty days by the new process, 

 but for argument sake, if it be reduced but one-half or two 

 months, it will effect an economy in investment on the output 

 noted above of fifty thousand dollars. The yearly saving on a 

 fifty thousand dollar investment at six per cent is three thousand 

 dollars. The saving of insurance based on a two per cent rate 

 is a thousand dollars more. From the fact that steamed lumber 

 will dry out to less weight than unsteamed lumber, it is estimated 

 that there is an economy in this feature of fifty cents a thousand 

 or twenty-five thousand dollars per annum in average freights. 



While these figures look astounding, from the evidence at hand 

 it is fair to presume that the economy hero recounted is not the 

 most snbstnnti.'il one to be gained by the use of this system. If 

 the belief of those who have put in the apparatus is warranted, 

 that it absolutely prevents sap staining; materially im|irov('s the 

 quality of the product; practically eliminates degrade by reason 

 of seasoning defects; evens up the color of the wood, including 



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