60 Thp: Forest Products Laboratory 



We do know the operating cost of the hiboratory for the past ten 

 years, what has been expended to produce the results so far attained. 

 Briefly, in the ten years of its hfe, very close to two million dollars 

 has been appropriated to maintain the institution. The war period 

 accounts for a fair portion of this total, so the yearly amount, exclud- 

 ing the time of greatest expansion, is, in the light of accomplishments, 

 low. While the total gain cannot be estimated in dollars and cents, 

 some of the known results, however, enable the use of a yard stick 

 which will serve to demonstrate that organized industrial research in 

 M'ood is a paying investment. 



The building and construction trade, for example uses annually 

 about 5I/0 billion feet of lumber for structural purposes where strength 

 is important. This material is worth roughly $200,000,000. In- 

 vestigation at the Forest Products Laboratory on the mechanical 

 properties of American Moods has given knowledge permitting a 20 

 per cent increase in allowable working stresses in structural timbers. 

 This means a possible saving of $40,000,000, of which it is estimated 

 that some $4,000,000 is already saved each year through use of labora- 

 tory data. 



Claims for loss and damage to commodities in shipment actually 

 paid by the railroads amount to over $100,000,000 annually. Proper 

 nailing and improved designs developed by the laboratory and adopted 

 by the National Association of Box Manufacturers, and through them 

 by many companies and shippers, is estimated to save about one per 

 cent of this loss, a total saving of $1,000,000 a year. 



Work on water-resistant glues and plywood for airplanes carried 

 on at the laboratory during the war emergency alone saved the War 

 Department a sum running into millions in its procurement of such 

 material during a twelve months' period. 



Investigations in the use of hull fibre and second-cut linters for 

 pulp and paper have resulted in the establishment of several plants 

 having a potential daily production of 300 tons of paper with an 

 annual sale value of $8,000,000. 



The adoption of improved methods of turpentining developed by 

 the Forest Service has resulted in increased yields and decreased 

 injury to timber with net savings aggregating $4,000,000 per year. 



The importance of the knowledge which the laboratory had 

 accumulated on suitable methods of drying and on dry -kiln design 



