A Decennial Record 23 



list of sucli men wlio liave left tlie teelmienl staff of the laboratory for 

 other fields is given in the appendix to this volume. 



CHAPTER IV 

 TEX YEARS OF RESEARCH IX FOREST PRODI CTS 



The decade following the founding of the Forest Products Lab- 

 oratory in 1910 is marked by a convulsive uplieaval. — economic, so- 

 cial and political. — unsurpassed in modern history. In the Ignited 

 States, at least, the ten-year period is now commonly divided into the 

 eras "the pre-war years", "during the war", and "the post-Mar 

 period". Tlie latter is, of course, only begun. l)ut a definite read just- 

 ment and new alignment of economic forces is alread\' in the making. 



So in discussing the laboratory development, and particularly the 

 field of its accomplishments, the descriptive effort naturally falls into 

 the cycles: pre-war six years, war period of two years, and the read- 

 justment or post-war period of two years. Tlie first two are here 

 treated in some detail: the latter period and its outstanding features 

 has already been discussed. 



Pre-war Research 



The early work of tlie laboratory was lai'gely fundamental in 

 character, and was, in many instances, a continuation of in^'estigations 

 which had been under way at one or more of the various smaller lab- 

 oratories which were discontinued when the Forest I'roducts Labora- 

 tory was organized. In fact, full credit for some of the accomplish- 

 ments described in this chapter belongs to the pioneers of those early 

 days, who struggled along in the dark Mith ])ractically no funda- 

 mental knowledge of the properties of wood to guide them. 



