HARDWOOD RECORD 



i7 



coniiocted with the Kefus-Utley Lumbef Com- 

 pany of t'liicago, and in a capacity of consider- 

 able responsibility sbowed himself thoroughly 

 capable to manage the affairs of that concern 

 which were intrusted to him. l*rior to his as- 

 sociation with the Kerns-Utley company he was 

 for three years with W. E. Kelley & Co., and 

 after that represented the Crescent Hardwood 

 Lumber Company of Memphis. The affairs of 

 the new company are not yet entirely settled, 

 and papers of incorporation have not been taken 

 out. Officers and directors will be elected with- 

 in the next few weeks and a regular charter se- 

 cured. 



By Kail to Buenos Ayres 



The constant puliticul disturiianci's in Latin 

 America seem to give little hindrance to the pro- 

 moters of the Pan-American railway. Under the 

 direction of David B. Thompson, who resigned 

 as an ambassador to Mexico in order to take 

 charge of the work, it has been pushed south- 

 ward through the Mexican state of Chiapas to 

 Mariscal, a town on the Suchiate river, but a 

 few miles from the Pacific. 



A bridge across the Suchiate will be built dur- 

 ing the winter and by July the line will be con- 

 nected with the Guatemalan State railroads at 

 Ayutia, on the other bank. When that connec- 

 tion is made it will be possible to travel from 

 I'-altimore to Guatemala City by rail without 

 changing cars. 



Meanwhile a line is being built from the capi- 

 tal of Salvador into Guatemalan territory. It 

 will be connected with the line coming down 

 from Mexico in another year, and soon after- 

 ward will be extended southward. After a short 

 gap in Honduras has been bridged it will be 

 connected with a road which runs down the west 

 coast of Nicaragua to Lake Nicaragua. 



Below the lake there is already a line which 

 covers nearly half the distance to Port Limon, 

 on the Atlantic side, and from Limon to the 

 isthmus is not more than three hundred miles. 

 Thus it is plain that in a few years more through 

 trains will be running from New York to Pan- 

 ama. 



Railway building is very active .iust now in 

 Latin Republics. Mexico has .iust opened a line 

 across the narrowest part of her territory from 

 ocean to ocean, and even Costa Rica is laying 

 rails. Beyond the isthmus in South America. 

 a dozen huge lines are under way, and when that 

 vast engineering feat of weaving a line through 

 the gaps and ravines of the intervening moun- 

 tains is accomplished, passage from New York 

 or any of our cities direct to Buenos Ayres will 

 l»i> an established possibility. 



The Work of the Biltmore Forest School 



The Biltmoie Forest School, under the direc- 

 tion of Dr. C. A. Schenck, spent the month of 

 June very successfully at Sunburst, N. C, where 

 numerous opportunities for field study and object 

 lessons were enjoyed. The field work included 

 timber estimating, frequent trips to the spruce 

 logging operations conducted by the Champion 

 Fiber Company, compass and plane table survey- 

 ing, the study of the rate of growth of the va- 

 rious tree species, triangulation, the study of 

 wood structure and the field study of geology and 

 entomology. The students have also had oppor- 

 tunity to study the construction and use of 

 chutes, flumes and splash dams as undertaken 

 by the Champion Fiber Company, by which pulp 

 and tannic acid wood is carried down the moun- 

 tain side to the logging railroad. Timber esti- 

 mating has taken up a good deal of the time of 

 the students. Parties of three or four are sent 

 to given timber tracts and their estimates com- 

 pared wih others made by different parties on 

 the same sections. The students have also ob- 

 served logging railroad building, as the com- 

 pany located on this property is constructing 

 a standard gauge road between Canton and Sun- 

 burst, a distance of eighteen miles through moun- 



tainous country. The geological work has been 

 under the direction of Prof. Collier Cobb and 

 has proven most interesting. 



The school will remain in camp at Sunburst 

 until after the first week in August. Then the 

 students will go on a hike to several lumber 

 operations in western North Carolina and eastern 

 Tennessee, and will leave Knoxville on August 11 

 en route to Cadillac, Mich. Friday, August 12, 

 will be spent at Cincinnati, where the big lum- 

 ber plants of C. Crane & Co. and Maley, Thomp- 

 son & Moffett will be visited. The school will 

 leave Cincinnati on the evening of August VI 

 and spend Saturday at Grand Rapids, Mich., vis- 

 iting some of the leading furniture plants. The 

 students will arrive at Cadillac early Sunday 

 morning, August 14, for a considerable stay in 

 liie timber of the Cummer-Diggins Company, 

 near that city, to which point they will repair 

 on Monday morning. 



The school will leave Cadillac October 1, reach- 

 ing New York October 3, in time to catch a 

 steamer for Germany, where it will go into fall 

 and winter quarters at Darmstadt, C^ermany. 



A Window Exhibit of Eare Woods 



A finer display of choice and beautiful hard- 

 woods is rarely seen than that on view in the 

 window of Heaton & Wood. 1706 Chestuut street, 

 rhiladelphia, members of tlie W'ood-Mosaic Com- 

 pany, of New Albany, Ind., and Rochester, N. Y., 

 and managers of the comi>any"s eastern oflice. 

 This exhibit contains woods gathered from all 

 parts of the globe, man.v of them rarely seen in 

 this country and all of exceptional beauty and 

 susceptible to high polish. 



