198 



FOREST PRODUCTS 



About 1885 the raw form of wood alcohol was developed and an 

 attempt was made to sell it to the hat manufacturing industries at Dan- 

 bury, Conn. This was one of the very first large fields for the use of 

 wood alcohol and it brought high prices. Formerly grain alcohol had 

 been used to stiffen hats and the use of wood alcohol rapidly came into 

 common practice. At first as high as 70 cents a gallon was paid for this 

 wood alcohol. 



Charcoal developed as the price of acetate went down. Acetate of 

 lime was used to fix the color in dyes, particularly in Fall River, Mass. 



FIG. 56. General view of hardwood distillation plant at Betula, Pennsylvania. On the left is 

 the wood yard, in the center the oven house and still house and on the right, the char- 

 coal storage warehouse. Immediately to the right of the oven house are the two sets of 

 cooling ovens. 



Gradually a big influx of wood distillation plants came in and the prices 

 gradually dropped. Around 1885 to 1900 there were a great many small 

 capacity plants and most of them followed very rough and crude methods. 

 All of them used the cylinder retort process. These plants, however, 

 were gradually replaced by the larger modern plants using the long oven 

 instead of the old retort. There is now a much smaller number of plants 

 than formerly, but on the other hand there is a much greater annual con- 



