HARDWOOD RECORD 



19. 



NeWs Miscellany. 



The Proper Drying of Lumber. 



The proper method of drying lumber by 

 artificial means is a question tliat has been 

 under discussion and experimentation in re- 

 cent years by some of the most prominent 

 users and manufacturers of lumber in the 

 country. Many expensive experiments have 

 been carried on by lumber manufacturers, the 

 railroads and others, and the problem has 

 even been taken up by the government. Wlien 

 It Is taken into consideration that the mois- 

 ture in green lumber amounts to from one- 

 third to one-half of its total weight and that 

 all this moisture must be expelled before the 

 lumber is in condition for commercial use, the 

 task of accomplishing in a few days by the 

 use of a dry kiln the same results which na- 

 ture takes as many months to perform, will 

 be seen to be of vast importance. It has 

 taken much time, thought and money to 

 analyze this question and devise a system to 

 meet all the varying conditions of nature. 



A few years ago, when hardwood was plenti- 

 ful, and all the yard stock was air dried, the 

 question of removing the moisture left in the 

 lumber was a different proposition from that 

 to be contended with today. Oak and other 



adopted the Morton kiln in preference to all 

 others. 



The Pullman Car Company, Pullrhan, III., 

 about three years ago, tore out the various 

 dry kiln systems it was using, almost every 

 conceivable style, and put in a battery of 20 

 Morton kilns, ranging from IS to 26 feet in 

 width and 72 feet in length. The kilns are 

 fireproof, and constitute one of the finest and 

 largest batteries of hardwood kilns in exist- 

 ence, having a capacity of nearly 1,000,000 

 feet of lumber. This is a good illustration of 

 the range of the Morton kiln, as the Pullman 

 company uses everything, from heavy yellow 

 pine car beam timbers to the finest cabinet 

 woods, and the larger portion of the material 

 passes through the kilns before being used in 

 the manufactured product. 



Other users of the Morton dry kiln are: 

 AUis-Chalmers Company, Milwaukee, Wis.; 

 the Western Electric Company, Chicago; the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Altoona, Pa.: 

 the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- 

 road, Cleveland, Ohio; the C, B. & Q. R. R., 

 Aurora, 111., and Hannibal. Mo.; and the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railroad Company, Montreal and 

 Winnipeg, Canada. The Mitchell Bros. Com- 

 pany, Cadillac, Mich., and the Arthur Hard- 



TTPB OF MORTON KILN OF FIREPROOF CONSTRUCTION. 



hardwoods have been consumed at an enor- 

 mous rate, and a manufacturer at the present 

 time is considered very lucky if he obtains 

 from the mill lumber that has been piled on 

 the yard more than three or four months. 

 The progressive and up-to-date manufacturer 

 of dry kilns has endeavored to meet these 

 changes, and has been continually improving 

 his product so as to offer to lumber manu- 

 facturers a dry kiln as nearly perfect in its 

 results as money and ingenuity can produce. 

 Without doubt no other concern has been 

 more aggressive or invested more in experi- 

 ments to reach the highest point of success 

 in drying lumber than the manufacturers of 

 the well-known Morton moist air down draft 

 dry kiln — the Morton Dry Kiln Company. 

 Thirty years' experience has given this con- 

 cern knowledge that could have been obtained 

 in no other way. 



The Morton kiln is based on the moist air 

 method, which has long been conceded the 

 only means of successfully and quickly drying 

 all kinds of lumber. H. J. Morton was the 

 first to exploit this system of drying. When 

 this method was first suggested as the proper 

 means for seasoning lumber, it was declared 

 to be an impossibility to dry anything in moist 

 air. However. Mr. Morton's faith in this new 

 departure was only made stronger by the skep- 

 ticism with which it was received. Since the 

 Morton moist air dry kiln was placed on the 

 market, the idea has grown until at the pres- 

 ent time nearly all the dry kilns manufac- 

 tured are based on the moist air system. 



Perhaps the most convincing argument that 

 can be offered in favor of the Morton kiln 

 is a reference to some of the large woodwork- 

 ing concerns in the LTnited States that have 



wood Flooring Company. Memphis, Tenn., may 

 be mentioned as among the users of Morton 

 kilns for seasoning hardwood flooring. There 

 are 35 Morton kilns in operation in furniture 

 factories at Rockford, III., 15 at Grand Rap- 

 ids, Mich., and numerous others throughout 

 the United States and Canada. 



Prior to the first of the year the Morton dry 

 kiln was manufactured and sold by another 

 Chicago house, but early in 1906 the Mor- 

 ton Dry Kiln Company was incorporated to 

 take over the entire business and it now has 

 complete control of the patents. H. J. Mor- 

 ton is president of the company, and B. D. 

 Curtis, for many years connected with the 

 manufacture of Morton kilns, is secretary. 

