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Wood and Water 



It is well known that aU wood contains more or less water. Abso- 

 lutely dry wood is unknown in practice. If all the water should be 

 expelled, so much heat would be required to do it that it would distil 

 the wood — turn it into gas and charcoal. One hundred pounds of the 

 driest wood that any man ever saw contained two or three pounds of 

 water; and there that water will stay in spite of all the dry kilns 

 that have ever been built and in spite of all the sun, wind, and time 

 that may be brought to act upon it. 



Just what would happen, speaking theoretically, if all the water 

 could be extracted from a block of wood, no man can say. There 

 are some theories on the subject. One of the greatest wood tech- 

 nologists the world has yet produced believed that if a sufficiently 

 powerful and perfect microscope could be used, it would show that a 

 piece of wood — the ultimate wood cell — is composed of crystals like 

 grains of sugar or salt, and that thin films of water hold the crystals 

 apart, yet bind them in a mass. The microscope shows the wood 

 cell, and reveals its spiral bandages, and its openings and cavities; 

 but no instrument has yet been made of sufficient power and perfec- 

 tion to reveal the ultimate crystals which the Swiss scientist believed 

 are actually in existence and furnish the explanation of the impossi- 

 bility of expelling all water from wood, without destroying the wood 

 in the process. 



How Much Moistube 



That theorizing concerns the last remnant of water remaining in 

 seasoned wood ; but when the investigation turns to the other extreme 

 of the question, and takes up the largest quantity of water which 

 wood is capable of containing, theories may be left behind, and facts 

 can be dealt with. Instruments have been perfected for measuring 

 the amount of moisture in wood, and expressing it in percentages. 



This is of practical value to everybody who deals in lumber, either 

 in its manufacture or its use. It vitally concerns shippers of lumber ; 

 for who would not feel an interest in the subject, who has paid a 

 freight bill of $1,000 on a lumber shipment, and is then informed 

 that perhaps $300 of it was for water which might have been left 

 behind by getting it out of the lumber before the shipment was 

 made? It is safe to say that in the last ten years lumber dealers 

 have paid enough freight charges on water to have built a consider- 

 able section of the Panama canal. Railroads and mining companies 

 are not the only ones with water in their stock: lumbermen have a 

 good deal of the genuine article in theirs on which they pay freight 

 every day. 



A thousand pounds of green lumber, fresh from the saw, and cut 

 from green logs, contain from 400 to 500 pounds of water. The 

 amount is far from constant. The average lies between the figures 

 given. Some woods have twice as much as others, and the same 

 species varies from ten to twenty per cent in practice. The trees of 

 some regions hold more water than those from other regions, but in 

 rare cases is a wood less than one-third water when it is freshly cut. 

 The following table has been published as an example of the varying 

 moisture content of different woods as well as the same wood growing 

 in different regions: 



PERCEKTAGR OF MOISTCRE IN WOODS GKEEX FROM THE SAW 



Elm White Penns.vlvania 



Gum Black Tennessee . . . 



Gum Red Missouri . . . . 



Gum Tupelo Louisiana . . . 



Hemloclc Tennessee . . . 



Hemlock Wisconsin . . . 



Species Where From 



Ash Black Michigan .... 



Ash White .\rkansns . . . . 



Ash White New York . . . 



Basswood (Linden) Pennsylvania 



Basswood (Linden) Wisconsin . . . 



Beech Indiana 



Beech Pennsj-lvanla 



Birch Sweet Pennsylvania 



Birch Tellow Pennsylvania 



Birch Yellow Wisconsin . . . 



Buckeye Yellow Tennessee . . . 



Butternut Tennessee . . . 



Cherry Black Pennsylvania 



Chestnut Tennessee . . . 



Cypress Tx>ulslana . . . 



Elm Rock Wisconsin . . . 



—22— 



Percentage 



of Moisture 

 47.7 



28.0 



28.0 



49.7 



52.3 



37.9 



39.0 



37.3 



37.0 



41.8 



58.5 



51.C 



35.5 



57.0 



44.0 



31.2 



48.0 



35.5 



41.6 



54.7 



45.0 



, 56.3 



Hickory Mockernut Mississippi 41.0 



Hickory Sbagbark Ohio 36.7 



Mahogany Mexlcan_ 36.0 



Mahogany Cuban ." 39.0 



Mahogany African 39.0 



Maple Silver Wisconsin 40.0 



Maple Sugar Indiana 36.4 



Maple Sugar Pennsylvania . . . .' 40.0 



Maple Sugar Wisconsin 36.0 



Oak Red .\rkansas 45.4 



Oak Red Indiana 44.5 



Oak Red Tennessee 46.0 



Oak Swamp Indiana 41.5 



Oak White Arkansas 36.7 



Oak White Indiana 38.0 



Oak White Louisiana 43.0 



Oak Yellow Wisconsin 44.4 



Pine Long Leaf Louisiana '. 48.5 



Pine Norway Wisconsin 47.0 



Pine White Wisconsin 42.5 



Poplar (Aspen) Wisconsin 49.0 



Sycamore Indiana 45.0 



Sycamore Tennessee 46.0 



Different parts of the same trunk may show as much difference in 

 moisture contents as is shown by trees growing a hundred miles apart. 



The amount of water in a growing tree does not vary much with 

 the seasons. If any difference, there is more water in winter than 

 in summer, notwithstanding a common erroneous belief to the con- 

 trary. 



After logs have been cut, if they remain a long time before being 

 converted into lumber, the tendency is to become drier; but that is 

 not a necessary result. They may absorb more water. That is nearly 

 certain to happen if they lie in a very damp situation. If they remain 

 for a time in a pond or a river they may soak up water enough to 

 sink them, and that has happened many times. There is not a wood 

 in the world that will float after it has become thoroughly soaked. 

 All wood— absolute wood without air spaces — is heavier than water. 

 Consequently, when all air spaces become filled by absorption and 

 soaking, the wood wUl sink, no matter what species it may be or how 

 dry it may once have been. 



The Possibilities of Elm 



There has never been in this country enough appreciation of or 

 enough effort to develop the possibilities of good elm in cabinet work 

 and interior trim. Elm has been extensively used in the furniture 

 trade for many years but generally in the making of cheap furniture 

 in which no effort is made to finish it to bring out the native beauty 

 of the elm. Usually the efforts to finish consist of using a heavy 

 paint-like stain so as to make it look as nearly as practical like 

 oak or something else. Now and then one comes across an instance 

 where some one has made good use of elm in a piece of furniture, 

 where it is properly finished off. Also one now and then finds it 

 used with the same care and appreciation in house trim. These in- 

 stances are rare, however, and as a general thing there is but little 

 appreciation of the possibilities of elm for face work. Right now 

 there should be a splendid opportunity to develop the use of good 

 elm. Popular taste is turning toward the softer tones in brown 

 and gray, and here elm should enter readily. It has no distinctive 

 figure but it has a soft color. Some gray elm when polished and 

 finished as it should be presents a beautiful appearance and the red 

 ehn properly finished should find favor along with the softer tones in 

 brown. It is a wood that has strength and body and will take a 

 good finish, and something more should be made of it than just a 

 material to use for cheap furniture. Elm has possibUities if it were 

 but given anything like the attention and finish that is bestowed 

 upon other woods, and then properly exploited. 



