HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



Tochiy there is scarcely a pnund of smoking or 

 chewinj; tolmcco whitli lias not passe.l iliroiijih 

 a I'roctor dryer at some sta^p of its mauufac- 

 Hire. I mention this to satisfy those who may 

 he doiihtful as to our ability to build a machine 

 for handling: veneers, not having been in the 

 veneering industry heretofore, because in the 

 tobacco business, wlien we Hrst conchided to 

 try to build a machine for that purpose, we had 

 never been in a tobacco factory and started in 

 lo design a machine and to study the tobacco 

 industry with a view to adapting our knowledge 

 of dryers to this purpose. 



It may be of interest to you to know how it 

 happened that we started in to build a dryer for 

 veneers. In I!)!):: a tire insurance inspector 

 familiar with our drying machines and looking 

 favorably upon them from an insurance stand- 

 point, requested us to try to invent a machine 

 loi- handling butter-dish blanks made of veneer. 

 A Hre had ix-curred in a dryer for this purpose, 

 and we took the matter up. designing a machine 

 which was appn»ved by the con<-ern having the 

 tire. They plated their order and the tii'st 

 rroctor veneer dryer was installed. 



The machine handled the product to perfec- 

 tion. This concern was also in the business of 

 man u fact tiring veneers for other purposes and 

 called our attention to the tield and necessity 

 fuv good dryers in this hnsiness. We then built 

 the Proctor Apron Dryer, and today many of 

 these machines are in operation and are giving 

 entire satisfactiim. They entirely overcame the 

 choke-up problem and did not make any gloss 

 on the veneers. They were far from being per- 

 fect, however, because some classes of veneer, 

 sucli as Cottonwood, elm. some kinds of gum and 

 kindred w<iods. could not be dried surticiently 

 tiat. Besides, some difficulty was met with in 

 making the aprons run true, and only two runs 

 could be put into one machine for carrying the 

 veneers through. 



At the expense of large sums of money we 

 tried to devise a means for holding the apron 

 down tight on the lower so as to make the 

 veneers lie tlat. We placed a series of slides 

 bdth below and on top of the conveyors so as to 

 keep the veneers from warping. The objection 

 to this arrangement was that it put too great a 

 strain on the apron and pulled them out of 

 true, so that it was practically impossible to 

 adjust them. We afterward placed a series of 

 rollers both above and beiow the aprons, but 

 this also made the aprons run out of true be- 

 (•ause sometimes the veneer would warp more 

 i»n one side than on the other, thus putting an 

 unnatural strain on the aprons. 



For a long time we entertained an idea of 

 using slatted conveyors for the veneer, but had 

 not perfected the idea to such an extent as to 

 feel warranted in putting it in a machine. With 

 tiie assistance, however, of a well known veneer 

 manufacturer, we did perfect an idea which 

 seemed to be practical. We took the aprons 

 out of the machine and put this new system in. 

 This new system was what we now call the Girt 

 Conveyor. 



When these were installed the machine sur- 

 passed all our hopes and did splendid woi-k. 

 Today we are manufacturing the machine with 

 the same kind of a conveyor wliich the tirst 

 machine ha-d in it. there being no criticism that 

 could be made on these conveyors. 



If you can picture to yourselves a series of 

 linger racks in which the so-called fingers are 

 4\-j inches apart and in which one serie-i is 

 separated from the other by an eighth of an 

 inch, you will be able to form a good Idea of our 

 system, because it practically is a continuous 

 system of finger racks. 



A comparison of the veneers dried in the 

 various processes will be convincing of the fact 

 that our machine dries veneer flatter than any 

 other successful automatic system extant. 



The ilirt Conveyor consists of a series of 

 chains connected together by the so-called girt, 

 the chains being operated on rollers. The de- 

 sign is such that we are able to use very small 

 sprockets to drive the machine, and this permits 

 of the use of four or more runs for the veneer 

 ii^ one machine. In this pr<M*ess it is absolutely 

 impossible for the machine to get choked up 

 and no gloss is made on the veneer, which comes 

 out of the machine bone dry and entirely free at 

 all times from checks or splits. 



of course the conveyors are an important fac- 

 tor in a good veneer dryer, but we doubt whether 

 they are of as great importance as the system 

 for handling the air. To our patented system 

 for handling the air we attribute most of the 

 success of our machine. When the veneers first 

 enter the drjer a great volume of air is passed 

 from one side to the other over the veneer for 

 one or two minutes, when an equal volume of 

 of air is passed over the veneer in a reverse 

 direction. This continues, first the blast of air 

 hitting the veneer on one side and then on the 

 other, until finally it comes out of the machine 

 uniformly dry. 



