University of Wisconsin Madison - Badger Yearbook (Madison, WI)

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19 for determining the moisture content by other than slow and unsatisfactory methods. This obstacle has been re' moved by the Forest Products Laboratory by a recent invention called the “blinker, which is a simple and eco-nomical portable moisture content meter. Its effective range is from 7 to 24 per cent, corresponding closely to the ordinary range of wood-moisture content. It has received its name from two flashing neon bulbs that indicate relative wetness and dryness. Pulp and Paper IN the research of pulp and paper, the principal objective is to make the United States independent of foreign lands in its paper needs. The significance of this objective is clearly indicated when the imports of pulp and paper for last year of approximately $250,000,000, translated into terms of employment, are found to be equivalent to fulltime jobs for 47,000 American citizens, willing and anxious to work. By the adoption of methods developed by research much of this business may be recaptured. The study of the various American woods as pulp and paper raw materials will be greatly accelerated by new facilities in the form of a pulp and paper research laboratory occupying six floors at one end of the building. This will ultimately include grinder equipment, a digester tower 40 feet square, beating and refining apparatus, and an experimental paper machine with all moving parts under precise control. This permits the measurement and control of various operating variables that affect the quality of the paper. Many reductions in the cost of production and the development of good grades of paper from low-priced raw materials give promise for expansion in the paper-making industry. Conclusion THE effects of the Laboratory's work are being felt constantly in better standards for lumber, more economical production, the elimination of waste, and better service to the user—all foreshadowing a revival of forest production and markets when our present economic difficulties are past. Jenks Cameron, of the Institute for Government Research, a non-governmental organization, says, At a conservative estimate American industries are today saving 15 million dollars annually by virtue of the work of the Laboratory. And this in only a beginning. This estimate, furthermore, does not take into account savings effected by improved methods of forest management. If Mr. Cameron's published estimate is approximately correct (and it is low in comparison with other surveys), the Forest Products Liboratory is paying annual dividends of $27 for every dollar invested in its operations at the current rate of appropriations. This research is not simply a battle of wood against competing materials, but rather a systematic program to further the use of woods to the best advantages for such purposes as can not be better fulfilled by other materials. With the new facilities and the present recognition of the United States Forest Products Liboratory as the authority in wood research great advancement in the use of woods and the conservation of our forests should be forthcoming. The J cw Forest Products Libor

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18 over the specified concrete floors, only a few of the office rooms can boast of that luxury. Future plans call for the installation of wood finish and floors in different rooms. The work of the Laboratory is divided into separate divisions, each division having an experienced man at its head, and the work is supervised by Carlisle P. Winslow, who, as director, is in charge of the entire Laboratory. Timber Mechanics A LARGE and important division of the Laboratory is the Section of Timber Mechanics. Of the lumber produced in the United States, sixty per cent is used in building construction, being equally divided between farm and urban residences, and industrial buildings. In this highly competitive field, it is essential that the accurate strength data of the wood be available. To meet the need for such data the Forest Products Laboratory has conducted tests since 1910, which now make available for publication, data on the strength, weight, and shrinkage of more than 160 native woods. Machines for testing timbers and framework up to a breaking load of one million pounds are being used to further this work. They are served by cranes in a testing gallery which accommodates pieces and panels as large as 30 feet high and 100 feet long. For working out the fundamental principles of box and crate construction there are special pieces of equipment, such as a vibrating table, and a 14 foot box-testing drum capable of testing boxes up to 1,500 pounds in weight and 4 feet in cube as well as performing standard compression and drop tests. These tests can be made at any degree of dryness or dampness by storing and testing the containers in a special moisture control room served by the machinery. Preservation of Wood SINCE wood is inflammable and subject to decay, a practical and economical method of preservation and fire proofing would greatly further its use. Some progress has been made in this line, but to further the work, a large timber preservation laboratory and a fireproofing laboratory are contained in the new building. Although it is believed impossible to make any wood completely fireproof, it can be treated so as to make it resistant under such temperatures as ordinarily cause fires. Efforts are now being made to find treatments that are cheap, non-corrosive to metals, non-leaching and otherwise not objectionable. In addition to the impregnation of the wood the Laboratory acts as headquarters for service records of over a million railroad tics and a large number of posts and poles, treated and untreated, thus undertaking the most conclusive and complete test of durability that is possible. The Wood Preservation Section has assisted in reducing the average annual tie replacements from 250 tics per mile of track to 1S0 per mile of track, thus saving railroads an estimated sum of $145,000 per day. This section has also grouped the woods with respect to painting qualities and is thus laying the groundwork for development of paints and coatings for wood. In this it is aided by new and adequate painting and finishing laboratories installed within the building. Timber Physics THE Section ofTimber Physics is concerned with the seasoning of wood, an extremely important factor in the use of wood, either structurally or as a finishing material. A large group of dry kilns equipped for close control of temperature, humidity, and air circulation help to solve many of the problems attendant to the seasoning of different species and types of wood. A cold storage chamber keeps the green logs and timber in unchanged condition for experimental work at any time. The aim of kiln-drying is to rapidly eliminate the surplus moisture which shrinking, swelling, and decay without the introduction of checks, warping, kiln stain, and other effects of badly tempered drying. One of the main obstacles to the proper control of moisture content in lumber has been the lack of means

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20 CONCERNING EDUCATION As advocate of an organic arci ally learned that no architects our system of education stands. Nor great art ot any kind. Youth Our system or education in general science, is a coward afraid to look within who does so. With infinite tact and patience textbook and class complacent inertia ii not permanent sterility in the realm ot imagination where imagina tion becomes action. 1 believe vve are all born either young or old. We see students, young in years, already old and others, well along in years, young as ever. So we may believe that youth is a quality and this quality is characterized by love, sincerity, determination and courage. All or these characteristics are conspicuously absent in academic circles, even in thought. As for these qualities in action -no action, as academic, is possible. It is not even properly thinkable. It is not “being done. Why wonder, then, that we are, the world over, acknowledged to bean un creative people? Inventive, ingenious, but in no true sense whatever, creative. Nearly everything we have as either institution or gentility we got from the top down that is to say by borrowing or accepting it ready made. We are cleverly capable of adapt-ing or adopting or transplanting or transposing anything or everything because we are specialists of long standing in all these forms of brokerage. We are the world’s best broker, but we can neither govern, build, draw, sculp, nor play from the ground upward, that is to say from within outward. We makeshift so. naturally, we fear the radical and call “conservative the lid-sitter the stand-patter the pompous “flu-flu bird who would “hold everything where it is: he would protect the fixture. The frame work of our entire civilization being a futive fixture like some chandelier precariously hanging from the ceiling. We have a sad of the jitters when anyone approaches the pome of fixment to learn how the thing where it hangs.