A Decexxial Record 19 



temperature room is maintained for strength- tests on the finished 

 products. i 



The section devoted to derived products, deahng with the many 

 phases of the chemistry of wood, carries as its working tools the usual 

 chemical lahoratory equipment. ]Miich special equipment is used, 

 especially instruments for measuring acciu'ately the various physical 

 and chemical properties of oils, sugars and solutions. Specialized 

 equipment consists of complete semi-commercial plants for produc- 

 tion of ethyl alcohol and stock food from saM'dust ; destructive distil- 

 lation of hardwoods and softwoods; the extraction with volatile solv- 

 ents of resinous woods, Maste paper products and other materials. 



Pathological work, largely a study of fungi and their effect on 

 wood in many fields of use and from many viewpoints, is carried on by 

 a cooperating office of the Bureau of Plant Industry. The equipment 

 for the work is complete, consisting of all necessary apparatus and 

 medimns for studying fungi imder various conditions. Included in 

 the working equipment are pure cultm-e sam])les of various wood fungi 

 used for comparative studies. 



The enumeration of tliis sundry pliysical e(iuipnient of the lab- 

 oratory is made mainly to outline briefly to the prospective user, the 

 man with a wood problem ])ut unacquainted with tlie laboratory, Avhat 

 can he expected in the way of a capacity to handle that problem. The 

 enumeration also indicates the growth in the science of wood technol- 

 ogy and research in ten years, for it must be remembered that at the 

 time of the establishment of tlie laboratory, an uncharted sea lay be- 

 fore the youtliful explorer. INIuch of the complex testing machinery 

 in use at the laboratory stands as a marker or buoy in the portion of the 

 unknown tliat has been cliarted. A vast and unlimited field yet re- 

 mains ahead. 



Persoxxee 



It has been said that an institution is but the lengthened shadow 

 of a great man. The laboratory, from its rather composite nature, 

 more properly, as it stands today, is the lengthened shadow of many 

 men. To its esta])lisliment and to its development many men have 

 contrilmted the ])est that tliey had to give. Tlie strength of the lab- 

 oratory in its own particular field, after the brief lapse of ten years, 