It is needless to call your attention to the 

 importance of dryins <^lie material uniform, be- 

 cause if the veneer is shrunk on one side more 

 than on the other, it is obvious that it will 

 warp, and in such case unnatural means must 

 be used to keep the veneer flat, with the greater 

 possibility of cau.sing checks. 



The air is drawn over the steam coits. where 

 it takes up heat units, then it passes over the 

 veneer, where it evai>orates the moisture: then, 

 instead of being thrown away while it still 

 contains valuable heat units, it is passed l)ack 

 again to the heating coils, where it takes up 

 more heat units and is again passed over the 

 veneer. This operation continues until the air 

 is well saturated with moisture, when it is 

 carried off by small exhaust fans furnished for 

 this purpose, then may be thrown away. This 

 system allows great economy in fuel, because 

 warm air is being passed over the coils all the 

 time, instead of cold air as in some other sys- 

 tems, and because the air is not thrown away 

 while still containing a good deal of heat which 

 has not all been used to evapoi'ate the water. 

 The system also involves the use of moist air. 

 All of you who have dried lumber are ac- 

 quainted with the value of a moist air kiln, and 

 in veneer this is Just as important as in lum- 

 ber, because it does not dry the surface of the 

 veneer so rapidly as to make it difficult to ex- 

 tract the moisture from the center. 



It is claimed that our machine requires less 

 than one-half the amount of fuel to dry a given 

 number of square feet of veneer than is re- 

 quired in any other automatic system. This 

 claim seems to be borne out by the fact that 

 one of our machines of equal dimensions and of 

 equal capacity to any other machine has in it 

 less than one-half the amount of pipe for heat- 

 ing surface. It is a fact, of course, that the 

 less number of feet of heating surface will not 

 condense so much water as in a machine where 

 double the amount of heating surface is re- 

 quired. 



The use of a large number of steel fans, the 

 lOO-foot machine having in it fourteen fans, 

 makes it possfble for us to circulate the tre- 



J. W. CLINAIIU, IIKill rnlNT VKXKKKIXC 

 CO.. UUiH POINT, N. C. 



meudous number of cubic feet of air with a 

 minimum amount of horse power. You under- 

 stand that we could reduce the number of fans 

 by one-half and double their speed, so as to 

 cheapen the machine, and still move the same 

 amount of air. Kut this would nearly triple the 

 amount of motive power required for the fans. 

 The amount of air moved by one of our fans at 

 present increases approximately in proportion 

 to its speed : i. e.. if the speed is doubled, the 

 amount of air moved will merely be doubled, 

 but the horse power goes up as the cube of its 

 speed, so that it is very bad economy to use a 

 small number of fans at a high speed rather 

 than a large number of fans at a low speed. 

 It may seem a strange assertion, but the fact 

 remains that the small amount of motive power 

 required is due to the large number of fans 

 used. 



I have made the assertion to various members 

 of your associatirm at times that there was abso- 

 lutely not (me instance where a machine had 

 been investigated to the extent that it had been 

 .seen in operation and compared to other ma- 

 chines, that ours had not received the decision 

 as to merit. 1 repeat this now, where, if there 

 is anyone who could refute the statement, he 

 would surely be present. 



Mr. Dow, of the Goshen A'eneer Company, 

 asked me a few minutes ago to extend an invita- 

 tion to any member of this association to come 

 to his factory at any time to see his dryer in 

 operation. Mr. Anderson of the Great Lakes 

 Veneer Company of Munising, Mich., overheard 

 Mr. Dow make this request to mt and suggested 



that he too would be glad to have any member 

 of this association come to his plant and see 

 the two dryers running. 



