592 



Popular Science Monthly 



are being exported. In case of war, for- 

 tunately, our forests would be able to 

 furnish the raw material for unlimited 

 supplies of alcohol. The cellulose of the 

 wood when treated with acids gives con- 

 siderable quantities of glucose which can be 

 readily fermented to alcohol. Experiments 

 conducted by the Forest Service have 

 shown that twenty-five gallons -of grain 

 alcohol can be obtained from one ton of 

 sawdust, and it is probable that this yield 

 can be still further increased. 



But wood has other military uses besides 

 that of furnishing raw material for ex- 

 plosives. Millions of gunstocks are made 

 from American walnut, which is the best 

 wood yet found for the purpose. 



The Germans Brought Sawmills with 

 Them Into France 



With characteristic foresight the Germans 

 brought portable sawmills with them into 

 France, and have utilized their enemy's 

 forests to supply their need for timber at 

 the front, while reserving their own forests 

 for home demand. 



The development 

 of trench warfare, 

 when vast armies 

 of men dig them- 

 selves in on fronts 

 hundreds of miles 

 long, calls for an 

 amount of timber 

 for trench walls, 

 floors, and braces 

 that it is difficult 

 to estimate. Mil- 

 lions of feet of 

 lumber are re- 

 quired also for 

 temporary build- 

 ings behind the 

 fighting line and 

 for housing non- 

 combatants made 

 homeless by the 

 fortunes of war. 

 Still more goes 

 into bridges, 



wharves, and the like. High explosives 

 have made it possible for a retreating army 

 to destroy stone and steel structures 

 behind them in short order, and such 

 structures the pursuing army must have the 

 means of quickly rebuilding. Wood is, in 

 most cases, the only material that will 

 answer the purpose. It served the German 

 army in good stead recently during the 



pursuit of the Russians through Poland. 

 Turning from the materials needed for 

 actual fighting to the no less important ones 

 required for the proper care of the wounded, 

 we find Germany, fully prepared for Eng- 

 land's embargo, making a soft, absorbent 

 surgical cotton from wood cellulose. Two 

 factories in Sweden also are making this 

 substitute. Slings are made from tough 

 crepe paper, and splints from fiber boards. 



"To Be Without Wood Is Almost as 

 Bad as Being Without Bread" 



Wood is also contributing to the personal 

 comfort of the men at the front. Russian 

 soldiers are wearing paper skirts made in 

 Japan, where such clothing has been in use 

 for many years. The chief raw material 

 for the manufacture of paper is, of course, 

 wood pulp. Paper clothing is warm and 

 cheap, and special waterproofing processes 

 are overcoming its tendency to tear when 

 wet. It may be discarded when soiled — an 

 advantage to the soldier from the stand- 

 point of hygiene. The Germans and 



Austrians, mainly 



A portable saw-mill brought by the Germans into 

 France so that the enemy's forests could be utilized 



the poorer classes 

 of the civilian 

 population, use 

 paper vests, socks, 

 and handker- 

 chiefs. Blankets 

 and coats are pad- 

 ded with cellulose 

 wadding. So 

 many paper arti- 

 cles, in fact, are 

 produced for the 

 comfort of the 

 people of Ger- 

 many and Austria 

 as to lead the 

 socialist organ 

 "Vorwaerts" to 

 declare, "To be 

 without wood is 

 almost as bad as 

 being without 

 bread." 



The demand for 

 newspapers and periodicals oi all kinds in- 

 creases enormously in a time of national 

 crisis. The bulk of print papers is made 

 from spruce and balsam* fir. Experiments 

 ■ have shown , however , that satisfactory news- 

 print paper can be made from some seven 

 or eight other American woods, which places 

 the United States in a position of prepared- 

 ness as far as paper is concerned. 



