604 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD. 



4. Wood- Wool. 



Wood- Wool may be mentioned here, which is made from 

 even-grained wood, chiefly coniferous, though any species of 

 wood may be used, in round pieces 1 to 2 feet long, and is 

 used instead of hay, seaweed, etc., as packing material ; for 

 stuffing chairs, and other furniture ; as stable litter ; for pre- 

 serving ice, and in surgery, etc. Also it is made into ropes. 



Villeroy, in Shramberg, compresses very fine wood-wool 

 under high -pressure into a sort of papier-mache, which is very 

 durable and is used for rules, carvings, ornaments, etc. 



5. Round Pieces of Wood. 



Slender pieces of wood are used for making handles for 

 paint-brushes and pens, flower-sticks, etc., also wooden thread 

 for making lucifer-matches and other articles. Fissile straight- 

 grained sprucewood is used for these purposes. The pieces 

 used for paint-brush handles, penholders and flower-sticks are 

 in section either round, semi-circular, oval, or quadrangular, 

 and of various lengths up to 5 feet. They are prepared by 

 machines from wood in the rough. Grasenau, in Bavaria, is 

 one of the chief seats of this industry. 



[Beechwood is made similarly into round pieces from the 

 size of a pencil to that of a flag-staff, and also into conical 

 spigots, at Villers Cotterets, in France, square pieces being 

 pushed through a system of revolving planes, and coming out 

 round. Tr.] 



Wooden thread is now prepared on a large scale, either in 

 round pieces of sprucewood 8 to 30 feet long, or in short 

 pieces, used for lucifer-matches in Germany and Sweden. 



The round pieces, usually xii^h of an inch (2 mm.) thick, 

 are made only from the finest grained sprucewood, and thus 

 the refuse of musical instrument wood may be utilised. 

 They used to be made by manual labour with Komer 's plane, 

 which, instead of an ordinary cutting blade, has a blade with 

 a number of funnel-shaped grooves, each of which cuts-out a 

 cylindrical thread. After a layer of thread had been planed 

 away, the wood was planed smooth by means of an ordinary 

 plane, and then a fresh layer of threads removed. 



