MISCELLANEOUS USES. 137 



6. Miscellaneous Goods. 



Many other industries may be added, which are also branches 

 of cabinet-making ; such as the manufacture of biUiard-cues, 

 sword-sheaths, and articles used in dairies and cheesemaking 

 establishments. 



Section VIII. — Miscellaneous Uses of Wood. 



A very large quantity of wood is consumed in making packing- 

 cases, for which coniferous wood of middling or inferior quality, 

 and side-pieces and other waste timber are used, especially when 

 the cases are fastened together by bands of zinc or iron. Casks 

 used for packing are also made of inferior coniferous wood. 

 Better and more durable classes of packing-cases are however 

 coming more and more into use, beech being largely employed. 



For small boxes used for packing soap and other small 

 articles, wood of conifers, beech, poplar, aspen and lime are 

 used, cut like veneers with special saws, or even a whole round 

 block of wood is revolved against a sharp fixed blade, and con- 

 verted into a sheet of wood for this purpose. 



In France, light wood such as aspen is thus used to reduce 

 as much as possible the gross weight of the goods. Wood- 

 pulp and tin are also frequently used instead of wood, as the 

 material for packing-cases. 



German cigar-boxes are usually made of alder-wood, and the 

 pieces without bark should be 9 inches to 1 foot in diameter and 

 free from knots ; they are sawn into planks, and the latter 

 reduced to thin boards by the circular saw. 



The wood of the West Indian cedar (Cedrela odorata, L.) 

 allied to mahogany, is largely used for foreign cigar-boxes. 

 Attempts to use other woods for the purpose, and especially 

 stained beechwood, have failed owing to the warping of the 

 wood. Cigars are pressed into a good shape in presses made 

 of beech and hornbeam-wood. 



A very large quantity of wood is used annually in the 

 numerous pianoforte-factories, which in Germany alone turn 

 out about 75,000 pianos annually. In piano-making all kinds 

 of sawn wood (oak, beech, walnut, mo.ple, lime and poplar, &:c.) 