 The company solicits correspondence from all 

 interested in dry kilns, and will take pleasure 

 in giving further Information and mailing its 

 catalog D, upon request to the office, 912, 21S 

 La Salle street. Chicago, 111. 



A Letter from "Mizzouri." 



There are lots of lumbermen who are wits, and 

 many others, alas, who are satirists, but it is 

 rare indeed that you find a genuine humorist en- 

 gaged in this great commercial pursuit. The wit 

 laughs at you. while the humorist laughs with 

 you. You may admire the wit ; you love the 

 humorist. 



Apropos o( the foregoing and incident to the 

 following is quoted a recent letter from C. D. 

 Boynton, the well known head of the Boynton 

 Lumber Company at Cape Girardeau, Mo., ad- 

 dressed to Lyon & Healy, music dealers of Chi- 

 cago. For pure, unadulterated humor It Is one 

 of the cleverest bits of literature that has fallen 

 into the hands of the Hardwood Recohd for 



many and many a day, and it is with unquali- 

 fied satisfaction that it Is herewith reproduced': 



Cape Girardeau, Mo. 

 Lyon & Healy, Chicago, 111. 



Gentlemen : Enclosed herewith find check in' 

 payment of your invoice of talking machine and 

 phonograph records. I found this canned music 

 perfectly fresh and sweet In every way with one 

 exception, which I will briefly note. 



I ordered, among others, a vaudeville record- 

 called "Fishing," said to be a faithful reproduc- 

 tion of the dulcet tones and synchronous heel- 

 clicks of that popular favorite. Miss Ada Jones,, 

 and her sparring partner, Mr. Len Spencer. 

 Judge of my surprise to find that you had sub-- 

 stituted a dirgelike gospel hymn entitled, "Pass- 

 Me Not, O Do Not I'ass Me By," the copyright 

 of which expired 217 years ago. 



Possibly the erudite young person who boxes- 

 up things for you in your shipping department 

 figured it out from the address that I belongedi 

 to that species of vertebrates called "Mizzourl- 

 ans," — described in your local papers as con- 

 sisting principally of a broad-brimmed felt hat 

 and a stogie. 



This creature — the creation of your diseased 

 Intellects — is represented as passing his entire 

 existence upon the banks of the Chicago Drain- 

 age Canal (formerly known as the Mississippi 

 River). And thus the logical conclusion was 

 that, being a democrat, it was more essential for 

 my welfare to send me something calculated to 

 draw me nearer to the throne than to the foot- 

 lights. 



It is true that formerly the literati of Cape 

 Girardeau and the budding young intellects of 

 its State Normal School sought the banks of 

 the Father of Waters for inspiration and soft 

 drinks. This was before we were brought into 

 such close touch with Chicago through the com- 

 pletion of your drainage canal. Now the entire 

 population throngs the levee daily to view the 

 mighty flood bearing upon its bosom tomato cans, 

 Milwaukee pop bottles, and, ever and anon, a 

 defunct pussy cat. 



A scientific cuss from your town with a long 

 aquiline nose having a large intake said that we 

 did not seem to be more than a few minutes 

 removed from dear old Chicago. 



Alas ! Tlie city of Chicago may pollute the 

 water supply of Cape Girardeau with impunity, 

 but when you attempt to interfere with our 

 amusements we must draw the line. 



Then again, it might have been a mistake on 

 your part. Mistakes are always liable to hap- 

 pen, as a Chicago young man found out while 

 on a shooting trip down at Seldom Seen, Mo., 

 this winter. He came to the eating tent late 

 one morning aud upon the wife of the guide 

 asking him what he would have for breakfast, 

 said he would take some pate-de-fois-gras. She 

 called for help and it took the united efforts of 

 his companions and the neighboring inhabitants 

 to keep the guide from killing him for using 

 such language to a lady. 



Another thing, the people of Missouri are suf- 

 fering from too much substitution at the present 

 time. We have alum in baking powder, preachers 

 in politics and a four-flush reformer as governor. 

 The whole state is run for the benefit of the 

 writers of fire-alarm articles in the 10c month- 

 lies published in New York. 



I can see how a druggist could give out mor- 

 phine for quinine, or how a cross-eyed man 

 could vote the populist ticket by using the Aus- 

 tralian ballot system, but for the life of me I 

 cannot see how you could mistake the lugubrlous- 

 ness of "Pass Me Not, O Do Not Pass Me By" 

 for the capers of Miss Ada Jones and the Hon. 

 Len Spencer. 



I invited a friend to hear my new records. 

 He had been a river steamboat captain, that i» 

 to say, he was opposed to complicated rhetorical 

 flourishes, Dutch Trilogies and Dago operatic 

 music of all kinds. He yearned for the merry 

 quip of the blythesome vaudeville sketch. I 

 said : "We will now have a laughable skit called 



