100 



WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES 



PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT 



Lawn and porch swings are the only products listed under this 

 heading-. Four woods are reported at an average cost lower than in 

 any industry table of this report. The oaks, both red and white, 

 furnish over three-fourths of the wood because their inherent 

 qualities of strength, hardness and durability when exposed fit them 

 for this line of manufacture. White elm is usually used for the bent 

 parts and beech in small amounts for the bottoms or platforms of 

 lawn swings. 



TABLE LXIII. Equipment, playground 



PATTERNS AND FLASKS 



Table L/XIV represents the lumber required by foundries for 

 castings. Flasks, templets and patterns indicate the uses to which 

 this material is put. Foundry flasks are rough boxes or frames 

 holding the molded sand into which the hot liquid metal is poured. 

 It would be naturally expected that this lumber should be as fire 

 resisting as possible, but in Ohio the foundrymen apparently lay 

 little attention to this detail. The table shows that a variety of 

 woods, usually those to be gotten near at hand are the kinds employed, 

 with the result that the hot metal heats the sand to a temperature 

 where the wood blazes. Notwithstanding the fact that water is 

 dashed on the blaze as soon as it is discovered, owing to frequent 

 firing the flask is soon made unfit for use, thereby requiring the 

 foundrymen to consume quite a large amount of wood for this pur- 

 pose. If the flask material could be treated or coated with a fire 

 proofing chemical, or if the wood used were redwood, which is the 

 most difficult of all domestic woods to ignite, the additional cost 

 would doubtless prove an economy. White pine is used in larger 

 quantities in Ohio than any other wood for flask material and it 

 serves with shortleaf pine, longleaf pine, hemlock, elm and silver 

 maple. 



For patterns white pine is probably superior to any other wood. 

 Its suitability is due to its being more easily worked, close-grained 

 with obscure figure, and not liable to warp or shrink. The increas- 

 ing cost of this wood, especially in the upper grades and for wide 



