UTILIZATION OF ASH. i ot 
PROFESSIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. 
Ash ig used for tools and instruments, especially for carpenter’s 
tools. More is used for this purpose in New Jersey than elsewhere. 
The average price paid is high—about $62 per 1,000 board feet. 
AEROPLANES.1 
Ash is the second most important wood used in aeroplanes. The 
great bulk of the wood used is spruce from the Pacific coast and 
West Virginia. The essential qualities needed in wood for aero- 
planes are straightness of grain, strength, absclute freedom from. 
hidden defects, lightness (in comparison with strength), and ability 
to stand extreme stress. Ash is used in framework, main outriggers 
on which the canvas is stretched, uprights bearing the engine or 
forming the engine bed, skids (on the upright, curving ends of which 
the alighting wheels are fixed), rudders, and propeller blades. For 
framework, outriggers, and uprights straightness of grain and 
strength are the essential qualities needed, which usually can be 
best supplied by rapid-growing, comparatively young growth, from 
75 to 150 years old. For propeller blades, for which ash is very 
largely used, the quality desired, in addition to strength in com- 
parison with weight, is ability of the wood to hold its shape, which 
is best supplied by old-growth ash. Propeller blades are made 
from laminated blocks consisting of several layers of different kinds 
of wood glued and nailed together. An excellent combination is 
said to be a middle layer of ash with spruce on either side, then 
layers of mahogany on the spruce, and thin layers of ash on the 
outside.” Engine blocks and frame ribs are also often laminated 
in construction, spruce and ash being combined to divide the 
Stress. 
The average price for ash lumber used for aeroplanes is very high, 
about $65 per 1,000 board feet, and there is much waste in utiliza- 
tion. A Chicago firm in 1912 paid $180 for 600 feet of specially 
sawed ash, or at the rate of $300 per 1,000 feet, which is probably a 
record price for ash lumber. 
EXPORT. 
From five to seven million feet of ash logs are exported annually 
to Kurope; chiefiy green ash from the South Atlantic and Gulf 
States. Export dealers pay from $30 to $40 per 1,000 board feet 
1 [Information supplied by J. T. Harris, Office of Industrial Investigations, Forest 
Service. 
2Great trouble has been experienced from the splitting and checking of wooden 
aeroplane propellers, when made from laminated blocks either of a single material or 
of different woods. This can best be prevented by use of thoroughly air-seasoned 
woods, and by keeping propellers out of doors at all times, or by giving them a coating 
of paraffin to prevent the entrance of moisture. 
