October 10. liUT 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



34a 



A New Ship Every Day 



Thirty thousauii men at forty ship yai-ds along the Gulf ami Atlantic 

 coasts are now rushing to comijletion 250 hulls for ships which will com- 

 pose the initial unit of Uncle Sam's great wooden fleet to "bridge the 

 ocean." So rapidly has the work gone forward that it is expected the first 

 hulls will be launched in October. 



Within "seven to eight months after construction was begun, many of 

 these ships will be ready for sea, and from that time on the American gov- 

 ernment will be able to add to the Allies' ocean tonnage, as long as needed, 

 a new wooden ship of 3,000 to S^'iOO tons capacity for every working day 

 in the year. This is in addition to almost as many other wooden ships 

 being built for private interests. 



New yards are springing up at many points to meet the requirements of 

 the United States Shipping Board, which has announced its determination 

 to build all the ships of both wood and steel that can be produced during 

 the period of the war. 



Four hundred million feet of southern pine timbers will be needed within 

 the next twelve months to complete the government's wooden shipbuilding 

 program, according to VV. J. Haynen, assistant purchasing agent of the 

 Emergency Fleet Corporation, who has recently made an extensive tour of 

 the southern pine producing territory. 



"The Emergency Fleet Corporation program first called for the launching 

 of hulls in November, 1917," says Mr. Haynen, "but the majority were 

 to be launched after January, 191S. We are now trying to start the 

 launching of hulls in October and advance the 191S program from 30 to 60 

 days." 



Foreign Trade Briefs 



It has been decided by the Exports Administrative Board that baskets, 

 beehive material, chair seats, creosote, office furniture, stump pulling 

 machinery, matches, pulley blocks, railroad cars, roofing, roots and barks. 

 Cinchona bark, saw blades, soap tree bark, spokes, veneer board, wood type 

 and variou-s other articles need not have export licenses in order to be 

 shipped from the United States to allied countries and American neutral 

 countries. However, licenses will be required on such shipments to Ger- 

 man.v, her colonies, allies, occupied territories, to Greece and European 

 neutral countries. 



(.'harles L. Hoover, United States consul at S^o Paulo, Brazil, writing 

 of lumber production and furniture manufacture in that region, says in 

 a recent report to Washington : 



Were waterways available to carry logs and timber to the capital of the 

 state, which is its greatest industrial center, lumber would bo as cheap 

 here as anywhere else, but all wood must come by rail. Another difficulty 

 is that 100 acres of forest land may contain nearly as many different 

 varieties of trees, and it is not possible to turn out large quantities of 

 lumber of uniform quality, so that production is costly. There are few 

 woods having a density similar to the oak and hickory of the United 

 States, practically all of them being either harder or softer. 



In spite of the high price of lumber, the manufacture of furniture is 

 rapidly becoming one of the important industries of the state. There are 

 44 factories In the city of Sao Paulo which produce all kinds of furniture 

 for the office, store and home. The furniture department of the school 

 of arts and crafts maintained tiy the state turns out on a large scale 

 "de luxe" products comparable in quality and appearance to the best made. 



Consul F. J. Dyer reports from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, that considerable 

 work is being done near Nueva Armenia. Honduras, in getting out mahog- 

 any and other timber. 



Eucalyptus and the Treenail Question 



A letter received by this paper from Seattle, Wash., from a writer who 

 does not sign his name, has the following to say about eucalyptus treenails : 



In your issue of September 10 you have an article — "The Wood for 

 Treenails." In this article you state that the government has reached 

 the decision that treenails must be of locust or eucalyptus. Four pages 

 further on in the same issue you give an article entitled "The Shrinkage 

 of Wood," and the figures show that yellow locust shrinks 08 feet to 

 the thousand, whereas eucalyptus shrinks more than any other wood on 

 the list, or 220 feet to the thousand. Inasmuch as shrinkage is a vital 

 factor in treenails, it seems to me that the fact that euclayptus shrinks 

 more than any other wood shown on the list proves that it is not a good 

 wood for treenails. This much for theory. 



Now for an actual test case. The writer has just received a letter from 

 a friend in the shipping business in San Francisco regarding the following 

 case : The sailing vessel "La Merced," a wooden boat recently built on 

 San Francisco Bav for the Standard Oil Company, and fastened with 

 eucalyptus treenails, before making a single trip was on September 29 

 hauled up on the Union Iron Works drydock in San Francisco and every 

 eucalvptus treenail removed and locust substituted. The eucalyptus tree- 

 nails' had shrunk so that the head of every treenail showed a circle of 

 cracked paint on the white sides of the ship. The eucalyptus treenails 

 were driven out, wedges and all, with the greatest ease, and when removed 

 were in every conceivable shape and the wood was dead. 



It hardlv seems to me possible that the government can sanction the 

 use of eucalvptus in treenails after a case such as the above. The foreman 

 of the drvdbck stated that it was his opinion that it this ship had gone 

 out with the eucalyptus treenails in her she would never have come back. 



The point in the above ii that eucalyptus pins failed because of shrink- 

 age, but the species of eucalyptus is not stated. It was probably blue 

 gum (Eucalyptus globulus), which is the common eucalyptus grown in 

 California!' and the one tested by the government with the result of 225 

 feet shrinkage in 1,000, as referred to above. 



