EMPIRE TIMBERS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1931, Page 21 (Supplement)

EMPIRE TIMBERS

FINDING NEW USES SCIENTISTS AT WORK. INTERESTING INVESTIGATIONS. Testing of two New Zealand timbers, silver beech and tawa, is now being undertaken at the Forest Products Research Laboratory at Princes Risborough, in Buckinghamshire, England, writes a correspondent to the New Zealand Farmers’ I nion.

Officers of the laboratory have arranged for silver beech to be tested as a furniture wood in High Wycombe, the famous furniture town of Buckinghamshire. where hundred- of thousands of chairs, tables, beds, and cupboards are turned out. every year, ft is also to be made into rille stocks at a big rifle factory at Enfield, to see if it compares favourably with the foreign timber now generally used, and a Northampton firm is to experiment with the timber for boot-lasts in place of American rock-maple. The tawa has not yet arrived. These teste are typical of the new developments taking place at the Princes Risborough laboratories. Since the Empire Marketing Board made a capital grant of £30,000 in 1928 to. enable it to expand into an Empire timber research centre, and to undertake the testing of Empire timbers as one of its normal functions, the laboratory has started to investigate timbers from countries as widely separated as Borneo and British Guiana, Nigeria, and Malaya. Tests on timbers from 15 Empire countries are now proceeding. The • laboratories have expanded to such an extent that there are now some 30 or 40 scientists-, and an industrial staff of nearly 100, at work on every aspect of timber research. The British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is sparing no effort to cut down wastage in timber utilisation, for the United Kingdom’s annual timber imports are worth some £65,000,000. The Empire as a whole, with its 2,000,000 square miles of forest, owns the largest timber reserves (mainly of hardwoods) in the world.

The task of finding new uses for Empire timbers falls naturally on the United Kingdom Laboroatory, which is directly in touch with big users. Three West African mahoganies, for. instance, are now being tested for air-screws. in the hopes that they may replace the foreign timber at present used for aircraft propellers. Another African wood, abura, is undergoing a special set of trials to see if it resists attack by acid. If the tests are satisfactory, it will be used to line tanks in oilships (where tlie petroleum causes serious corrosion), as a substitute for American swampcypress. "■Two Australian timbers, Tasmanian oak and Queensland walnut, are being specially studied. Tasmanian oak, which is -becoming popular for flooring in the United Kingdom (the new Lloyd’s building in the City of London has a Tasmanian oak floor) has . an unfortunate habit of arriving in a state of “collapse.” Methods of seasoning which prevent'this complaint have been worked out by Australian scientists, and tlie re-conditioned timber is now being tested on arrival at the United Kingdom end by their Princes Risborough colleagues. A WOOD WITH A SMELL. Queensland walnut is a fine timber for furniture and decorative purposes — but it smells. The smell is described as a “leathery odour,’’ and frequently offends' the "nostrils of the timber trade. Scientists at Princes Risborough are trying to find a deodoriser '.o remove it. One of the leading cabinetmakers ’in the United Kingdom recently made a “modern” bedroom set to serve as a model for 400 others for a new hotel, and all the surfaces were veneered with Queensland walnut. He expressed the opinion that, if its unfortunate disability could be removed, it would prove very suitable for the modern style of decoration in offices, clubs and hotels. Insects and fungi which attack tim- ) ber are being thoroughly studied for they are responsible for heavy losses to the timber industry. A six-roomed brick house has been built at Princes Risborough entirely for the benefit of ' these creatures. The ground floor Is reserved for ‘‘dry-rot” fungi, and every care has been taken to provide ideal arrangements have even been made for conditions for their spread. Special the roof to leak and the floors to be flooded, for the wetter it is, broadly speaking, the more dry-rot flourishes. The top floor has a different tenant—the death-watch beetle, the bane of old historic buildings. Old beams have been specially installed for the beetle’s benefit, as it will not touch new wood. The powder post beetle (lyctus), however, is an even more harmful insect, and is a close relation of the wellknown furniture beetle. ; Generally it attacks timber in the yards and conceals its presence until the wood has been made up into furniture. Then tlie grub bores its way out, leaving behind a round tunnel and often causing heavy financial losses to furniture firms. Tennis racquets are popular haunts of the beetle. Sports firms often have to destroy thousands of frames when they are all but completed. Ash (from which racquets are generally made) is one of the powder post beetle’s favourite foods. The beetle will only attack hardwoods. The mother beetle uses the pores of the wood as a nest, and she will only deposit her egg in pores large enough to hold her egg securely. For this reason coniferous woods, such as pines and firs, which have no pores, are free from attack. Oak, ash, walnut and chestnut have pores of just the right size, and these timbers arc, consequently, the worst sufferers. The jaws of this beetle must be of phenomenal strength. The writer was shown a walking stick with a silver band through which the lyctus had bored a neat round hole. I

But have found a way to baffle the beetle, and, if their methods were widely adopted, lyctus could be driven out of the timber yards. Seasoning in kilns instead of in air will destroy it in all its. stages. This is another important argument in favour of kiln-seasoning, which accomplishes in a few weeks what took months, or even years, under old methods. * The lightest timber in the world, balsa, is much in demand for various specialised uses. In the cinema industry, for instance, it is invaluable for “breakaways’—that is, for Hollywood houses and other structures which have to be

erected and then demolished at a moment’s notice. A study of the structure under the microscope lias suggested that a Rhodesian wood called m’gongo might be a possible substitute. Wood preservation experts are .experimenting with various kinds of preservative to lengthen the life of timber. They have built an imitation coal mine above ground. The object is to imitate the conditions of a damp and humid mine. You have to walk through the little air-tight building on duck-boards —the floor is flooded—and the heat is excessive. Pit-props have been treated with zinc ealt<s, and scientists believe that the props will resist the attack of fungi, even in badly ventilated mince.