November 10, 1918 



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The United States Navy Department is at present the largest 

 user of lignum vitae wood, which is the best material known for 

 the bearings of the propeller shafts in steamships. The various 

 navy yards make the stern bearing parts for practically all the 

 liattleships now being built, and for this purpose the Navy Depart- 

 ment advertised some time ago for bids to supply 427,000 pounds 

 of lignum vitae logs ranging in size from 3 inches up to 24 

 inches in diameter. A large percentage of the logs were specified 

 to be from 18 to 24 inches in diameter at the small ends, and such 

 logs are now very difficult to get out of the forests at source of 

 origin. The dealers of genuine lignum vitae, however, strained 

 every effort to procure the wood so as to be able to bid on a part 

 or all of the wood required by our Navy. A few of the importers 

 in New York advanced large sums of money to producers in the 

 tropics to bring stocks to ports of shipment in Cuba and Haiti in 

 order to insure prompt shipment and to fill the order at once upon 

 the receipt of the contract. 



After considerable delay in making the awards the regular dealers 

 of genuine lignum vitae in New York and elsewhere learned to their 

 surprise that over 300,000 pounds covered by the schedule had been 

 awarded to officials of the Panama Eailroad, Canal Zone, who, it 

 seems, agreed to supply the desired wood from the forests near 

 Colon in the Republic of Panama. The wood which these officials 

 liave agreed to cut and deliver along steamer at Cristobal for a 

 relatively low price is locally known as guayacan (pronounced as 

 if spelled wi a can), which is the Spanish name for lignum vitae, 

 whose Latin generic name — Guaiacum — is derived from the common 

 name. Unfortunately, however, not all woods called guayacan 

 lielong to or are even related to Guaiacum or true lignum vitae, and 

 liere is a case in which the common name proved to be misl?ading to 

 the officials of the Panama Railroad, who have no knowledge of the 

 true lignum vitae, but have pledged themselves to supply the gov- 

 ernment with the genuine article to be cut in forests where true 

 lignum vitae is not known to occur in commercial quantities and 

 sizes. 



The Panama wood called guayacan is the yellow or Panama 

 guayacan {Tubebuia guayacan) which is a member of the Big- 

 noniaccae, a group of plants entirely unrelated to the lignum vitae 

 family (Zygophyllaceae) . The structure of the yellow guayacan has 

 no resemblance to that of true lignum vitae and the most inexpert 

 can not mistake one for the other. The yellow guayacan is closely 

 related botanically to the well-known Surinam greenheart, which is 

 sometimes mistaken for the true greenheart of commerce and which 

 marine engineers are so careful to avoid for use in water, where it 

 is far inferior to greenheart. The same may be said of yellow 

 guayacan, for it does not last under water nor stand great wear and 

 tear. It is a good wood above ground for structural purposes, such 

 as for joists and beams in largo buildings, where its great weight is 

 no objection, but in contact with water it is prone to swell up, which 

 is a very serious defect when the wood is to be used for bearings, as 

 in the case above cited. 



Yellow guayacan has never been used anywhere for bearings, and 

 the slightest knowledge of the structure of the wood is required to 

 convince any one that it is not suitable for any part of a vessel 

 coming in contact with water and subjected at the same time to 

 great wear and tear, as in the ease of bushing blocks. There are 

 now large stocks of the true lignum vitae in the market here, and 

 still large quantities are ready and awaiting shipment at the various 

 ports in Cuba and Haiti, and it is to be regretted that the spurious 

 wood will be permitted to come forward and to occupy space on 

 steamers, which is in such great demand for valuable wood and other 

 materials so much in request in this market. 



The spurious or yellow guayacan grows also in ^exico, and a lot 

 of over 200 tons has just arrived in New York from Vera Cruz. 

 The importer entertained hopes of selling the stocks to the French 

 government through the French Navy Mission in New York, but the 

 wood has been turned down by all buyers of lignum vitae, and it is 

 believed that after the inspectors of the various navy yards come to 

 examine the wood contracted for by the Bureau of Supplies and 

 Accounts, Washington, they will reject the entire quantity. 



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Wooden WheeVs Place in History 



The wheels of the motor trucks which carry munitions to the 

 battle line in France do not differ greatly from the wheels of the 

 Hittite chariots three thousand years ago. Both were of wood and 

 of approximately the same size. The modern truck wheel has a 

 rubber tire; that of the ancient chariot was filled with a strong 

 rim of wood. Its form and appearance are shown in rock carv- 

 ings in Syria, and the similarity to the modern wooden auto wheel 

 is striking. Three thousand years have brought some improve- 

 ments, but the fundamentals are the same. 



The wooden wheel appears to have been in continuous use since 

 the dawn of civilization. Nobody knows when or where the begin- 

 ning was. Some of the most ancient peoples had wheeled vehicles, 

 nearly all of which appear to have been two wheeled carts which 

 were usually called chariots. One that is more than 3,200 years old 

 has actually come down to the present, and there are many descrip- 

 tions and pictures of others. 



The point is not so much that the wooden wheel was used so 

 long ago, but that it is in greater use today than ever before. One 

 hundred million feet of wood will be required this year by wheel 

 makers in the United States. The wheels will be of every kind and 

 class, from the lightest sulky to the most enormous cannon carriage. 

 Some will equip horse vehicles, others will carry motor trucks and 

 automobiles. Many woods are employed, selected from the choice 

 material of the forest. 



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A large proportion of these wheels belong to war work, 20,000,000 

 feet being for cannon wheels alone. Doubtless an equal quantity 

 will go into motor truck wheels intended for war service. It has 

 been stated that the normal daily capacity of factories producing 

 vehicles is 46,000 auto wheels. Of these about 40,000 are for passen- 

 ger cars and the others for trucks. 



The wooden wheel is dependable. Of course, the wheels break 

 sometimes, and so does every other machine that is in use; but 

 wood has stood the strain so well during thousands of years that 

 it is now depended upon for wheels in larger numbers than ever 

 before, and for the heaviest work. 



The Routing of Shipments 



Where there are two or more different routes over which a ship- 

 ment of lumber may be carried from its point of origin to its desti- 

 nation, with different freight rates applying, the shipper should 

 specify the route desired. Otherwise, he may find himself legally 

 remediless on the initial carrier sending the shipment over its 

 roundabout lines, instead of delivering to a connecting carrier for a 

 more direct haul at a lower rate. 



The court holds that in such case the shipper is not entitled to 

 recover on the theory of an overcharge, but decides that there could 

 be a recovery of damages, if any, sustained through what the court 

 finds to have been a misrouting on the part of the defendant. 



