THE USES OF WOOD 



155 



Other items are rulers, squares, 

 spirit levels, thermometers, cam- 

 eras, tripods and various drafting 

 instruments. Many other articles 

 are included, but the line which 

 separates them from the industry 

 known as "novelties" is not defi- 

 nitely fixed. Some persons might 

 class a certain article as a novelty 

 while others would consider it a 

 professional or scientific instru- 

 ment. The thermometer is an ex- 

 ample of an article of doubtful 

 class. The glass tubes and the 

 graduated scales belonging to ther- 

 mometers are often mounted on 

 boards or wooden frames. If the 

 thermometer is high-class, it is 

 clearly a scientific instrument ; but 

 if it is cheap and is primarily in- 

 tended for advertising purposes, as 

 many such thermometers are, it 

 ought to belong with novelties. 

 The same holds true of rulers. If 

 carefully planned and well made, 

 they are in the scientific instrument 

 class ; but if cheap, and intended to 

 contain printing or stenciling to 

 display advertisements they do not 

 properly belong to scientific instru- 

 ments. The list of woods which fol- 

 lows contains woods of various 

 kinds, and they meet various uses. 



Kind of Wood 



Cedar 



Maple 



Feet per Year 



Basswood 



Beech 



Birch 



Yellow poplar 



Hickory 



Cherry 



20 

 4 

 2 

 1 

 1 

 1 



THE SOURCE OF CHERRY LUMBER 



Many of the best professional and scien- 

 tific instruments are made of cherry. This 

 wood has become scarce and the price is 

 high. The accompanying picture shows 

 four fine wild cherry trunks on one of the 

 ranges of the southern .Appalachian moun- 

 tains. It is a tree of slow growth and of 

 solitary habits. 



teacher to manufacture the pencils 

 outside of school hours. The name 

 "lead pencil" is all that has survived 

 from the old custom. 



The lead pencil is only one of sev- 

 eral items included in the professional 

 and scientific instrument hdustry. 



West India boxwood 



White pine 



Oak 



Chestnut 

 Rosewood 



Ash 



Mahogany 

 Red gum 

 Black walnut 

 Cocobola 



Yellow pine 



L ign um - V i t ae 



Redwood 



Dogwood 



Butternut 



Douglas fir 



Applewood 



Sugar pine 



Cypress 



Spruce 

 Tupelo 



Western yellow pine 



Teak 



Ebon\ 



Elm 



Cottonwood 



050,000 



,425,167 



619,070 



,259,600 



,062,050 



,001,400 



971,332 



732,750 



653,848 



601,670 



372,100 



.367,000 



219,353 



123,600 



82,862 



75,000 



71,200 



64,800 



46.600 



37.236 



31,220 



31,200 



.30.000 



30,000 



25,000 



23,500 



23,000 



16.000 



12,000 



8,000 



1,000 



500 



200 



170 



The most satisfactory test for de- 

 termining whether a kind of article 

 should be considered as a novelty or 

 as something better, is based on cost 

 and quality. Novelties are cheap ; in- 

 struments are expensive. A division 

 of that kind cannot be made accord- 

 ing to the quality of the woods used, 



Total 35,070,928 



TOUGH, STRONG RESILIENT 



Hickory is indispensable in the manufac- 

 ture of many professional and scientific 

 instruments, particularly where toughness 

 is required, as in the making of lumber- 

 men's measuring rules. 



