ARTIFICIAL TIMBER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 251, 14 June 1932, Page 6

ARTIFICIAL TIMBER

USE OF WASTE PRODUCTS TO REPLACE NATURAL

WOOD. WORLD'S DIMINISHING FORESTS. With the world's supply of timber diminishing from year to year, various industries gradually are turning to imitation lumber, which for many uses is as good as or better than natural wooden boards. Although the time probably never will come when trees will have disappeared entirely from the earth (vast programmes of reforestation in many lands will provide against that), wood certainly will be scarcer and more expensive in the future than it is now. The fabrication of artificial board has developed into an extensve industry in the United States as well as abroad. A number of companies are producing board, under various patented processes, that has been found very serviceable as wall covering, partition material, toy and furniture material, and wall insulation. Some of this artificial board is almost as strong .as natural board. It will take screw threads and nails, and it saws evenly and without splitting. Unlike natural board, it does not absorb moisture, and therefore usually free from warping, being more dependable in certain kinds of work than the ordinary woods. Artificial board also always is uniform in width and thickness, and never requires planing. Varieties of Board. Artificial board has been produced from" a wide variety of materials, such as sawdust, cork particles, paper pulp, asbestos and gypsum. Each type of board is recommended by its manufacturers for certain qualities that other types are supposed not to possess. As virtually every kind of board is made under patents, the processes of making are secrets with the producers. In most cases, however,

— where the boards are made of tiny bits of material, a binder of some sort is employed, and pressure is usually a vital part of the proeess. A German chemist, by the name of A. Hawerlander, and II. H. Zimmermann, a New York man, developed a proeess for making board out of such waste materials as cornstalks, sugar cane "bagasse," sawdust, and shavings, writes the Ilerald-Tribune of New York. They claimed they could produce a strong, serviceable board which would take screws and nails firmly, and that they could turn out a finished board within 15 minutes after starting its manufacture. They i used a secret material for a binder and produced the board through the heavy pressure of a press. Gornstalks until recently were considered nothing more than waste material, fit only for bedding for cattle.. j It was only within the last three or j f our years that experimenters began \ making paper from cornstalks, and . eVen to-day the manufacture of paper i from that waste material is carried j on only on a very small scale. J * ..sia