2o8 Miracles Ahead! 



as many products as the others. Wood is a combination of 

 cellulose, long hairlike fibers; a small amount of sugar; and 

 lignin, a resin or natural glue that holds the fibers of cellulose 

 together. Cellulose serves as the base for plastics, rayon, paper, 

 and many other products. Lignin is the source of vanillin in 

 vanilla extract, which is replacing the natural product since 

 that supply was cut off by the war. Since it is a good adhesive, 

 lignin is used to bind laminated and plywoods for the con- 

 struction of airplanes. It also serves as a tanning agent for 

 leather and produces an excellent, low-cost plastic. 



The millions of gallons of sulphite liquors which are 

 dumped into streams and lakes by our paper mills contain valu- 

 able lignin and sugar from wood. Therefore the plant at 

 Thorold, Ontario, which uses the waste sulphite liquor, is a 

 great step forward. It was made possible by the work of Dr. 

 Donald F. Othmer and his associates at the Brooklyn (New 

 York) Polytechnic Institute and uses a process far superior to 

 that of the Nazis, the pioneers in this work. Dr. Othmer adds 

 that the thousands of tons of sawdust which are burned each 

 year are a gold mine of valuable chemicals. He treated one 

 hundred pounds of sawdust with chemicals such as lye, lime, 

 and sulphuric acid and obtained one hundred and twelve 

 pounds of oxalic acid (used to make celluloid, rayon, explo- 

 sives, leathers, etc.), twenty pounds of acetic acid, four pounds 

 of formic acid, and six pounds of wood alcohol. Sawdust and 

 wood chips also have been used by William H. Mason to 

 make a valuable building material, Masonite. 



For many years the Northern spruce supplied the pulp- 

 wood for newsprint. Then the late Dr. Charles E. Herty 

 proved that the Southern pine, which grows rapidly on all 

 sorts of land, could be used to make newsprint. Now the 

 acres of Southern pine are paying farmers bigger dividends. 



Dr. Henry G. Knight, chief of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Chemistry and Engineering of the Department of Agricul- 



