22 The Forest Pkoducts I^ahoratory 



good move but tlie more we talked it over, the more I became in 

 favor of it. We carried the proposition to Mr. Pinchot, the For- 

 ester, who was favorably impressed with the idea and wrote to 

 about a dozen universities suggesting the scheme to them. The 

 idea met with hearty approval and resulted in establishing the 

 Forest Products Laboratory at ^Madison in cooperation with the 

 University of Wisconsin, the University to furnish the building, 

 heat, light and power. 



"The credit for this organization belongs to Mr. Cline, as he 

 was the one who actually conceived the idea and put it into opera- 

 tion. 



"Then came the struggle to equip the place for which we had 

 little money. I had $120 allot ed to me to equip the section of 

 Wood Preservation, in which I was specializing, and it required 

 $3,200 to install the machinery which I wanted." 



Under these handicaps the first men of the laboratory laid the 

 foundation upon which the present structiu-e has its footing. ^IcGar- 

 vey Cline served as the first director of the institution in whose found- 

 ing he had such an important hantl. leaving in 1912 to enter com- 

 mercial life after the work was well established. 



Others who played leading roles in the work of the early days 

 when the laboratory was still in the formative state were Mr. William 

 L. Hall, who, as Assistant Forester, had administrative charge of the 

 laboratory in the days inmiediately following its inception and 

 Dr. W. K. Hatt of the Purdue University faculty, at one time in 

 charge of all timber test work for the Forest Service and later acting 

 in a consulting capacity on various features of the work, especially in 

 timber mechanics. Through the days of the war emergency, ]Mr. 

 Earl H, Clapp was the Assistant Forester in charge of the Branch 

 of Research of which the laboratory is a unit. 



Possibly the best measure of the worth of the laboratory is an 

 estimate of the practical value of the research results. These have 

 ])een described elsewhere in this volume. The next measure is an esti- 

 mate of the caliber of the men that make up its personnel. To a de- 

 gree, the two are naturally inseparably related. The record of the 

 requests made by wood using industries and other points of laboratory 

 contact, for laboratory men to transfer their allegiance to these other 

 fields speaks well for the ability of the men who have served here. A 



