HARDWOOD RECORD 



41 



his time to the railroad business of the concern. 

 He was elected secretary a year ago. 



Mr. Ramsay comes from a family of noble 

 lineage, having been born at the ancestral seat 

 of the Ramsay family. Dalhnnsio Castle, Kirk, 

 Scotland, in ISC"). Had ho not preferred bis 

 American citizenship, be undoubtedly would have 

 succeeded to the title of Earl of Dalhousie. Mr. 

 Ramsay received the best education obtainable 

 In Scotland, graduating at St. Andrew's College, 

 at which place he acquired a proliciency In golf 

 which has made him one of the principal author- 

 ities on that game in this country. 



The man's thorough knowledge of every detail 

 of the lumber business, the high plane of his 

 integrity and his practical common sense and 

 good judgment, coupled with a sense of duty to 

 his company and its patrons, earned for him dur- 

 ing his lifetime the high esteem of his com- 

 petitors as well as customers and those asso- 

 ciated with him in his business. 



The funeral services were held on Monday, 

 December 12. at ten A. M., from the St. Paul's 

 Episcopal Church, 5Sth street and Madison ave- 

 nue, Rev. Herman Page, rector of the church, 

 officiating. The interment was at Mt. Greenwood 

 (Cemetery. 



Reunion of Department of Baldwin Loco- 

 motive 'Works 



The members of the tire department of the 

 Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, Pa., 

 recently assembled around the banquet table 

 at the Hotel Walton in annual social session 

 and talked of the past, present and future work 

 of the great plant. The department, which is 

 volunteer, was organized in 1864, and almost 

 every year since that time the members have 

 met and discussed their mutual interests and 

 the welfare of the plant. 



Samuel M. Vauclain. general superintendent 

 of the Baldwin plant and partial owner, acted 

 as toastmaster. The speakers were J. P. Sykcs. 

 assistant general superintendent ; Wm. Rhodes, 

 one of the superintendents ; C. A. Burgeois, chief 

 engineer of the Are department, and R. P. C. 

 Canderson, superintendent of the Eddystone 

 plant. 



The department recently took up a new work 

 for the company, approaching policy duty. The 

 members have interested themselves in the bet- 

 terment of the works and a committee visits 

 different departments and investigates the sani- 

 tary conditions. Through these investigations 

 the managers of the plants have been able to 

 make many changes towards improvement. 



■Wood Distillation in 1909 



In the wood distillation indu.stry in the United 

 States there were consumed during the calen- 

 dar year 1900 1,265,000 *cords of wood, as 

 against 97S.000 cords in 190S and 1,282.000 

 cords in 1907. The average cost per cord re- 

 ported for the 1909 consumption was $3.21, 

 which was an increase of 23 cents, or 8 per cent 

 over that reported for 1908, and of G cents, or 

 2 per cent, over that for 1907. While a sub- 

 stantial increase is noted in that branch of tlie 

 industry using yellow pine, fir and other soft 

 woods as material, the revival of activity was 

 more marked in hardwood distillation, due un- 

 doubtedly to the material advance in the aver- 

 age value per gallon of wood alcohol over the 

 two preceding years. 



The distillation of hardwoods was reported 

 from fourteen states during 1909. while in 1908 

 and 1907 it was pursued in only eight states. 

 Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York, how- 

 ever, continue to be the centers of activity in 

 this branch of the industry. These three states 

 consumed 84 per cent of the total quantity 

 of hardwoods reported as used during 1909, and 

 contributed, of the total output of each of the 

 three leading products, charcoal, wood alcohol 

 and gray acetate, 82 per cent, 93 per cent, and 

 92 per cent, respectively. 



While the average value per unit has varied 

 little for most of the products of hardwood 

 distillation during the past (hree or four years, 

 for alcohol it has (Incluated over a wide range, 

 following the passage of the so-called denatured 

 alcohol law, which became effective .lanuary 

 1, 1907. The average value per gallon reported 

 for crude alcohol manufaelured during the cal- 

 endar year 190G was 34 cents. In 1907 it 

 dropped to an average of 1.") cents, increased 

 to 17 cents during 1908 and reached an average 

 of 21 cents in 1909. 



New Concern Takes Over Old Business 



On December 1 Charles B. White of Chicago, 

 who is favorably known among the local trade, 

 look over the inlerests of G. L. LIndsley in the 

 old G. li. iiiniisley Lumber Company, in which 

 Mr. White was formerly a co-partner. Mr. LInds- 

 ley had been 111 for some time and upon his 

 being ordered by his physician to make a change 

 bis partner embraced the opportunity of acquir- 

 ing business and purchased the interest which 

 lie did not formerly hold. He will continue the 

 old trade under the style of the While Brothers 

 Lumber Conipauy. The new concern will con- 



CHAS. B. WHITE OP CHICAGO 



tinue to have its offices at 1260-61 Monadnock 

 block, Chicago, and it is Mr. White's belief that 

 it will continue to bold the old trade as well as 

 to take on a new line of customers. 



