USES OF WASTE LUMBER

Shannon News, 7 May 1926, Page 4

USES OF WASTE LUMBER

New uses found for shorts and scraps —the ordinary waste from lumber—promise to save thousands of dollars in the lumber industry (according to ‘Popular Science Monthly’). Recent experiments in Cloquet (Minn, a little town of forest-fire fame, have found value even in branches and tops of trees—everything down to 3in in thickness. Mills now burning lumber waste under their boilers, it is pre* dieted, soon will look for less valuable - fuel. Three new ways have been found to utulise waste, formerly considered not worth hauling away from the forests These ‘are the manufacture of a new kind of paper, balsam 'wool, and artificial boards. , The triumph in paper making was .the discovery that poplar and jack pine, thought unsuitable for this purpose, could be used for making bond and other grades of paper. Both kinds of trees have a natural reproduction and a simple forestry scheme, it is claimed, will ensure a perpetual supply of raw material for paper mills. The left-overs from the paper mills in Cloquet are used to make balsam wool, a new fire-resistant insulating material. It can be applied to houses ice-boxes, fireless cookers, refrigerator cars, and many other purposes. When wood fibre is passed through the screen of a paper mill a certain knotty substance, known as ‘rough screenings,’ ’will not go through. This mass of fibre, when used in the manu-. facture of balsam wool, is put through a sulphite process, fireproofed and ground. It is treated to give it adhesion, and finally is bought out in the form of a sheet of light insulating board. .