XII 



WOOD, PAPER, AND GLASS 

 TRANSFORMED 



WHEN MOST OF OUR SUPPLY of metals marched off to war, 

 wood, paper, and glass quickly took over their jobs on the 

 home front. 



Wood saves seventy-nine pounds of steel every time an 

 icebox is made. A box now uses six instead of eighty-five 

 pounds of steel, and the remainder of it is wood. Baby-car- 

 riage bodies, handles, wheels, and springs are made of wood. 

 The Office of War Information explains that some kinds of 

 wood, expected to be an important substitution and already 

 used in many items, are now fast becoming critical because 

 of a shortage of man power in the lumber industries. Special 

 kinds of wood may also get scarce for other reasons. These 

 "other reasons" give us an exciting story worth saving till 

 later. 



Discussing paper's many uses as a substitute, the OWI 

 says: 



"It is possible that the case of the alarm clock which wakes 

 the war worker, the hanger from which he takes his clothes, 

 the base of the buttons with which he fastens those clothes, 

 his lunch box, the wastebasket into which he throws his sand- 

 wich wrappings and the case of the flashlight he uses in his 

 work may all be made of paper." 



The war worker may buy aspirin or tooth powder pack- 

 aged in paper. The biscuits for his evening meal are made 

 from baking powder and shortening which came in paper 



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