A Deckxxial Record 11 



analysis of the entire wood and forest products situation, from the 

 standijoint of war needs, was begun at once, and steps were taken to 

 secure the vast amount of information which this analysis showed 

 would be needed by the War and Xavy Departments. 



Contact was established with the various branches of these de- 

 partments and others doing war work, and systematic cooperation 

 undertaken. Funds were made available by the cooperating depart- 

 ments, and the personnel of the laboratory was increased as rapidly 

 as men could l)e trained for the specialized work. This expansion con- 

 tinued throughout the war, and on armistice day the force numbered 

 458. 



Many of the problems presented to the laboratory were solved 

 immediately with the knowledge available. Others were of new and 

 specialized character and required the construction of special ma- 

 chinery and the making of many special tests. The experience and 

 the vision of the older men in the various branches of the work proved 

 to be invaluable in the planning and execution of these special investi- 

 gations. It is safe to say tliat a large measure of the usefulness of the 

 laboratory during the war would have been lost had these men, instead 

 of remaining in the organization, answered the many calls to other 

 fields and gone where greater financial reward and personal gain 

 Mould have resulted. 



]Many developments of the war, new inventions and new proc- 

 esses, chemical and physical, born under the stimulus of war necessity 

 and devoted to military use were found after the armistice to be of 

 value in peace times industry, either with or without modifications. 



In the poison gas campaign normal time industry profited by 

 discoveries that, lacking the stress of national emergency, might not 

 have come in years of dc^•cl()])ment. 



The unl)elieva.ble progress in aeronautics in a brief four years, 

 at once, upon the cessation of hostilities, was converted to commercial, 

 sporting and other transportation, such, for instance, as the mails. 

 The same thing happened in many fields, among them forest products 

 research. 



During the war, no effort liad been made to ])ublish and distribute 

 the results of the lal)oratory\s researches,- — in fact, a very large per- 

 centage of the war work was secret and confidential and did not permit 

 of publication. Special effort has since been made l)y the entire or- 



