THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2600, 7 September 1909, Page 6

THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

THE RANGATAUA WORKS. An important- industry, involving the expenditure of a large amount-of capital, is being successfully carried on at Rangataua, on the North Island Main Trunk line. This is the New Zealand Powell Wood Process, Ltd., works, for improving, strengthening and rapidly Jtaasoning timber. The process consists in boiling timber in a saccharine solution containing such other ingredients as may be desired, whereby the latent air, sap, and much of the organic matter which it contains is expelled, and the wood cells filled with the saccharine _ matter a substance akin to the wood itself. The timber is subsequently dried in specially constructed chambers, leaving it) if so desired, in a perfectly seasoned condition. It is claimed for the process that, by it, timbers are thoroughly seasoned without cracking, twisting, or splitting, making them lighter and stronger. It renders all wood immune to the attacks of white ants,< the borer, and the teredo navalis, and also dry rot. Great pieces of timber*, 24 inches square, after being treated by the process, cut into sections, showed that, the preservatives reached the very centre. The new Powell process is being generally taken up. In the process the timber is neither discolored nor damaged. An excessive steaming or high temperature is used, and at the end‘of the operation© the timber is [seasoned to any degree necessary. Timber qo treated is on the • average fully 25 per cent, lighter,and 40 per cent, stronger than the untreated green wood. At the Rangataua works the company has treatel over 10,000 . sleepers ’for the New Zealand Railway Department, ;and it is claimed that these have been done at a cost of aborit 60 per cent, under creosoting. The Chief Mechanical Engineer of Railways is using large quantities of this wood in the construction of railway carriages, and also for bridges, etc. 1+ will be used in the new vice-regal residence at Wellington. The company guarantees that a house constructed of this kind of seasoned timber will last longer, and that no. disease or borer will attack the timber. The cost is only 5s per 100 sup. ft. over the usual price of the timber. V .!