Among these woods is one known as wliite ma- 

 hogany, a name which seems rather incongruous 

 so closely is the deep tone of mahogany asso- 

 ciated with all varieties of that wood. This 

 species is known as prima verra in its native 

 country. Central America. It is mucn like other 

 mahogany except in color. It has the same 

 grain and even more Ijeautiful figure than any 

 oi the hardwoods found in the tropical coun- 

 tries or our own forests. An interesting feature 

 of this wood and one which should make it 

 particularly valuable is that it is very difficult 

 to ignite. 



Another unusual mahogany shown in the ex- 

 hibition is the yellow mahogany or canary wood 

 which comes from Belgian Congo. At present 

 this wood is very difficult to procure, as the 

 Belgians have discontinued its importation. Users 

 have been so pleased with the wide utility of 

 this wood that repeated efforts have been made 

 to obtain it in large quantities, but the Bel- 

 gians so far have remained obdurate. 



Two strikingly beautiful woods which Heaton 

 & Wood are exploiting are tulipwood and Pan 

 de Oro, meaning wood of gold, which come 

 from Brazil. Getting these woods out of the 

 forest is a task requiring much time and in- 

 genuity. They are small trees that grow about 

 a thousand miles imand. The trees are felled 

 by the natives and cut into logs in the jungles, 

 hauled by oxen to the small streams and there 

 lashed into rafts witli some of the soft native 

 timbers so they will float. They are then poled 

 down to the large rivers. Here the logs are 

 loaded into small sailing vessels which follow 

 the main river to the sea and then proceed 

 along the coast to the port of Bahia. where they 

 are assorted for quality and shipped to different 

 ports of Europe and the United States. 



Another remarkably beautiful wood shown in 

 this window display is the mahajua, which grows 

 to large size and is abundant in Cuba. It has 

 a silky grain, a dark heart and a large amotmt 

 of sapwood. The color of the wood varies in 

 different parts of the same tree, being dark at 

 the butt and light toward the top. This change 

 in tone is much valued in interior i)anelling 

 where an unusual effect in shading is desired. 

 It is generally used throughout Cuba for con- 

 struction purposes, being very durable and re- 



liable. The ^Vood-Mosaic people had their at- 

 tention first drawn to this wood one winter when 

 in Cuba looking after their timber interests. One 

 day when a pair of their large wheels had broken 

 down and they were in despair, as they feared 

 they would have to suspend operations and send 

 to the States for new wheels, their foreman 

 spoke up and said : "Let me cut down a ma- 

 hagua tree and make some wheels." They told 

 him they were afraid that the wood would split 

 and check. The foreman insisted that it would 

 not and that wheels of this wood would be the 

 best they ever had. So it proved, for the wheels 

 were made and they lasted for years. 



There is hardly a wood of desirable qualities, 

 no matter from what country it comes, that 

 this concern has not handled and manipulated 

 to its best value and effect. The most advan- 

 tageous cutting of the grain for durability, ideal 

 combinations of color for beauty and harmony 

 have been learned turough long experience and 

 patient effort. For information and advice as to 

 the best selection of woods from the tropical 

 countries, their traits and possibilities, no better 

 information could be had than from these con- 

 noisseurs. 



^...e parquetry flooring of tue Wood-Mosaic 

 -ompany has undeniably reached the highest 

 point of perfection, and it woulu be diflScult to 

 imagine a greater variety of goou designs, a 

 more pleasing adjustment of color and treat- 

 ment of grain than are displayed in the ex- 

 quisicely beautiful mosaics of this company. The 

 care and fine workmanship that are bestowed on 

 these mosaics can hardly be less painstaking 

 tuan the old Venetians and Romans put into 

 their famous mosaics wrought witu bits of lumi- 

 nous glass and stone. Oak, mahogany, maple 

 and walnut are tue woods most used, but in the 

 unusual work the forests of the world are drawn 

 upon for the unique effects desired. These men 

 have by effort and ability put their work in the 

 rank of the fine arts. 



The panel exhibit in the Philadelphia office 

 01 Heaton & Wood is attracting wide attention 

 and is an education not only to the layman but 

 to the average lumberman as well. Among the 

 a. most incredible number of woods shown are: 

 Chinese teak and satinwood, curly Java teak, 

 Vermillion mahogany and padouk from the East 

 Indies, East India walnut, lignum vitae from the 

 West Indies, Yalapa, yellow and koko from the 

 Adaman Islands, red tucancalo, camagon or mar- 

 blewood, Philippine teak and pink tucancalo 

 from the Philippines, sapeli mahogany from 

 Africa, tigerwood or African mahogany and 

 African oak, Brazilian rosewood and a number 

 of other Ijeautiful and rare woods. 



Causes for Trouble with Band Saws 



A writer in the Timber Trade Journal gives 

 the following reasons for defective work or 

 breaking of band saws : 



1. Excessive vibration arising from poorly de- 

 signed or constructed machines or faulty foun- 

 dations. 



2. Bad saws. 



.^. Saws of too thick a gauge for the diame- 

 ter of the wheels. 



4. Want of sufficiently elastic straining ten- 

 sion in mounting the saw wheels. 



5. Too great, too little, or sudden straining 

 tension, or the surface of the wheels worn or 

 out of order. 



G. In overcoming the inertia of starting the 

 top or non-driven saw wheel, or from the top 

 wheel over-running the bottom wheel and saw. 



7. From the expansion of working and the 

 omission to slacken the saw blade as it con- 

 tracts after finishing work. 



S. From lumps on the saw or wheels, or 

 from imperfect brazing and the joints being 

 thicker than the other part of the blade. 



0. From chips dropping between the blade 

 and the bottom saw wheel, or from an accumu- 

 lation of dirt or gum. 



