HARDWOOD RECORD 



47 



Common Sense as Applied to the Seasoning 



of Lumber 



Reprinted from Hardwood Record <>( Aus;. lo, nun, iiy rcfiuest. 



Ailmitteilly the thorough seasoning of lum- 

 ber, by either natural or artificial means, is 

 •one of the most important problems encoun- 

 tered by the average lumber producer, whether 

 lie be manufacturing white pine, yellow pine, 

 gum, cypress. Pacific Coast woods or any of 

 the infinite \ariety of hardwoods. 



On the market today are a score or more of 

 dry kilns and dry kiln systems warranted to 

 tlioroughly season lumber by artificial means 

 without injury to the appearance or strength 

 of the material, in time varying from twenty- 

 four hours to a week. Booklets describing 

 the various systems are replete with confus- 

 ing statements and chary of facts germane to 

 the subject, and are loaded down with alleged 

 technique and scientific data which are far 



from accurate, but without exception all these 

 processes are warranted to season any and all 

 kinds of thicknesses of lumber by identical 

 treatment. 



Dry kilns of various typos have been built 

 for more than two decades and perhaps longer. 

 During that time certain improvements have 

 been made in them, but it is still a difficult 

 thing to find a dry-kiln user, whether a lum- 

 ber manufacturer or a furniture producer, 

 who is entirely satisfied with his kiln-drying 

 results. The consensus of opinion as analyzed 

 in various reports is that sometimes on cer- 

 tain kinds of stock the kiln gives good results, 

 but that a great part of the lumber that 

 comes through it is unsatisfactory by reason 

 of its not being properly dried or that it is 



ihecked or honey-comlx;d, or that the expense 

 is excessive. 



To take a common-sense view of the sub- 

 ject it would seem necessary to first demon- 

 strate what the user of a system of drying 

 lumber is trying to accomplish. Primarily, 

 it must be recalled that the moisture in green 

 lumber amounts to from twenty-five per cent 

 to sixty per cent of its total weight. Green 

 wood contains varying percentages of dif- 

 ferent substances — water, albumen, tannic 

 acid, sugar, starch, resin or other matter, and 

 the remaining portion of the material is wood 

 fiber or cellulose. 



It would also seem a matter of common- 

 sense that the only valuable portion of tree 

 growth as a lumber material is the wood fiber, 



WOOD STEAMING AND KILN-DRYING SYSTE.M AS EMPI.UVKD UV .lOlIN SCHROEDEU LIMBER COMPANY AT MILWAUKEE. WIS. 

 1. THE STEAMING CYLINDER CLOSED 2. THE STEAMING t.-YLINDER OPEN :!. DRY-KILN TRUCK OE MAPLE FLOOR- 

 ING STOCK BEING WITHDRAWN EROM CYLINDER 4. 



SECTION OF DRY-KILNS 



