30 



Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1919 



. mi 



OUR AEROPLANE WOOD RESERVE 



British Columbia Production at Close of War Provided Material 



for 30,000 Planes. 



The demands of the war have occasioned 

 the most phenomenal development of many in- 

 dustries. Not the least among these is aero- 

 plane lumber in British Columbia. This pro- 

 vince, in the thirteen months since the first 

 request came from the Imperial Government for 

 this material, has provided approximately 9,000,- 

 000 feet of Douglas fir and 26,000,000 feet of 

 Sitka spruce aeroplane lumber. This is sufficient 

 wood for over 30,000 ordinary planes. 



The output figures do not in themselves indi- 

 cate the magnitude of the undertaking necessary 

 to produce this material. In the first place, it 



must be remembered that wood for aeroplane 

 construction must be of a special quality never 

 before required in lumber specifications. It 

 must be of the quality of a cabinet wood. The 

 most important quality in aeroplane wood is 

 straightness of grain on all four sides. Straight 

 edge grained lumber can be produced easily by 

 sawing parallel to the bark, but the prevailing 

 tendency of trees to grow in more or less of a 

 spiral form renders it difficult to secure lumber 

 in which the fibres do not run diagonally across 

 the flat grain faces. Very large amounts of per- 

 fectly clear sound lumber have had to be dis- 

 carded on account of this spiral grain. 



