HARDWOOD RECORD 



29 



NeWs Miscellani; 



October Session Cincimiati Lumbermen's 

 Club 



The October meeting of the Lumbermen's Club 

 of Cincinnati was held Monday evening, Oct. 4, 

 in the banquet room of the Gibson House. The 

 river and rail and other committees reported on 

 the woric done, all of which was of local inter- 

 est only. The special committee appointed to 

 make changes in the by-laws made their report 

 and same was accepted subject to a few slight 

 changes. This new constitution will be voted 

 on at the November meeting of the club. Sev- 

 eral radical changes were made, the most im- 

 portant of which provides for the appointment 

 of a commission to whom any shipper may apply 

 in case he feels he has not been treated fairly 

 by any member of the club. This is a long step 

 in the right direction, for it will make shippers 

 feel that they can ship to Cincinnati and be 

 positively assured of a square deal, for while 

 Cincinnati has always been noted for its fair- 

 ness, at the same time no assurance of this 

 fact heretofore has been possible. Several other 



CLIFF S. W.\LICER, PUE.SIDENT CINCIN- 

 NATI LLIIBERMEN'S CLUB. 



changes in the constitution were proposed that 

 will make the work of the club more effective. 

 The following members and guests were pres- 

 ent : 



James Buckley, 



C. A. Walker, 

 T. B. Stone, 

 Lewis Doster, 

 W. D. Sexton, 

 J. A. Murphy, 

 R. McCracken. 

 M. R. Williams, 

 J. M. Cheeley, 

 W. .T. Eckman, 



D. C. Snook, 

 A. V. .Jackson, 

 J. H. Lane, 



J. H. Wehry, 

 R. O. Witbeck, 



F. L. Scott, 

 W. A. .Johns, 



G. E. Jones, 

 Will S. Sterrett, 

 R. L. Gilbert, 

 W. W. Sterrett, 



C. F. Korn, 

 Dwight Hinckley, 

 J. S. Zoller, 



W. F. Duhlmeier, 



D. Beets, 



John R. King, 



A. Veith, 



H. R. Welling, 



E. J. Thoman, 

 W. H. Flinn, 



F. E. Linz, 



J. E. Dulweber, 



B. F. Dulweber, 

 George L. Hussey, 



B. A. Kipp, 



W. A. Bennett, 

 J. Watt Graham, 

 J. A. Bolser, 



F. R. Stanley, 

 E. C. Bradley, 

 Wash Rees, 



A. Heider, 



C. F. Shiels, 



J. A. McEntee, 

 H. E. Burbank. 

 H. A. Holioweil, 

 George W. Hand, 

 J. C. Rash, 



G. C. Ault, 



J. N. Powers. 



and Ireasurer uf (he Hardwood Liuuber Cumpauy 

 of Cincinnati, died at a sanitarium at I^oomis, N. 

 Y., October 4, and was interred at Jackson, 

 Mich., his former home, October 7. 



At the time of the severe illness which caused 

 Mr. Heyser's demise he was engaged as a sales- 

 man by the Galloway-Pease Company of Cin- 

 cinnati. 



Mr. Ileyser was 28 years of age. He was a 

 remarkably promising young man, and his death 

 is deeply deplored by a large circle of friends. 



Melted Wood 



Death of W. C. Heyser, Jr. 



Winfield C. Heyser, Jr., son of the veteran 

 lumberman. W. C. Heyser of Knoxville, Tenn., 

 and brother of Walter E. Heyser, vice-president 



In an article by Francis Marre, published in 

 La Nature, ■ Paris, August 14, a translation of 

 which appeared recently in the Literary Digest, 

 it is stated that it is possible to melt wood by 

 heating it in a vacuum, the resultant product 

 being- a hard homogeneous substance that ap- 

 parently has a great industrial future before it. 

 Melted wood has long been considered merely 

 as a laboratory curiosity, but it is now probable 

 that practical applications of this new product 

 will develop rapidly. The writer of the article 

 states : 



"Although wood is eminently inflammable, it 

 melts' at a relatively low temperature, but in 

 very precise conditions, and only when it is 

 absolutely removed from contact with oxygen, 

 so that its combustion is impossible. This may 

 be understood when we remember what its com- 

 position is. When its immediately soluble con- 

 stituents have been removed by means of alco- 

 hol, for instance, it gives on analysis organic 

 acids, water, oily essences, silicates, sulphates, 

 phosphates, chlorides, and hydrocarbonates of 

 lime, potash, soda and magnesia, carbonic acid, 

 carbonated hydrogen, etc. — that is to say, solely 

 bodies susceptible of being evaporated or dis- 

 solved after having cooperated by chemical affin- 

 ity in the formation of determinate substances. 



