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Red Gum as Door lAaterial 



A iiuin need not be very old to remember when red gum was not 

 used by the manufacturers of doors in this country. Perliaps a 

 cliance one might have been made here and there a good many years 

 ago, but such escaped the notice of the public, and no general 

 attention was paid to them. 



A good door is not one of the easy things to make. It is a 

 pretty severe test of the qualities of wood. A door can be put 

 together without much trouble, but to make it hold its shape is 

 another matter, and it was a long time before manufacturers could 

 be persuaded that red gum was worth trying out. They thought 

 tliey knew that it would prove 

 a failure, and did not care to 

 e.xperiment with it. The wood 

 had a bad reputation for warp- 

 ing. It was said to season 

 slowly and with difficulty, and 

 door makers were so conserva- 

 tive that tliey preferred to stick 

 to the tried woods which they 

 had always used, such as pine 

 and spruce, with an occasional 

 venture into the hardwood field, 

 in which case oak, yellow pop- 

 lar, and black walnut offered 

 a pretty wide range of mate- 

 rials to pick from, leaving no 

 particular reason why red gum 

 should be selected. 



The beauty of this wood was 

 admitted long before its other 

 good qualities were recognized ; 

 but beauty alone was not suf- 

 ficient to win a trial. Few uses 

 test the standing qualities of a 

 wood more surely than a door. 

 The two sides are frequently 

 subjected to widely different 

 temperatures. One side may 

 face a hot, dry room, the other 

 a damp, cold one, or may even 

 face outdoor conditions, as 

 when the door opens on a 

 porch. 



In such cases it is needless to 

 say that the material of which 

 the door is made is severely 

 tested. It may roast on one 

 side and freeze on the other, 

 or one side will be extremely dry, while the other may be in 

 more or less contact with fog and rain. Then, if ever, may warping 

 be expected to take place. 



The solid door is unusual now, unless made wholly of softwood. 

 It is built up. The frame is of three or more layers. The inside 

 is called the core or the backing; the finishing woods are glued 

 on this. The core may be of a cheap material, but it must be 

 selected with care as to its standing qualities. It must be a wood 

 which is not inclined to warp. Chestnut and white pine are among 

 the best core woods, but there are others. Next comes the cross- 

 banding, the grain of which runs opposite to that of the core. 

 The veneer which is glued over the cross-banding is generally 

 selected on account of its good appearance. It is the visible part, 

 and the beauty of the door depends largely upon the color, figure, 

 and grain of the veneer. 



Other qualities, however, are demanded. Beauty of color and 

 figure are highly desirable, but they amount to little unless the 

 outer veneer remains where it is placed. If it pulls loose and 

 peels off the door is ruined. For that reason the woods which 



—34— 



SEVERE TEST FOR A GUM DOOR— A SUNNY WINDOW AND A 

 STEAM RADIATOR ON ONE SIDE, AND A LARGE ENTRANCE DOOR 

 ON THE OTHER. AFTER .V YEAR IT IS STILL AS GOOD AS NEW. 



go into such doors must possess good gluing properties. The glue 

 must take hold and stick. It must do this during trying times 

 and weather changes as well as when everything is lovely. It is 

 liore that red gum has its inning. It holds glue, provided the 

 glue is right ami is put on right; but the job must not be slighted, 

 (ium is a poor wood to fool with but a good one to work with. 

 It is a material for the master mechanic to handle, not for the 

 amateur to experiment with. 



The extent to which red gum is now employed by manufacturers 

 of doors will surprise most persons who can remember when it 

 was scarcely used at all for this 

 purpose. Statistics are by no 

 means complete, but figures have 

 been compiled for sixteen states, 

 and are given below. It should 

 be explained, however, that the 

 figures represent sash and 

 blinds as well as doors. The 

 statistics were compiled that 

 way and it is not practicable 

 to separate doors from the two 

 other commodities. However, 

 the quality worked into doors 

 much exceeds the other, and 

 makes an excellent showing. 

 The figures represent the out- 

 put in the respective states in 

 one year. 

 Yearly Use of Red Gum for 



DOORS. 



State Ft. Board Measdre 



New York 23,494,000 



Illinois 3,634,000 



Missouri 1,176,000 



Ohio 1,006,000 



Texas 814,000 



Arkansas 808,000 



Iowa 724,000 



Louisiana 550,000 



.■Vlabama 382,000 



Michigan 346,000 



Kentucky 310,000 



Virginia 130,000 



South Carolina 110,000 



North Carolina 56,000 



New Hampshire 27,000 



Mississippi , . 2,000 



There is remarkable differ- 

 ence in the quantity of gum de- 

 manded by door makers in dif- 

 ferent states. In Mississippi, 

 where the tree grows to per- 

 fection and in large quantities, its use is almost nil; while in New 

 York, where it does not grow, its use runs high in the millions. The 

 contrast is partly explained by the fact that Mississippi produces few 

 doors of any kind, and New York turns out millions of all kinds. 

 Even New Hampshire, with abundance of good door material of 

 its own, uses thirteen times as much gum as Mississippi. 



It might be supposed that Illinois, which lies in proximity to 

 the gum supply, would use more of it in its door factories than 

 New York, but for some reason it uses only one-sixth as much; 

 and as far as available statistics show, Illinois is the next largest 

 user after New York. 



An examination of the accompanying table will at least make 

 clear the fact that the employment of red gum in the manufacture 

 of doors is not evenly distributed over the country. It goes in 

 spots, and no one of the states which use more than a million 

 feet a year, except Missouri, grows gum in commercial quantities. 

 It is a southern wood, but the largest demand for it, by door makers, 

 comes from the North. Texas does not use so much as Ohio, nor 

 Louisiana so much as Michigan. It illustrates the old saying that 



