24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



September 10, 191S 



furniture industry that is being prepared in the war industries 

 board, conservation division. 



The war department is at work on a plan for converting day 

 coaches into sleeping cars for troops. A sort of inside double deck 

 arrangement is being tried out, which can be raised up in daytime. 

 The lumber industry is vitally interested in a new government 

 plan for dealing with the curtailment of building operations for 

 civilian purposes, which plan is to be operated through the several 

 state councils of defense. The determination to meet the demands 

 for war materials from the United States military authorities and 

 the allies has brought a tightening up policy as to civilian building 

 plans with a view to the conservation of building materials and 

 to the release of labor to war work. Anyone contemplating a build- 

 ing which he conceives to be in the public interest or of such essen- 

 tiality that under existing conditions it should not be deferred 

 should make a full statement of the facts in writing, under oath, 

 and present it to the local representative of the Council of National 

 Defense for his approval. This representative will report his 

 approval with statement of reasons to the war industries board for 

 final decision. 



During the week the war industries board had before it a 

 question of material for new federal post office buildings and for 

 new state and municipal school buildings. The chairman said that 

 Secretary McAdoo had decided some time ago that new public 

 buildings were not necessary during the period of the war. This 

 position was taken by the war industries board. Also the war 

 industries board has ruled that new school buildings, unless needed 

 for replacement, came within the same prohibition and could not 

 be supplied with material in view of war need. He pointed out 

 that the construction of buildings involved the use of labor, mate- 

 rial, transportation and fuel, all of which are needed urgently in 

 war work. 



Situation in Airplane Work 

 A recent statement was made by J. D. Ryan, who is in charge 

 of airplane production, showing the situatinii at this time. After 

 referring to changes made in Dellavihnnls, tn remedy defects dis- 

 covered after some of the machines lia.l ven<'lied France, Mr. Eyan 

 said: 



The DeHavilands are being built now in about the same quantity as 

 liefore the change was made. It Is not a totally different machine, It is 

 Just an improved machine, and we think in a few months It will be 

 improved further. 



On account of the cancellation of the Bristol because it was an unsafe 

 machine, it left us for the time being a limited program as far as manu- 

 facturing was concerned, because we were developing other types that 

 had not been brought to the point of production. 



In the last two weeks, as the result of these months of investigation and 

 study and design, we have flown in tests out at Dayton at least four 

 machines that are new as far as our manufacture is concerned in this 



We have flown the SE-5, which is a British machine, a single-seated 

 fighter. Samples of it have been brought over from England, copies have 

 been made in this country, and with our engines in them they have been 

 flown and are now being tested. In a few days we will decide whether 

 that machine will go into quantity production or not. The exact copy of 

 the Englislj Bristol with an engine of about the same power that they 

 use in it in England has been brought over here, copies have been made, 

 machines have been built and they are being flown. 



Another machine now being tested was designed in Detroit by Captain 

 Lepere, a French ofiBcer, who was brought over here to design machines 

 equipped with Liberty engines. Three different machines of that type 

 have been flown and are very promising. 



There are at least two other types of machines that are being flown 

 that we do not think it advisable to give puiiliiity t". li.e.uise they are 

 not so far along that we feel satisfied that tin y ar.' :;i.ii]^ through. We 



do not want to say that we have five types and <oii ul with only three. 



These are all machines that can be made in quantity and of course it will 

 take some little time to get them into production, but the work of design 

 has been going on. Now we are using, contrary to the general supposi- 

 tion, many American designers of reputation. 



The question here was asked if the s. r\ ir i Mr imillr Wright were 



being utilized, and Mr. Ryan replieil ilmi iIm i Mr. Wright was 

 an officer of the Dayton-Wright Comi.aiij, win. i; , i- a large num- 

 ber of planes tor the government and thai iii. ; i. marks applied to 



Messrs. Curtiss, Vought, Martin, Willard, Loeuing an<l others. 



Within a week the Pomllio Brothers, an Italian family of airplane 

 designers, have come to this country. They have a nunrt)cr of very 



effective types of machines in use in the Italian array. They were very 

 successful designers and builders of airplanes in Italy, but they sold their 

 business to the Anseldo's, the big munitions people in Italy, and they have 

 come over here. They have come to the United States to design planes 

 to fit our engines and are established in Indianapolis and are at work. 