There are more than 150 species of eucalyptus in the world, most of them 

 in Australia. The one recommended for treenails was not the California 

 blue gum, but a species known to botanists as Eucalyptus sideroxylon, 

 and to the trade as red gum, red eucalyptus, or red ironbark. A few trees 

 of this species were planted many years ago near San Jose, Cal., and a 

 little of the wood has been used and found excellent ; but when it Is 



wanted in conimeraal quantities it must be brought from Australia. 

 This is doubtless the wood recommended for treenails. It looks like cherry 

 but is much harder. Exact figures showing its percentage of shrinkage 

 are not at hand, but Tieniann, who made lists of it, reported that its 

 shrinkage was not objectionable. 



This explanation seems to clear up the apparent inconsistency pointed 

 out by the anonymous correspondent. The fact remains that locust (that 

 is, the black or yellow locust) is the best wood for treenails, and builders 

 of wooden ships can make no mistake in using it, though there are other 

 woods which make good treenails. 



Government Lumber Needs Still Expanding 



Many prominent lumbermen connected with the Hemlock and Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Emergency Bureau have been in Washington recently in 

 connection with a misunderstanding that arose over orders for additional 

 lumljer tor the Rockford. 111., army cantonment. 



Among the number were R. B. Goodman, acting president of the National 

 Lumber Manufacturers' Association ; Edward Hines of Chicago ; O. T. 

 Swan, secretary and manager of the bureau ; J. J. Lingle and other.s. 



The Hemlock and Hardwood Manufacturers' Emergency Bureau had been 

 receiving all orders for lumber for Rockford until a week or two ago, when 

 an order for a couple of million feet was placed with the Southern Pine 

 Emergency Bureau. Since then further orders have been placed with the 

 Hemlock and Hardwood bureau for use at Rockford. 



There were a number of conferences here during several days on the 

 part of the gentlemen named aljove with members of the committee on 

 lumber, others connected with the Council of National Defense, and officers 

 of the War Department. 



Mr. Swan says that his bureau has received 4.000,000 feet additional 

 orders for Rockford recently, and that a total of 70,000,000 feet of lumber 

 has been furnished by his bureau and the Michigan Hardwood M'anufac- 

 turers' Bureau for the Rockford and Battle Creek, Mich., cantonments, 

 that amount of lumber being taken from Wisconsin and northern Michigan 

 for government army purposes. ' 



Information handed to the emergency lumber trade bureaus indicates 

 that most of the government's orders for lumber for military camps have 

 been distributed and filled. The total is said to aggregate $50,000,000 in 

 value. There are and will be still some comparatively small bills of such 

 lumber ordered. Large orders, it is said, will be exported to France for 

 militar.v purposes and for the construction of storehouses, and for build- 

 ing wooden ships. However, lumbermen in touch with the government 

 business say that there will be building operations continued on a greater 

 or lesser scale at the several cantonments and national guard camps for 

 the next six months. 



Among the indications of this was the recent announcement that large 

 frame theatres will be built at each cantonment for the entertainment of 

 .the men of the national army. Smaller camps are being constructed in 

 various parts of the country for training special classes of men for quar- 

 termaster, ordnance and signal branches of the army. One of these in 

 Washington will contain over 100 frame buildings for machinists in the 

 quartermaster department. 



It Is thought that wood will get its share of the storehouse constrliction 

 jobs, but war department officers say that 100 large storehouses will be 

 built in France of metal. Gen. Black, chief of engineers of the army, is 

 reported as saying that .$20,000,000 is to he spent for constructing bar- 

 racks and quarters for American troops in France. 



The government is to build a big $2,000,000 frame building in Wash- 

 ington for war and navy department bureaus that are overcrowded. The 

 buildingi will take 12,000,000 feet of lumber and will have over 1,000,000 

 square feet of floor space. 



Many million feet of lumber and timber will be necessary in constructing 

 the ship ways, piers and other structures m the government plants for 

 building fabricated steel ships. At Hog Island, Pa., alone, 40,000,000 

 feet of lumber will he required for these purposes. 



It is reported that there is a shortage of hardwood stock for wheels for 

 cannon and for wagons for the ordnance, hospital and . quartermaster 

 departments of the army. Ash is being used by the Italian government 

 for the upright pieces in their big Caproni airplanes, which will carry 

 twenty-flve people. The Italians are using Douglas fir for wing beams In 

 their airplanes. 



The Council of National Defense is conducting hearings on the question 

 of housing the employes of factories and other establishments engaged in 

 producing ujunitions and necessary war supplies. There is such a scarcity 

 of houses for workers in New England and in eastern and middle western 

 cities where munition plants are located, that it is claimed the efficiency 

 and capacity of those plants is materially limited. The government is 

 being urged to take up the problem and loan money for building dwellings, 

 or to build them itself. It is asserted that some such step is necessary 

 if the problem is to be solved. It is pointed out that In England and 

 France the governments have taken hold of the housing problem and gone 

 Into the construction of buildings for residence purposes. Organized 

 labor and various members of Congress and government officials are in 

 favor of the United States government taking the plunge. 



Even the question of materials has been considered by experts studying 

 the problem. It is claimed that clay products, tile, terra cotta, cement 

 blocks or concrete would be more desirable and cheaper than lumber or 

 frame construction, because It is said that lumber is comparatively high 



