40 Forest Club Annual 



employs twenty-four men who work in two shifts of twelve 

 hours each, twelve men to a shift. The steel cars on which the 

 wood is run into the retorts and which have a capacity of two 

 cords of four foot sticks are of the narrow gauge type, 4 feet 

 wide and 10 feet 6 inches long, without a roof, and with the 

 sides and ends built of a lattice work of steel 6 feet 10 inches 

 high. For switching in their own yards, the company employs 

 a small narrow gauge engine which weighs seven tons on its driv- 

 ers and burns about two bushels of coal per day. Two artesian 

 wells 10 inches in diameter and 80 feet deep furnish the water 

 supply for the plant. A supply of approximately 6,000 cords of 

 wood is kept in the yards at all times. Maple is used most exten- 

 sively, and beech, birch, ironwood and elm to some extent. 

 Maple yields the most alcohol, about 12 gallons per cord of wood 

 while beech yields the most acetate, about 250 pounds per cord. 

 By using these two woods, a good run of both alcohol and acetate 

 is obtained. The sticks are 4 feet long and from 2 inches to 

 8 inches in diameter. In loading the steel cars, the larger 

 pieces are placed on top because the heat in the retort is greatest 

 at the top, and, consequently, the carbonization of the whole 

 load is more uniform if the larger pieces are placed above. Be- 

 fore the wood is brought to the company's yard, it is left for six 

 months in the woods to season which makes it easier to handle 

 and also makes carbonization possible with less expenditure of 

 heat. 



Products 



The products of this destructive distillation are charcoal, 

 wood alcohol, acetate of lime, and tarry and gaseous compounds. 

 Of these, the first three are of commercial importance while the 

 last two are of such little importance that they are burned as 

 fuel. A comparison of the closed retort method and the kiln 

 method of carbonizing wood gives us some interesting figures on 

 the amounts of finished products obtained by the two methods. 



Closed Retort Method Kiln Method 



Charcoal per cord wood 50 bushels 40 bushels 



Acetate of Lime per cord wood. . . 180 pounds 65-75 pounds 



Alcohol per cord wood 12 gallons 3- 4 gallons 



Process of Distillation 



Four of the loaded steel cars are pushed into the retort and 

 four carloads of the carbonized wood are pushed out at the same 

 time. These retorts are 47 feet long and just wide enough and 

 high enough to admit a loaded car. The retort is air tight and 

 consists of brick walls 16 inches thick lined on the inside by steel 

 plates 3 inches in thickness which unite to form a large steel 



