38 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



piece is steamed or soaked more than the interior. On the con- 

 trary, steaming under pressure means that the steam is forced to 

 the very center of every piece of lumber, and in a quick steaming 

 process the same result obtains in the center as on the outside. 



Perhaps as an explanation of this it may be well to state exactly 

 what steaming lumber under pressure accomplishes. It simply 

 explodes or slits the cells of the wood, and gives the water, sap, 

 albumen, tannic acid, sugars, starches, etc., that have contributed 

 to the growth of the tree, an opportunity to quickly evaporate 

 and escape from the wood fiber, which results in promptly season- 

 ing the lumber either in the open or in a dry-kiln. 



The Kraetzer Company, .537 South Dearborn street, Chicago, 

 manufacturer of the patented preparator referred to in the article 

 published in Hardwood Record, is a thorough believer that the 

 greatest value of a dry-kiln is for a final drying process to be ap- 

 plied to thoroughly air-dried lumber, and is not particularly ad- 

 vantageous in the handling of green lumber. This company finds 

 that lumber steamed immediately after it leaves the saw can be 

 dried out in the air in a time hitherto unknown in lumber manu- 

 facturing practice. In good drying weather three-eighth inch gum 

 has been blown out to shipping dry shape in five days; three- 

 quarter inch gum in ten days, and four-fourths gum in twelve 

 days. The time required for the blowing out of oak lumber to a 

 satisfactory shipping dry condition is somewhat longer, but it is 

 held that one-inch hardwood lumber of any kind can be steamed 

 and dried out in good shipping condition within thirty days with- 

 out the use of a dry-kiln, and that thicker or thinner lumber can 

 be satisfactorily handled in proportionate time. 



The question the writer makes that it is a difficult thing to get 

 steam pressure on a full truck of lumber, and at the same time 

 have a door big enough to run the load in and out, shows that he 

 is not familiar with the Kraetzer preparator, illustrated in con- 

 nection with this article. This cylinder takes a truck load of 

 lumber, varying in amount in accordance with length and thick- 

 ness, of from three to nearly six thousand feet at a charge. The 

 door of the apparatus can be opened or closed by one man in ten 

 seconds, and it forms an absolutely steam-tight joint on which a 

 pressure of more than one hundred pounds can be emplo3'ed if it 

 were necessary. It will be noted that the door of this apparatus 

 opens and closes very similarly to that of a roller-hung barn door, 

 and that half of the rim carrying the gasket is attached to one 

 side of the shell, while a similar and reverse gasketed rim is at- 



tached to the other half of the door. "When the door is closed the 

 higher the steam pressure the tighter is the steam joint. Of course 

 for general commercial use the handling of lumber into a steam 

 cylinder through a manhole would be such a tedious and expensive 

 task as to preclude such a method. However, through one Kraetzer 

 preparator 10,000 feet of miscellaneous thicknesses and lengths of 

 lumber can be handled hourly. In other words, it has a capacity 

 in ten hours of 100,000 feet. 



The apparatus requires no supplemental steam plant, because 

 the ordinary sawmill boiler is capable of supplying the small 

 necessary quantity of steam without pulling down the boiler 

 pressure more than a few pounds. The system of piling shown in 

 the illustration is not one generally employed, but this particular 

 truck was shown loaded in this fashion for the accommodation of 

 three-inch oak flitches, which it was designed afterwards to handle 

 through a particular type of dry-kiln. Usually the trucks are 

 loaded the same as an ordinary dry-kiln truck, and after the 

 lumber is steamed, are run out on storage tracks for air drying. 

 Of course, it is possible and logical that wood may be darkened in 

 an equipment of this sort, but if it is darkened without the aid 

 of ammonia or other chemicals, it is done by such an excessive 

 steam pressure or time of steaming as to make it more than likely 

 that the wood fiber is impaired in strength. Hence steaming lum- 

 ber under pressure is a process to be handled with care and skill, so 

 that there may be a surety that the quality of the wood is improved 

 rather than deteriorated. 



Manufacturers interested should bear in mind that there is 

 nothing new in the general proposition of improving the quality 

 and reducing the time for seasoning lumber involved in steaming 

 it under pressure. All there is new about the Kraetzer preparator 

 is the patented door, which renders possible the handling of a full 

 truck load of lumber at a charge quickly and cheaply; and the 

 schedule established by the company for knowing exactly the 

 proper time and pressure to give each kind and thickness of wood 

 to attain the best possible results in subsequent seasoning. 



The Kraetzer apparatus has now been installed by several lum- 

 ber manufacturing houses, and in every instance it has proven a 

 distinct success. The company now has orders on hand for several 

 more installations, and it is thoroughly believable that this system 

 of handling lumber from the saw to the car will very speedily 

 come into general use among manufacturers of all varieties of 

 lumber. 



Vi ; ;;^;;>A,^;^i»;;;vaii;A;iTOiB^W^^ ' 'tJiltTOTO^TO " 



Tales of the Trade 



HE DIDN'T WIRE 



About a year ago G. W. Everts of the Payson Smith Lumber 

 Company, of Minneapolis, while on a trip through Illinois, was 

 spending the night at Rock Island. After he had retired he heard 

 voices in tbo next room and noticed that the name "Joe Cannon" 

 was frequently mentioned. From the drift of the conversation, 

 which Mr. Everts claims that he could not help overhearing, he 

 decided that he was learning a great many of the political secrets 

 of one of the great statesmen of Illinois, which were not to be 

 found in the newspapers or magazines. He did not find it diffi- 

 cult to keep awake until about one o'clock in the morning; in fact, 

 lay awake an hour or two later trying to decide whether to tele- 

 graph the news to the Chicago American or Collier's. 



Strolling up to the desk the next morning, Mr. Everts remarked 

 to the clerk, "I see we have quite a prominent politician with us." 



"Who is that?" replied the clerk. 



"Why, Uncle Joe Cannon." 



"Not that I know of," said the clerk, "but I will see," and 

 immediately looked over the register. "Can't find him, sir; guess 

 you have made a mistake." 



Mr. Everts was not satisfied until he had looked over the 

 register himself and discovered the name of "Joseph Gannon," 

 who, it seems, is a leading politician in that section. He decided 

 then that no conversation would be accepted by him as authentic 

 unless directed to him in the first person, accompanied by a photo- 

 graph of the speaker, properly sworn and attested to. 



HEADS OE ' ' TALES? ' ' 



A few months ago, when on a trip to Chicago, A. C. Bohn of the 

 Waldstein Lumber Company of St. Louis (affectionately known 

 by the trade as "Aleck,"), was walking with a couple of friends 

 when they passed a very high building. Aleck, happening to 

 glance up, saw the head of a horse protruding from a fifteenth story 

 window. The animal was used in that part of the building for 

 hauling material and was calmly gazing out over the city trying 

 to locate either a fire or get a glimpse of a haystack on the old 

 farm. 



"Look at that horse!" exclaimed Aleck. 



"What horse?" said one of his friends. 



' ' Why, don 't you see his head sticking out of that fifteenth story 

 window?" replied Aleck. 



