16 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



May 10. 1922 



chine work and apply directly the craftsmanship of the cabinet- 

 maker to give the furniture the character of beauty and elegance 

 desired. But up to ten years ago there was little other than the 

 band saw and the jigsaw that could be used in the adornnnent of 

 the medium grades of furniture. Now the manufacturer has at 

 his command automatic lathes and carving machines that will 

 work out the most complicated designs at relative high speed. 

 Many of the decorative features that formerly could only be got 



by the chisel and the mallet of the hand carver a most expensive 



process — can be cheaply produced by these lathes and carving 

 machines. The hand carver is required only to create the original 

 and one design and from w^hich the machines will turn out like 

 ones indefinitely. 



Vital Dry Kiln Progress 



There is no more important improvement in the apparatus of 

 the furniture factory than the modern dry kiln. The first thing 

 about the present day furniture factory (and the same thing ap- 

 plies to other types of woodw^orking plants) to attract the atten- 

 tion of the visitor is the absence of the great acreages of lumber 

 piles that one used to see. It is no longer necessary for the manu- 

 facturer of furniture to carry the immense stocks of lumber he was 

 obliged to carry some years ago. Then the lumber had to go 

 through a long process of air-conditioning, before it could be put 

 into the crude dry kilns of that period. Now it can be taken from 

 the mill yard, or factory storage yard, after a relative short drying 

 period (only sufficient in most cases to bring the stock down to 

 "shipping weight") and the process completed in a short time in 

 the dry kiln. Thoroughly trained scientific minds have studied the 

 problems of kiln drying lumber and have reduced the methods to 

 exact and scientific principles. Automatic controls for temperature 

 and humidity have been introduced and the circulation of kilns 

 has been studied along sound engineering lines w^ith the idea of 



making certain that the air is distributed uniformly throughout 

 the pile of lumber rather than trust to the "hit or miss" method 

 that was prevalent some years ago. Scientists have studied the 

 cellular structure of w^oods and discovered the secrets of shrink- 

 age, warping, etc., under drying processes. 



It is now only necessary for a furniture plant to stock sufficient 

 lumber to provide for its cutting requirements for any length of 

 time, within reason, that the buying policy of its purchasing agent 

 may dictate, and thus lumber inventories have been greatly reduced 

 and carrying charges minimized. 



The improvement in dry kiln equipment and drying knowledge 

 has been supplemented by highly efficient systems of trackage and 

 transfer cars to handle the lumber from the railroad car to the 

 yard and then through the kiln and into the furniture plant; or from 

 the railroad car direct to the transfer cars, ready to be taken to the 

 kiln when required. The latter system saves piling in the yard 

 and repiling in the kiln cars and is undoubtedly the ideal method. 



Several dry kiln manufacturers have recently placed on the 

 market electrically operated transfer carriages for moving the 

 loaded cars of lumber from the storage yard to the dry kilns and 

 then to the cutting rooms. These electrically operated carriages 

 permit the moving of the loaded cars of lumber onto the table from 

 within the dry kilns. One man can now perform the duty which 

 previously required the activities of four to five men. The opera- 

 tion of these carriages or tables is very simple and all the operator 

 has to do is to press either forward or reverse push-button, or, if 

 desirable, the same sequence of operation can be obtained by 

 using a small drum controller which can be used for forward or 

 reverse and stop position. 



In addition to the transfer carriages or tables, we have the elec- 

 trically operated lumber stackers, which can be used for both load- 

 ing and unloading the dry kiln cars. With the use of this elec- 

 trically operated equipment the entire method of handling the lum- 



By Courtesy Mattiaoji Machine Works 



Electric Moulder, with Powerful, Individually Controlled Motors for Each Head and the Feed Wwks 