"Starting from these data, Messrs. Bizouard 

 and Lenoir, the former an electric engineer, the 

 second a printer, studied in 1801 the problem 

 of the fusion of wood, and after a year of in- 

 vestigation succeeded in producing a sample of 

 melted wood which, although obtained without 

 special apparatus, still had remarkable peculiari- 

 ties. The details of the process are not exactly 

 known ; they operated in a closed vessel at a 

 relatively low temperature — this is about all that 

 we can gather from the technical journals of 

 the period. 



"But their work has been taken up by others, 

 and now there is a full operative technic that 

 enables us easily to obtain excellent results. A 

 metal receiver, a sort of boiler having a double 

 bottom through which superheated steam passes, 

 is lilled with bits of wood ; it is closed by a lid 

 similar to that used in autoclaves, and provided 

 with a tube and stopcock communicating with an 

 apparatus for exhausting the air. » • » When 

 the wood thus kept in a vacuum is heated above 

 284 degrees Fahrenheit, the water and other 

 volatile substances are given off first, and are 

 drawn oEt by means of the exhausting apparatus, 

 after which the heating is continued for about 

 three hours. There then take place a complex 

 series of reactions and phenomena analogous to 

 those that accompany the distillation of wood 

 in a closed vessel, and in this way all the so- 

 called pyrogenous products are separated ; these 

 in turn are drawn off, condensed and separated 

 so that they may be utilized commercially. There 

 then remain in the receptacle only the fibrous 

 skeleton of the wood and the mineral salts, 

 which, taken together, constitute a fusible mass. 

 This is allowed to cool slowly, out of contact 

 with the air, and then placed in a second boiler 

 which, -after the air has been exhausted, is 

 filled with nitrogen under a pressure of 1.5 to 2 

 atmospheres. • • • The whole is heated to 

 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours, and at 



the end of this time the wood is melted into a 

 homogeneous, bard mass." 



The mtJting process may also be performed 

 without drawiUL: off the distillation products, re- 

 sulting in about two hours in the formation of 

 a solid amorphous mass of fused wood. The 

 product has a tine grain, takes a high polish and 

 is hard and resistant, so that it will undoubtedly 

 prove of great Industrial value. Melted wood 

 takes printing ink readily and may be cleaned 

 with potash, soda or turpentine. It is also 

 easily cast and moulded into all manner of dif- 

 ferent shapes and by adding preservatives to it 

 during the melting process it may be rendered 

 piactically indestructible. 



St. Louis Concern to Open Chicago Office 



St. Louis' loss is Chicago's gain. One of the 

 most active and popular of the lumbermen of 

 St. Louis, W. W. Dings, secretary of the Garret- 

 son-Greason Lumber Company, is about to move 

 his place of residence from the Missouri city to 

 the Illinois metropolis, where he will open a 

 branch selling oQiee for his concern. The Gar- 

 retson-Greason I,uraber Company for a long time 

 has had a wide and rapidly growing trade in 

 Chicago and Mr. Dings has of necessity spent a 



W. W. DINGS, SECRETARY GARETSON- 

 GREASON LUMBER CO. 



great deal of his time here. Business has de- 

 veloped to such an extent that it has been 

 deemed wise to have Mr. Dings located here 

 permanently. 



Mr. Dings has already resigned from the Mis- 

 souri State P'orestry Commission of which he 

 was a member, from the Lumbermen's Club and 

 from the Lumbermen's Exchange. He has been 

 a prominent figure in St. Louis hardwood cir- 

 cles for years and his loss will be keenly felt 

 there. 



Annual Meeting Gulf Coast Exporters' 

 Association 



The third annual convention o£ the Gulf Coast 

 Exporters' Association was held in the audi- 

 torium of the Battle House, Mobile, Ala., Oct. 

 IS. The two matters of special interest to be 

 considered at the meeting were the report of the 

 committee on a plan for an inspection bureau 

 and the election of otHcers for next year. 



The secretary read a report covering the work 

 of his ofBce and showing that the organization 

 lias a membership of fifty-one and that its work 

 is progressing satisfactorily in all departments. 

 The treasurer's report showed a small though 

 fairly satisfactory balance on harid. 



The committee on trade ethics, of which E. 