Some of the sales and installations that we 

 have made within the past few months have 

 been the three machines above mentioned ; two 

 machines for the Wilts Veneer Company, Plym- 

 outh. N. C. ; the Itoddis Lumber & Veneer Com- 

 pany, Marshfield, Wis. ; the Conant Manufactur- 

 ing Company. Milwaukee: the Williamson Veneer 

 Company, IJaltimore. Md. (this being the third 

 machine they have l)ougbt ) : the Park Falls 

 Manufacturing Company. Park Falls, Wis., and 

 the I'nited States Veneer Company. Winston, 

 N. C. All of these concerns were familiar with 

 other drying machines, some of them having had 

 actual experience with them. They gave as their 

 reason for purchasing our machine that it would 

 not choke up. made no gloss on the veneer and 

 was vastly more economical in operation. 



So much for the dryer, gentlemen. 1 hope all 

 of you will grasp the first opportunity that 

 affords itself to see it in 'operation. 



And now let me say a few words of regard 

 for your association. In coming in contact with 

 the various industries it has usually seemed to 

 be tlie end rather to down one's competitor than 

 to assist him. In the veneer industry the re- 

 verse of this condition seems to exist, and I 

 hope you may continue to stand shoulder to 

 shoulder, not only in times of business pros- 

 perity btit also in times of business depression, 

 should we be so unfortunate as to have such, 

 when of all times cooperation is most to be de- 

 sired. 



Mr. Kliue hereupon introiluoed S. B. An- 

 derson of Memphis, whose comprehensive 

 and authoritative address on prices of logs 

 is given l)elow: 



S. B. Anderson's Address. 



I am requested by the secretary, at the sug- 

 gestion of the executive committee, to discuss 

 the price of logs today as compared with for- 

 mer years, and, incidentally, how to get corre- 

 sponding prices from veneers cut from these 

 logs. It is unnecessary to remind this body of 

 men that timber has advanced in price. I do 

 not need to go back many years to the time 

 when clear whitewood. oak and ash logs were 

 liought. delivered at the mills, in Indiana and 

 Michigan, for JpS per thousand feet, outside 

 price. 



I have very little personal knowledge at pres- 

 ent as to the price of logs north of the <.)hio 

 river. I think, though, that I am compara- 

 tively safe in saying that the supply is so 

 short that the owners of the timber dictate 

 prices entirely, which means, by no means, a 

 low price. I am personally familiar with prices 

 south of the (thio river. The advance in that 

 section has been very marked. A few years ago, 

 when we began looking in that direction, and 

 leaving the North for the forests of the South, 

 timber was bought at buyer's prices. Vast for- 

 ests there had never seen an axe. and the 

 original owners of these lands had no concep- 

 tion of the value of the property they held. 

 Lands covered w^ith oak. cottonwood. gum and 

 other timbers were sold in large blocks for 

 taxes — early speculators had become discour- 

 aged and were unloading their holdings for 

 any price obtainable, from .1:1 to $li.r>() per 

 acre— owners were i)ressed for nn>ney and many 

 very low prices were made, and cheap logs 

 were on the market. Times were hard and 

 prices of forest products ruled low, and for- 

 tunes were not made by the pioneer southern 

 lumbermen. But times "have changed and val- 

 ues have advanced. No more Tr»-cent. .$1, .*^L.">0. 

 .fr. or ?Ht lands are offered, but $15. $iH», $L'.*i 

 to $40 is cheerfully quoted by the scalper, who 

 is getting his work in. much ti> the discourage- 

 ment of the legitimate lumberman. The ad- 

 vance in the price of acreage, while very great, 

 is not the only factor tending to the advance 

 in the value of logs: additional cost of living, 

 high wages, competition among buyers of logs, 

 high cost of feed and many other items con- 

 tribute to the enhancement of values. 



The prices named for timbered lands now 

 may not appear high to one without knowledge 

 of the peculiar situation in the logging regions 

 in the Mississippi valley south of the Ohio. 

 The expense of logging in that region, as com- 

 pared with that in the northern section of the 

 country, is very high. The soil is easily af- 

 fected l>y rains, which, in certain seasons of all 

 years and all seasons of other years, are exces- 

 sive, so that logging roads are often impassable 

 for weeks, steel tramways washed out and 

 teams and men laid up in camp at expense of 

 operators and nothing doing. This has notably 

 been the condition during the past two years. 

 In arriving at the value of logs delivered at 

 the mill all these items must, of course, he 

 figured. The consequent advance in price, while 

 very heavy, is entirely legitimate, and a further 

 advance may he anticipated. In addition to all 

 other influences, and outweighing all. the one 

 fact of growing scarcity will, barring unfore- 

 seen contingencies, not only support the pres- 