The G. L. Lindsley Lumber Company entered 

 the Chicago field two years ago and during the 

 ensuing period lias worked up a comfortable 

 trade in southern liardwoods, yellow pine and 

 west coast products. 



C. B. White has taken with him his brother, 

 Thomas B. White. The latter has been In the 

 railroad business for several years, and while 

 he is lacking in a close knowledge of the details 

 of the lumber business, his close relations with 

 his brother coupled with his aggressive spirit, 

 will materially aid the other partner, whose ex- 

 perience and wide aci|uainlance in the Irade en- 

 title him to a prominent position in local lumber 

 circles. 



The company relies for its hardwoods upon 

 mills at Wagner and Lakeside, Ark., where It 

 has a large stock of dry timlwr on hand. These 

 mills cut daily 25.000 and 50.000 feet respect- 

 ively. The renowned Craig Mountain pine will 

 be sold by the Wlilte Brothers Lumber Com- 

 pany in this territory. Mr. White claims this 

 stock to be the equal of any California white 

 pine. 



The stocks on hand at the southern points In- 



clude 1,000,000 feet of dry gum lumber running 

 from 30 to 35 per cent red and 1.000,000 feet 

 of oak lumber on slicks. Mr. White reports an 

 excellent business, considering Iradc conditions 

 and the season, and takes an optimistic view of 

 the future. 



The Hardwood Record unites with the friends 

 of the new company in best wishes for the suc- 

 cessful future which seems assured. 



How to Reduce Your Fire Hazard 



Among the benefits to be derived from burn- 

 ing your sawdust and other fine refuse under 

 your boilers Is the fact that It keeps your yard 

 clean. This not only makes It look better, and 

 gives you more room to pile your lumber, etc., 

 but it also greatly reduces the fire hazard. 



If you cannot burn such fuel on your present 

 grate, you should Install the Gordon Hollow 

 Blast Grate, which will enable you to consume 

 It readily, ever, though mi.xed with ice and snow. 



You need not buy tho grate outright, It you 

 are at all skeptical as to Its efficiency, as the 

 manufacturers are perfectly willing to let you 

 try it thirty days before you need commit your- 

 selves. If at any time during that period, or at 

 the expiration thereof, you do not feel that the 

 grate Is worth the price asked, all you need do 

 l3 to remove the apparatus and notify the manu- 

 facturers that it Is subject to their order, and 

 the transaction ends. They pay the freight both 

 ways. 



The Gordon Hollow Blast Grate Company. 

 Greenville, Mich., is the party to address, ex- 

 cept on the Pacific coast, where the grate Is be- 

 ing made and sold under license from the Gor- 

 don Hollow Blast Grate Company by the Puget 

 Sound Machinery Depot, Seattle, Wash. 



Australian Railway Ties for America 



A sliipmenl of 70,000 railway ties nt "stringy 

 hark" (Eucalyptus obliqua), sometimes termed 

 Tasmanian oak, left Ilobart _for the United 

 States at the end of October. Two similar 

 shipments will follow, probably In March and 

 .lune of 1911, making a total of 210.000 sleepers 

 of Tasmanian timber for the lUnited States. 



Stringy bark is much in demand for railway 

 sleepers, being almost everlasting. Some forest 

 tramways in use by Tasmanian sawmills were 

 laid with stringy bark sleepers more than fifty 

 years ago and, after withstanding an enormous 

 heavy timber trafllc daily, are still perfectly 

 sound. The average use of these sleepers rest- 

 ing on gravel ballast and subjected to a rain- 

 fall varying between twenty and sixty inches per 

 annum is about fifteen years, but they have been 

 taken up after twenty years of use and found 

 perfectly sound. The wood, being practically non- 

 inflammable, makes a valuable safeguard against 

 conflagrations in tunnels, and Is especially suit- 

 able for underground railways. Stringy bark 

 is marvelously nonabsorbent and resistant of 

 damp, making some of the finest railway sleepers 

 in the world, and is comparatively immune from 

 the ravages of white ants and other land 

 Insects. 



The Tasmanian wood being hard, bedplates are 

 not required under the rails of the VIgnoles 

 section of rail. The holding for spikes Is good 

 and the splitting of a sleeper Is a rare oc- 

 currence. On the Tasmanian main line (3-foot 

 6-lnch gauge) stringy bark sleepers are used 

 The alignment of the track is very sinuous, 

 many of the curves being only 330 radius, and 

 yet even on these sharp curves so great Is the 

 holding power of the spikes in the sleepers that 

 no hearing plates or reenforclng braces are used. 



Stringy bark Is especially suitable for harbor 

 construction, being one of the densest timbers 

 in the world and Immune from the attacks of 

 marine Insects. It Is one of the few kinds 

 which can be obtained in great lengths and 

 contains a resinous substance which resists the 

 Xylophages. There is an essential oil in the 

 wood which prevents "It rotting under exposure 



