HARDWOOD RECORD 



43 



Gifts From the Trade 



The Recoko acknowlixlges Willi lluinks thi' 

 receipt of a calouaar for 1011 from the oflice 

 of Scatcherd & Son, wholesale dealers in hard- 

 wood lumber of Buffalo. X. Y. It is a very 

 practical idea for the busy oQico man, gotten 

 up in tablet form, each page carrying six days 

 of the month, with a space for memoranda 

 ■opposite each date. 



The Westinghouse Electric Company of Titts- 

 burg, Pa., has gotten out a diary for 1911. 

 which, besides carrying the regular calendar 

 with space for memoranda, contains an alnin- 

 ■dance of information covering every phase of 

 the practical application of electricity. It gives 

 tables and rules, which can be applied to every 

 problem which faces the electrical engineer, 

 and besides gives a number of pages of miscel- 

 laneous information. 



From Robert Black & Co., Bay City, Mich.. 

 ■comes a beantiful calendar, showing a repro- 

 duction of the painting by J. Ross Bryson, en- 

 titled "Inspiration." The calender is artistically 

 gotten up and will make an attractive wall 

 hanging for the Record's ofBce. 



The calendar sent out by the Midland Lum- 

 ber Company, Parkersburg, W. Va., contains a 

 <3aily pad with figures of sufficient size to be 

 seen a block away, thus assuring the company 

 that it will be well before the attention of the 

 trade during 1911. 



The Penrod Walnut & Veneer Company of 

 Kansas City, Mo., sends its compliments to the 

 trade on an attractive blotter, which has a cellu- 

 loid cover on which is attractively printed the 

 name of the concern and a portrait of a colonial 

 <]ame. 



The Keith Lumber Company, Chicago, has Is- 

 sued an unpretentious hut effective little memo- 

 randum card of celluloid. One side is finished 

 plain for making memoranda. The other con- 

 tains the company's name and a concise little 

 talendar. and a notation of the many kinds of 

 wood handled. The bottom of the card bears 

 the trade mark of the company. 



The calendar received from the American Wood 

 Working Machinery Company has several features 

 ■which makes It especially valuable. Besides the 

 «urrent month, it also shows on each of the 

 twelve sheets, the month previous and the fol- 

 lowing one, gives the moon phases and is clearly 

 printed in black, the figures being of good size. 

 The location of the company's branch offices are 

 given, also pictures of a number of its impor- 

 tant machines and views of its plants. 



John M. Woods & Co., East Cambridge, Mass., 

 manufacturers and wholesalers of hardwood, yel- 

 low pine, mahogany and veneers, send a good 

 standard calendar, clearly printed and of good 

 size, showing the company's plants and yards. 



A Curious Grindstone 



A peculiar and a very home-made grindstone 

 ■was found by the American consul, Charles K. 

 Moser, in southern Arabia. Writing from Aden 

 he says that this interesting implement was made 

 ■by the workman who used it and was of excel- 

 lent quality. 



It is a disk of about eighteen inches in diam- 

 ■eter and half an inch in thickness. This abra- 

 sive disk is made of a composition of Indian 

 lac or wax and imbedded in this retaining ma- 

 trix are the fine grains of pulverized corundum 

 ■crystals brought from Makalla and Sbehr, prov- 

 inces on the southern Arabian coast and some 

 ■200 miles east of Aden. 



Nor-way's Timber Supply 



The Norwegian authorities look upon the in- 

 creased importation of pulp wood as an indica- 

 tion that the forests of the country are being 

 drawn upon beyond their capacity. In spite 

 of the liberal expenditure for reforestation, the 

 >>'orweglan forestry laws show a great diversity 

 «f character in the different sections of the 



country, having been drawn up to meet the 

 wishes of the people of particular localities. 

 There is no uniformity as to the size of timber 

 which may lawfully he felled. 



Tree planting is carried on systematically, 

 both publicly and privately, but the slow growth 

 of species in Norway precludes the possibility 

 of the utilization for lumber, at least for a 

 good many years. The importation of pulp ma- 

 terial was first tried in 1907, the timber being 

 imported from Finland and Russia. 



As a further evidence of the decreasing ca- 

 pacity of the forests, it is shown that the 

 export of lumber is fast decreasing. As lumber 

 prices have advanced from year to year, the 

 decrease in bulk has not caH.sed a corresponding 

 decrease in values. Nevertheless, present condi- 

 tions seem to indicate that there Is a real 

 cause for alarm as far as the supply is con- 

 cerned. 



Why Machines Do Not Make Good 



The success of a machine depends as much on 

 the way it is used as on the way it is built. 

 Many makers of good machines know this to 

 their sorrow. 



Probably every manufacturer of machines, 

 whether he likes to admit it or not, can recall 

 instances where his machine has never given 

 (omplete satisfaction. Not from any fault of 

 the machine itself, but from the ignorance or 

 opposition of some one connected with its use. 



Many a good machine is not turning out nearly 

 its full quota of work, because the operator 

 knows from experience in that particlar shop 

 that if he does not hold back the production 

 his rate will be cut at once. And he doesn't 

 propose to be executioner at his own funeral. 

 So, through no fault of the machine or Its 

 builder, the output is never what it should be. 



