WOOD BENT BY HAND

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 146, 5 June 1936, Page 15

WOOD BENT BY HAND

Strip Tied Into Lover’s Knot TWISTS LIKE RUBBER (Own Correspondent—By Air Mail.) LONDON. Alay 13. To-day I saw a strip of beech wood tied into a lover’s knot by hand, writes a correspondent in the “Evening Standard.” 1 bent a smaller strip until it was doubled, using moderate pressure of the hands on both ends. The strip remained bent until I straightened it without effort. It was a demonstration of the success of tho Government Forest Products Research Laboratories at Princes Risborough. They have treated wood so that it bends and twists when “cold” like rubber. The wood can be bent easily into all shapes, and yet does not spring buck into its former shape>—as, for instance, cane does. The laboratories have successfully treated ash, beech and elm. They are now applying their methods to English hard woods. The wood is compressed at both ends in concertina fashion, after it has been steamed. Then, when cold, it can be bent by hand. Mr. W A. Robertson, director of the Laboratories, told me: “This marks the success of the first stage. We have now to discover the wood’s durability and strength after the treatment.

“At first sight tho obvious use for this Mood would ho in house furnishings. Hut there may be hundreds of other uses. It is much too early to hazard any opinion on its industrial use.”