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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



June 10, 1917 



The Rate Advance Hearing 



The latest phases of the hearing before the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission at Washington, in the 15 per cent advance demand 

 by railroads, is contained in a special wire to Hardwood Kecord 

 June 8, from Memphis, Tenn., given below: 



As a result of the efficient work of the Southern Traffic Associa- 

 tion, the southeastern roads tell the Interstate Commerce Commis- 

 sion that they will advance the rate only one cent to Ohio river and 

 many further points. However, the Traffic Association will continue 

 its fight, and is confident that no advance will be allowed hardwood 

 rates. 



The carriers say that if fifteen per cent advance is allowed, with 

 preferentials, they will file new tariffs on lumber from Mississippi 

 valley and southeastern points to the Ohio valley, making the raise 

 on the basis of one cent per hundred, which, they say, would in- 

 crease their revenue eight per cent and retain preferentials. 



The roads submitted rebuttal evidence ou Thursday and Friday, 

 closing their case, following which the arguments will begin. The 

 carriers say that materials have increased in cost 4.5 per cent in 

 past two years, and 31 per cent since July purchases. 



The Louisville & Nashville railroad claims that the Adamson law 

 will cost it $750,000 in 1917, and other advances make the labor 

 bill more than $3,000,000 in excess of 1916. 



Machinery in the Wholesale Yard 



That machinery is a good thing for the wholesale lunilier yard 

 practically every man operating one readily admits, even though used 

 for no other purpose than that of trimming and refining lumber. 

 The necessity for cutting off and ripping pieces of lumber to raise the 

 grade occurs so frecjuently tliat in yards where power-driven machinery 

 is not in operation, hand saws are used freely, and it is not so easy to 

 use these for this purpose. 



The equipment will ordinarily consist of a rip saw and a crosscut 

 or a trimmer. If the yard is buying stock from small mills that do 

 not use trimmers, the regulation trimmer will be found more serv 

 iceable than a single crosscut. Where stock has been thruiigh a 

 trimmer, however, the single crosscut will serve all purposes, and 

 it can be made to answer even where lumber has not been through a 

 trimmer. Electric transmission has done more than anything else to 

 make practical the idea of a limited quantity of power-driven 

 machinery in the wholesale yard. 



The place where arguments start about the use of machinery 

 in hardwood yards is in making dimension stock. From the cuttings 

 and trimmings made in refining lundx'r there is raw material for 

 certain kinds of dimension stock, and there is a natural disposition 

 to augment this by working up cull boards, planks that have been 

 split or damaged, and at times to rip out good lumber stock and 

 reduce it to spieciflc <limension required in some order. Opinions 

 differ as to whether or not it pays to make a feature of cutting out 

 dimension stock at the wOiolesale yard. NotwithstJinding this dif- 

 ference, there is a gradual coming to the idea to make at least some 

 feature of cutting dimension stock in the wholesale yar<l. 



It may be said in this connection that at the mill in the woods 

 is the place to get out dimension stock to effect the maximum saving 

 in freight, and it also offers the advantage of reducing the dimension 

 while the material is green, which wiU facilitate proper drying. On 

 the other hand, at the wiiolesale yard there is always opportunity 

 to dispose of waste to advantage and it effects some saving in freight 

 when it comes to serving customers over a wide territory. The big 

 item in it, however, is the opportunity it gives for working up odds 

 and ends of lumber to fit into particular needs and utilizing stock 

 cut out in this work to make dimension stock. 



There is room for argument on both sides, and arguments will 

 perhaps continue. Meantime, the idea that the wholesale yard should 

 have some machinery for ripping and crosseuttiug lumber, and making 

 dimensions if necessary, is gaining ground, and it is, perhaps, a safe 

 prediction that a few years hence practically all the active as.sembling 

 and distributing yards will be equijipcd with power-driven machinery. 



A Handy Belt Shift 



Nearly every woodworking plant has some time-and-Iabor-saving 

 kinks. Here is one that no doubt will prove of benefit and is very 

 inexpensive. The device is used in a prominent factory where a 

 great number of different kinds of woods are used and frequent speed 

 changes are necessary. With this simple device feeds can be changed 

 without stopping the machine and even while lumber is being run 

 til rough. 



The concern above mentioned has a jointer and a planer driven 

 from a countershaft in the basement. A pair of two-step speed 

 pulleys are used for driving each machine, two different speeds 

 being available. Before installing this device it was necessary for 

 the operator, when changing speeds, to shut off his feed and go down 

 to the basement to shift belts on the coimtershaft. To overcome this 

 inconvenience and delay a double shifter was rigged up. One shifting 

 lever extends through the floor and shifts the belt on the counter pulley 

 liy engaging the upper side of the belt. This lever is so mounted that 

 the helper can reach it without any trouble. The other shifter is fixed 

 to the floor right back of the machine and engages the lower side of 

 the belt. 



The operation of this shifting device follows the same order of 

 events that is used in the ordinary method of shifting belts with a 

 stick. 



When the nuichine is operated at slow speed, to change to high speed, 

 the operator moves to high speed by changing the lever with his foot, 

 uliile his heljier shifts the belt to the larger counter pulley by the 

 liver which extends through the floor. To give free action to the belts 

 in shifting, it is necessary that stepjied ]iulleys with slopes between 

 the faces be employed. 



Testing I. S. C. Belts 



As buyers who are compelled to choose belting are interested in 

 quality as well as price, the following simple test will likely prove of 

 interest. 



To tell a good belt from a jioor one, cut into the end of a belt and 

 take out a thread just three inches long — any other length may 

 be taken, but three inches is very convenient. Next proceed to 

 straighten this thread by taking out of it kinks caused by weaving. 

 Catch one end in a vise, hold the other between the thumb and finger, 

 and then rub the thread with the edge of a pockbt knife blade, thumb- 

 nail or with any other object which will straighten out the thread. 

 Do not try to straighten the thread by drawing it between tlie finger 

 and thumb-nail witliout first putting one end in a vise and holding 

 the other end fast. The object is to prevent the thread from elongating 

 l)y unwinding the twist. It is desirable to know exactly the possible 

 elongation which can be obtained by stretching the weave. Some belts 

 will show nmre than others, but twenty-five per cent is the best elonga- 

 tion for I. S. C. belts. When less, the belt has been too loosely woven 

 to be of much use. If the elongation is more than twenty-five per 

 cent, the belt has been too tightly woven, so that a great deal of 

 stretch will take place when the belt is put under tension. 



Also give preference to an e(|ualized weave. The amount and 

 kind of oil nmy also be considered, likewise the weight of suck, which 

 nmst be determined by skinning off a number of square inches of 

 one ply, dissolving the oil, and weighing the sample accurately before 

 and after taking out the oil. 



Down in Haiti where there has been trouble calling for the presence 

 of our nmrincs the American occupation has done a nundier of good 

 things both for the people down there and for our own trade. For 

 ex.-imple, the lumber trade with Haiti which was only about 1,250,000 

 feet in 1!)15 jumped to practically 2,500,000 in lidli. 



The teak trade is in trouble because of the difficulties of transporta- 

 tion, the result being that while teak is scarce and high in price, it is 

 being piled upon the yards in Siam until it is burdensome because of 

 the difficulty of securing shipment at any [irice. A few more ships ply- 

 ing from here to Siam would not only help out the teak supply here 

 but it would relieve depression and congestion in the trade at Siam. 