 They brought about thirty designers and workmen with them. 



The types of planed that we are building are fixed by the engines that 

 we are going to build, for after all engines are the limiting factor. 



We have increased the orders for Liberty motors from 22,500, when 

 this bureau was formed, to approximately 50,000 — that is the Liberty 12. 

 We have ordered a large number of Liberty 8s, which were developed and 

 set aside temporarily for the 12s, when the larger and more powerful 

 engine was decided upon. We have contracted for some of the very best 

 foreign engines, such as the Hispano Suiza motor. We are going into 

 quite a large production at some of the best engine building shops in 

 America with that engine. Our engine program is a large one. We are 

 giving every inducement to engine builders who are at work on these things, 

 and they have to be selected carefully because it is not every engine 

 builder, no matter how successful he has been, who can build a high 

 powered aeronautical engine. 



We are fully up to the expectations on motor production that we had 

 in May when this bureau was formed. Under present conditions It is 

 Impossible to obtain quantity production of a new motor in much less 

 than a year, whereas a new plane can usually be produced in about six 

 months. The Lepere plane has been flying for thirty days, but we are not 

 going to say anything about the performance of a given plane until it has 

 given such performance that we can talk about it. We cannot wait for 

 war conditions to test machines. We have to test them under all condi- 

 tions that we can supply short of war and depend upon it to pass the 

 final tests. 



The Fleet Corporation has decided to remove its lumber head- 

 quarters from New Orleans to Philadelphia. This was made neces- 

 sary by the recent abolition of the purchasing production and trans- 

 portation divisions, and the consolidation of their riinrtidns under 

 the supply division. The offices of the lumber administrator and 

 assistant lumber administrator are discontinued and W. J. Haynan, 

 the former assistant administrator, is designated as head of the 

 new lumber section with the title of general lumber sui^ervisor. 



The development in the production of Class B motor trucks has 

 reached a stage where the motor transport service of the quarter- 

 master corps is producing and shipping overseas a steady stream of 

 these trucks. The first five of the Class B truck, which is a stand- 

 ardized truck of three to five tons capacity, were completed on 

 January 8, 1918. The production of these trucks on August 17, 

 1918, was as follows: Shipped, 3,174; completed and 0. K.'d, 2,404; 

 completed but not inspected, 747; in process, 637, a total of 6,962. 

 Director General McAdoo has authorized publication of rates on 

 furniture, carloads, between points within the state of Oklahoma 

 on basis of the rates established by the Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission in the Shreveport case between Louisiana and Texas, and 

 which now apply also between points in Texas. The only rates on 

 furniture in carloads now applying between points in Oklahoma arc 

 the class rates, and these new rates will reduce rates in Oklahoma 

 to the level of those applying in the adjoining states. 



Building Operations 



Orders have been issued that all work is to be stopped in connection 

 with the converting of any of the National Guard camps into canton- 

 ments. 



To sive ,<\rniy and navy nurses a comfortable place in which to spend 

 their leiiiis ,,IT duty, the American Red Cross will provide special nurses' 

 recrealii.n le.nsrs at all large base hospitals, to cost about $350,000. Con- 

 tracts have lacn let tor 40, several of which are completed and some more 



To complete the construction of the new balloon school at Lee Hall, 

 Va., the allotment of $203,000 h^s been approved by the Assistant Secre- 

 tary of War. This balloon school Is for the training of officer observers 

 In the control of artillery Are from observation balloons. Lee Hall will be 

 a finishing school for air service officers In aerial observation and will 

 co-operate with artillery stationed there. 



The loiistnicfion division has been authorized to make additions to the 

 Sclh Ill, •piaii.Tmaster interior storage at Schenectady, N. T., which 



111. .1 -i-iaiii s.'eretary of war has approved an allotment of $103,850 

 for iiiii.HnruK ajMl extending Boiling Field, Anacostia, D. C. This field, 

 on the left bunk of the Eastern Branch of the Potomac, is being enlarged 

 for the aerial patrol and protection of Washington, as well as to meet the 

 training needs of the air service officers in Washington. 



Two additional warehouses are to be added to the Columbus, Ohio. 



quartermaster interior storage depot. The estimated cost is $800.non. 



(Continued on Page 33) 



