Dripread - Book

inevitable that, in a very few years indeed, iron must supersede wood for a variety of uses. The drain upon the world's resources in timber is prodigious. Every year 92,000,000 railway sleepers are used in America alone, while to supply firewood for the whole of the States, fourteen times the quantity of wood consumed by the railways is annually required. At the computation of the most recent statistics there were 441,000,000 of acres of woodland in the United States; but since over 50,000,000 of acres are cut down yearly, this great area of timber will be non-existent in less than twenty years, unless replanting upon a very extensive scale be at once undertaken. Already efforts are being made in this direction, and not long since some 4,000,000 of saplings were planted in a single day in Kansas and the neighboring States. But since the daily consumption is even greater than this, it is obvious that the work of replanting must be undertaken systematically if it is to keep pace, even approximately, with the destruction. In France and Germany, where the forests are national property, forestry has been elevated to the status of an exact science; but the timber lands of those countries are small indeed compared with those in the United States.

A Church Built from a Single Tree.--A redwood tree furnished all the timber for the Baptist church in Santa Rosa, one of the largest church edifices in the country. The interior of the building is finished in wood, there being no plastered walls. Sixty thousand shingles were made from the tree after enough was taken for the church. Another redwood tree, cut near Murphy's Mill, about ten years ago, furnished shingles that required the constant labor of two industrious men for two years before the tree was used up.

Trees That Sink.--Of the more than four hundred species of trees found in the United States there are said to be sixteen species whose perfectly dry wood will sink in water. The heaviest of these is the black ironwood of southern Florida, which is more than thirty per cent. heavier than water. Of the others, the best known are the lignum vit� and mangrove; another is a small oak found in the mountains of western Texas, southern New Mexico, and Arizona, and westward to Colorado, at an elevation of 5,000 to 10,000 feet.

Artificial Wood.--You can produce an artificial fire and waterproof wood in the following manner. More or less finely divided wood shavings, straw, tan, etc., singly or mixed, are moistened with a weak solution of zinc chloride of about 1.026 sp. gr., and allowed to dry. They are then treated with a basic solution of magnesium chloride of 1.725 to 1.793 sp. gr., and pressed into moulds. The materials remain ten to twelve hours under pressure, during which time they harden while becoming heated. After being dried for several days in a warm, airy place, they are placed for ten or twelve hours into a strong solution of zinc chloride of about 1.205 sp. gr., and finally dried again. The product is stated to be workable like hardwood, and to be capable of taking a fine polish after being tooled. It is fireproof and inpermeable to water, and weak acid or alkaline solutions, and not affected by the humidity of the atmosphere, being well suited to decorative purposes, as it will not warp and fly like wood, but retain its form.

How to Stain Wood.--The following are recipes for staining wood, which are used in large establishments with great success: Light Walnut--Dissolve 3 oz. permanganate of potash in six pints of water, and paint the wood twice with the solution. After the solution has been left on the wood for from five to ten minutes, the wood is rinsed, dried, oiled, and finally polished. Light Mahogany--1 oz. finely cut alkanet root, 2 ozs. powdered aloe, and 2 ozs. powdered dragon's blood are digested with 26 ozs. of strong spirits of wine in a corked bottle, and left in a moderately warm place for four days. The solution is then filtered off, and the clear filtrate is ready for use. The wood which is to be stained is first passed through nitric acid, then dried, painted over with the alcoholic extract, dried, oiled and polished. Dark Walnut.--3 ozs. permanganate of potash are dissolved in six pints of water, and the wood is painted twice with this solution. After five minutes the wood is washed, and grained with acetate of iron (the ordinary iron liquor of the dyer) at 20� Tw. Dry, oil and polish as usual. Gray--1 oz. nitrate of silver is dissolved in 45 ozs. water, and the wood painted twice with the solution; afterwards the wood is submitted to the action of hydrochloric acid, and finally washed with ammonia. It is then dried in a dark place, oiled and polished. This is said to give remarkably good results on beech, pitch pine and poplar. Black--7

Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889