In other cases the foreman, or some one in 

 chai-ge^ had speciQed a certain make of machine 

 and another has been forced on him instead. It 

 may be a better machine, but he is apt to be 

 just human enough to dislike helping to show 

 that his judgment was poor in selecting some 

 other tool. And the lucky ( ?) machine that was 

 chosen has to suffer. Of course, it isn't ethical, 

 but it's very human. 



Then, too, it may be (though I believe these 

 cases are rare) that some one had a slight finan- 

 cial interest on the side in the sale of the other 

 machine, and the successful rival has all kinds 

 of obstacles thrown in its waj-. 



The worst of it is. the maker doesn't always 

 know that his machine isn't doing well. Or per- 

 haps it is just running and being "damned with 

 faint praise" to every visitor who comes In the 

 shop. How often we hear something like this : 

 "Oh, yes, it's a fair machine, but it doesn't 

 show half they claim for it in their ads." 



The chances are that it isn't being run at the 

 right speeds or feeds, or even on the work that 

 it was bought for. The demonstrator often finds 

 that after he has started up a machine and left 

 it going in good shape, the whole routine is 

 changed as soon as he leaves the shop. Some- 

 times this is through an honest belief that an- 

 other way was better, but more often through 

 pure cussedness in the mind of .some disgruntled 

 foreman or operator. 



.■\nd this Is the hardest thing in the world to 

 combat, because the operator is always on the 

 job and because the average shop rarely finds 

 out that there has been an increase in the cost 

 of a certain piece until It is about ready (o 

 change the model for some reason or other. 



Now, to my way of thinking, this shows that 

 the selling or educational campaign wants to 

 include the operation as well as the purchasing 

 agent. "You can lead a horse to water, but you 

 can't make him drink." as the old saying goes. 

 So you can buy a machine and tell the operator 

 to run it this way or that. But it sometimes 

 costs more to make bim do it than the increased 

 output amounts to. Of course, you can di.s- 



charge the operator, hut the next one may not 

 be any better— and your work Is waiting." 



I know a man who attributes much of his suc- 

 cess to his treatment of onice boys In the offices 

 hi- visited In the early days of his business. Ue 

 didn't hand out quarters or baseball tickets, or 

 bribes of any kind, but he did treat them just 

 as though they were real human beings Instead 

 of Just office boys. Many of them are now In 

 charge of the business he sells to, and they don't 

 forget it. 



In the same way I believe that many machines 

 «ould he doing a great deal better work and be 

 more of a credit to builders, it the operator had 

 been considered as a human factory instead of 

 part of the machine. This is more often the 

 fault of the shop using the macbhi.. than of lis 

 man.iiacturer, but unfortunately they are not 

 the only losers. 



It will pay to impress the operator with the 

 fact that you have considered his comfort In put- 

 ting all the controlling handles where he can 

 • readily reach them and in such a way that he 

 will not get caught In the handles. " In other 

 words, the complete success of any machine In 

 a shop is the hearty co-operation of all who 

 have to do with It, just as the success of any 

 business depends on the working together of Its 

 difTcrent departments, and. although this is gen- 

 erally acknowledged, it cannot be emphasized too 

 often.— ,7ohn R. (iodtrey, In American Machinist. 



Booklet of Georgia Forest Association 



The publication entitled "Forest, Fish and 

 Game," issued by the Georgia Forest Associa- 

 tion, contains some interesting information on 

 lorestry conditions in the Southland. It has a 

 little write-up of the summer camp of the forest 

 school of the Georgia University ; a story on 

 duck hunting ; a short discussion of saws as 

 i:pplied to the mill, besides some interesting 

 editorial matter. 



Miscellaneous Notes 



The .Tones-Hurt Lumlwr Company of Houston. 

 Tex., recently Increased Its capital stock from 

 $75,000 to $100,000. 



The Green Creek Lumber Company has com- 

 pleted and put Into operation a planing mill 

 plant at Kokomo, Miss. 



Fire recently destroyed the Bogenshott Lum- 

 ber Mill at Bean Rock, Ala. The loss Is esti- 

 mated at Ijctween $15,000 and $20,000, with 

 insurance of about $7,000. 



The Estill Lumber & Timber Company was 

 recently Incorporated at Cincinnati, C, with a 

 capital stock of $10,000. The incorporators 

 are Robert U. West and others. 



The Dallas Lumber Company of Dallas, Tex., 

 was recently incorporated with a capital stock 

 of $10,000. John T. Witt, F. J. Miller and 

 I'rank B. Godley are the incorporators. 



Fire recently destroyed the plant of the Hard- 

 wood Specialty Company at Decatur street and 

 the L. & N. railroad, Memphis, Tenn. The 

 loss is estimated at from $20,000 to $2.'), 000, 

 nearly covered by insurance. 



C. B. Gordon, who has been in the lumber 

 and coal business at Emington. III., for the 

 past fifteen years, has recently sold out to Alex 

 Brown and Frank Noel, who will operate under 

 the firm name of Brown & Noel. 



The Crown Table & Specialty Company of 

 -Argos, Ind.. was recently incorporated with a 

 capital slock of $10,000 to manufacture furni- 

 ture and specialties. The incorporators are li. 

 C. Schoonover, M. L. Corey and J. Martin. 



The Minnetonka Lumber Company of Okla- 

 homa City, Okla., has recently purchased the 

 Citizens Lumber Y'ard of Claremore of R. H. W. 

 Gray. This Is one of the oldest established 

 lumber yards In the eastern part of the state. 



