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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



May 25, 1918 



perity, and the wood sculptors of Brienz think highly of 

 their art. They study nature, humanity and animal life 

 and are thus able to turn out products which are world 

 famous for their marvelous likeness to nature. Wood- 

 carving is no longer a handicraft; it has become an art 

 and highly developed at that; but even the young people 

 who have visited foreign academies and art schools re- 

 turn to their native village. There they settle down in 

 a cozy chalet and carve in wood their aspirations and 

 ideals as artists, and their very feelings as men. 



Although Brienz is situated on the famous route from 

 Interlaken to Lucerne, it is really not so well known as 

 it deserves. Woodcarved articles are on sale through- 

 out Switzerland and the average tourist who is pressed 



for time does not indulge in what he considers as unnec- 

 essary stopovers. By not devoting at least a few hours 

 to this most charming spot in the Bernese Oberland, 

 where the life and artistic progress of a people is illus- 

 trated in big and numerous smaller exhibitions of carv- 

 ings, he misses an opportunity to become acquainted 

 with a phase of Swiss life which is not only enchanting 

 on account of its picturesque surroundings, but which 

 also furnishes a proof that the humble peasants who call 

 this fairylike spot their homeland were endowed with 

 artistic qualities a good many years before they directed 

 their attention and time to anything except their farms, 

 i. e., that beautiful surroundings awaken the artist in 

 mankind. 



Airplane Influence on Veneer Work 



Necessity Compels Rapid Strides A head in Scientific Study and Practice 



jT IS ALREADY EVIDENT that by the time we 

 are through with the war and our great airplane 

 program they will have had a decided influence 

 veneer work and veneer practices. The influence 

 in the final analysis will be along lines of advancement. 

 We will get new ideas and new information about cut- 

 ting and using veneer which the trade would perhaps 

 have been very slow to acquire, except through just such 

 a stir-up as is being caused by the demands of the air- 

 craft industry. 



Meantime there will be lots of wrangles, of course, 

 of cussing and discussing, and there will be arguments 

 and counter-arguments, but when the storm is over and 

 the air is cleared we will find that the industry has gained 

 information that will prove of value, and that the influ- 

 ence of aircraft work on the veneer industry will prove 

 beneficial largely through stimulating deeper technical 

 inquiry and bringing out a lot more positive knowledge 

 on points about which the industry had little more than 

 vague notions. To be specific, one of the things about 

 which we will be better informed when we get through 

 with aircraft work is the strength of built-up work and 

 of the different woods which enter into it. We will un- 

 derstand better the importance of straight grain where 

 strength is required and perhaps have a little clearer un- 

 derstanding of the relationship of plies and thicknesses 

 to ultimate strength. 



Much of the aircraft work demands the greatest pos- 

 sible strength with the least possible weight, which means 

 reducing the ply work to the lowest minimum in thick- 

 ness while at the same time insuring the highest maximum 

 of strength and dependability. 



Here is a point that has been something of a hobby 

 with the writer for years, — that of the strength of ply 

 wood as compared to solid wood, and of rotary cut ve- 

 neer as compared to thin sawed stock. It is easily demon- 

 strated that most of our timber rotary cut veneer presents 

 more stiffness, more resistance to bending than thin 



sawed lumber or than sliced veneer. These demonstra- 

 tions also plainly indicate greater strength in ply wood of 

 a given thickness than could be obtained with solid wood. 



The trouble with the whole thing, heretofore, has 

 been lack of specific knowledge on these points. The 

 writer has appealed to the industry to have a series of 

 tests made by the Forest Service to get at more exact 

 knowledge on points of this kind. These appeals have 

 not heretofore met with very hearty response, mainly 

 perhaps because in ordinary uses such tests and the de- 

 velopment of a more exact knowledge did not seem 

 necessary or to offer any practical advantages. The main 

 use of veneer has been in furniture and cabinet work 

 where no such exacting requirements in the matter of 

 strength are involved as we are now finding in airplane 

 work. 



We have had tests in connection with boxes and box 

 making and tests in connection with cooperage and 

 baskets but these tests involve other factors than the mere 

 determining of the comparative strength of different 

 woods and different combinations. They have involved 

 a consideration of shocks and strains more in relation 

 to construction and joinery than to strength of the 

 wooden parts themselves. 



Now the airplane needs are beginning to bring out the 

 importance of positive and exact knowledge not only of 

 how to obtain the greatest strength in ply-wood with the 

 smallest bulk and the least weight, but there is also in- 

 cluded an urgent necessity for the study of drying meth- 

 ods, gluing methods and finishes with a view to insuring 

 safety and protection under radical changes of tempera- 

 ture and moisture conditions. 



But why, you may ask, must we go into all of this for 

 the benefit of veneer and panel industry as a whole, and 

 after all of what benefit will it be? 



There are a dozen or more answers to this, and one 

 encounters them everywhere in the industry. One of 

 the answers is found indirectly when we go into a panel 



