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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



May 25, 1921 



Stresses in Laminated Wood Construction 



Ihc use of heavy and light material of the same species in 

 laminated or glued-up wood construction has less injurious effect 

 than has been generally supposed. Laminated wood specimens 

 under observation at the Forest Products Laboratory show little 

 weakening or tendency to warp from this cause. Most warping 

 and checking in laminated construction can be traced to one of 

 two causes. The first is the use of plain-sawed and quarter- 

 sawed lumber in the same construction, and the second is the 

 combination of material of different moisture content. 



Plain-sawed lumber of any species shrinks and swells more 

 than quarter-sawed lumber; and when the two kinds are glued 

 together, they pull against each other with every change in mois- 

 ture content. If the block containing such a combination is kept 

 for a long time in the same atmospheric condition, the stresses 

 die out, because the block checks or changes shape more or less 

 to relieve the stretched condition of its fibers. As soon as the 

 atmospheric conditions change, new stresses will be set up. 



If boards of different moisture contents are glued together, 

 internal stresses will result from the unequal shrinkage of the 

 boards as their moisture contents equalize through seasoning. In 

 some blocks made at the laboratory these stresses were large 

 enough to rupture the wood. If the wood is not ruptured, the 

 stresses will disappear permanently in time, but the block will 

 h'ave changed its shape somewhat in getting rid of them. 



From these facts it becomes apparent that for laminated-wood 

 articles where strength and accurate shape are required, it is 

 desirable to use all plain-sawed or all quarter-sawed material, to 

 have all pieces at a uniform moisture content when glued, and 

 to prevent as far as possible subsequent moisture changes by 

 means of moisture-resistant coatings. For the manufacture of 

 rougher articles where slight changes in form are of no conse- 

 quence, these precautions are of much less importance. 



Amos K. Hollowell Dies at Ripe Age 



Announcement has been made of the death of Amos K. Hol- 

 lowell, president of the Indiana Lumber & Veneer Company, which 

 occurred at his home, 2507 College avenue, Indianapolis, Ind., May 

 I 5. Mr. Hollowell was seventy-six years old and had been a resi- 

 dent of Indianapolis for forty-five years, having come to that city in 

 1876, when the Nordyke & Marmon Company moved their plant to 

 Indianapolis from Richmond, having entered their employ in 1875. 

 He was treasurer of the Nordyke 6c Marmon Company until 1895, 

 when he resigned to devote his time to the affairs of the Indian 

 Lumber 6c Veneer Company. 



Mr. Hollowell was well know^n among church and educational 

 workers over the state. For twenty years hp served on the board 

 of trustees of Earlham College, Richmond, and was president of the 

 board most of the time. At the time of his death he w^as president 

 of the board of management of the Colored Orphans' Home of 

 Indianapolis, having held the office for fifteen years. He served as 

 a director for a number of years of the Bertha Ballard Home Asso- 

 ciation, he was an active member of the Anti-Saloon League and 

 was president of the permanent board of Western Yearly Meeting 

 of the Friends' Church. 



Australian Artificial Veneers 



Announcement that a process for making composition veneers 

 has been invented in Australia and that this product will soon be 

 placed on the market, is contained in a statement in the March 18 

 report of the Department of Commerce. The report says: 



"A recent Australian invention of an artificial composition simi- 

 lar to veneer should be of interest to manufacturers in proximity to 

 large supplies of waste material of vegetable origin, such as saw- 

 dust. As patent applications are pending in Australia and other 

 countries, the inventor is at present reticent in furnishing details 



other than that the substance is worked up entirely from waste 

 fibrous products and other vegetable matter, and that sawdust can 

 be utilized in considerable quantities in the manufacture of the 

 cheaper grades of the composition. The trade name "Keltona" 

 has been applied to the new substance by the originators. 



British Demand for Birch Plywood 



American manufacturers of plywood from northern hardwoods 

 will no doubt be interested in reading what a London journal, 

 "Timber & Woodworking Machinery," has to say relative to the 

 demand for birch plywood from Finland and America. *'As regards 

 birch plywood, there is undoubtedly a very steady and large de- 

 mand for a good production, but this market is hampered by the 

 rather extensive stocks of third quality," this journal says. "Birch 

 is a wood which is demanded for special work, and there has always 

 been somewhat of a tendency to lag behind demand in the matter 

 of supplies. Just now the demand show^s distinct signs of improv- 

 ing, and the development in the use of plywood for special purposes 

 is greater even than was anticipated, and is distinctly embarrassing 

 to the mills, not only on account of the disorganization in the fac- 

 tory naturally involved in the cutting out of special sizes, but 

 because the demand in this particular direction invariably takes the 

 form of first and second quality. The position is a somewhat diffi- 

 cult one. Fhe popularity of birch largely depends upon three 

 conditions: In the first place, it is a more suitable wood for taking 

 polish; secondly, being manufactured in equal ply, it allows the 

 necessary margin for the final sanding and preparing; and, thirdly, 

 it comes from sources such as Finland and America, where the 

 question of grading has been more rigorously attended to, and con- 

 sequently there prevails a greater feeling of security in regard to 

 the question of quality of birch than is the case with|alder. where, 

 w^ith very few exceptions, the names of the mills anil the districts 

 from which it comes are generally unknown. Birch is a particu- 

 larly knotty wood, and the problem of the mills is to produce 

 sufficient first and second quality, and yet maintain their grading. 

 If they lowered this grading, they Would destroy one of the main 

 reasons for the undoubted preference shown for birch. By main- 

 taining their standard, they increase the percentage of third qual- 

 ity, and are embarrassed in two directions. In the first place, they 

 have difficulty in keeping pace with the demand for first and second 

 quality, and manufacture huge stocks for which there does not at 

 present exist so insistent a demand. Nevertheless, during the last 

 year the demand for third quality Finnish has grown enormously, 

 and this is due entirely to the fact that in the meantime the users 

 generally have become acquainted with it. The term, third quality, 

 raises a certain degree of prejudice, due to 'the fact that it often 

 covers a multitude of sins. We would remind buyers generally that 

 goods of unknown origin and doubtful quality can be. and indeed 

 are, repeatedly sent forward in the knowledge that the manufac- 

 turer is generally not traced. In the case of a mill where the agents 

 adopt the policy of advertising the manufacturer's name and in- 

 troducing him personally to the buyers, such a course cannot be 

 followed, as a shipment of inferior goods would strangle the policy 

 of publication. We would, therefore, impress upon the trade gen- 

 erally the advisability of paying greater attention to third quality 

 coming from mills that are known, and the records of which are 

 clean." 



Honored by Indiana Executive 



Fred C. Gardner, of E. C. Atkins & Co., manufacturers of saws, 

 and W. H. McCurty, of Evansville, Ind., interested in the Hercules 

 Company, large woodworkers there, have been named as tv»ro of 

 the six leading industrial men of Indiana by Governor Warren T. 

 McCray to participate in a national organization being formed for 

 the purpose of developing college and university education. 



