Among the more prominent States in the manufacture of such equipment are Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York.
Table 55 Playground Equipment (Annual lumber consumption, 9 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent Beech - 34 Oak 28 Yellow Pine 16 Maple 9 Elm 4 Ash 2 Birch 2 Spruce 1 Hickory 1 Yellow Poplar 1 Other Woods 2 Total 100 42. Insulator Pins and Brackets.Practically the only woods used in the manufacture of insulator pins and brackets are black locust and white or chestnut oak. Because of its exceedingly great strength and durability, black locust has always been the favorite wood for this purpose; but the demand for pins and brackets has become so great that much oak also is now used, the pins and brackets of this wood being given a treatment with a preservative to prevent decay. On high-power lines with large porcelain insulators, hickory pins are used to some extent.
Nearly all of the insulator pins and brackets are manufactured in North Carolina and Virginia, where suitable raw material is most abundant.
Table 56 Insulator Pins and Brackets (Annual wood consumption, 9 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent Locust 53 Oak 47Total 100 43. Butcher Blocks and Skewers.Butcher blocks are chiefly made from maple, red gum, and sycamore; while skewers are made most largely from hickory, beech, and birch. Strength and toughness are essential qualities in skewers, since they must be of small size; while a dense fiber that resists chopping and does not splinter up is required for meat blocks. In the earlier days, these blocks were chiefly made from solid sections of sycamore, but the practice at present is to build them up from ordinary sizes of lumber.
Table 57 Butcher Blocks and Skewers (Annual wood consumption, 8 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent Maple 26 Red Gum 22 Sycamore 20 Hickory 16 Beech 11 Birch 3 White Pine 2 Total 100 44. Clocks.The clock-making industry in the United States requires annually the equivalent of about 8 million feet of lumber, used chiefly for cases. Large clocks of the "grandfather" type are now much in fashion; and in the making of such cases, some of the finer woods and the highest class of work are employed. Oak is much used for clock frames; birch, for turnery; and walnut, mahogany, and cherry, for decorative effects in the higher-priced articles. Clock bottoms are made of pine; while the shipping cases are frequently made from yellow pine, which accounts for much of this wood shown in Table 58. Red oak is much used in the
manufacture of cases for wall clocks; and basswood and yellow poplar, for backs and also for cases which are to be enameled. Red gum is used to a considerable extent for cases in which a circassian walnut effect is desired.
About 60 per cent of the wood used in clock manufacture is consumed in Connecticut, and nearly all the rest in New York, these two States being the only ones in which clock-making is an extensive industry.
Table 58 Clocks (Annual lumber consumption, 8 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent Oak 33 Basswood 18 Yellow Poplar 14 Yellow Pine 12 White Pine 6 Tupelo 4 Cherry 4 Chestnut 4 Mahogany 3 'Other Woods 2 Total 100 45. Signs and Supplies.Under this heading are included the manufacture of professional display boards, stretcher strips for oil paintings, window display racks, and similar articles. White pine, hemlock, and Western yellow pine are much used for these purposes because of their light weight and color, ease of working, and capacity to take paints and oils, the latter being specially required for many kinds of signs. The hardwoods grouped in this classification are chiefly used for display racks and hangers.
Many of the large bill posting boards are not special factory products, but are simply made by nailing up tongued-and-grooved flooring on supports.
Table 59 Signs and Supplies (Annual lumber consumption, 7 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent White Pine 47 Hemlock 15 Western Yellow Pine 15 Yellow Pine 6 Red Gum 3 Elm 3 Redwood 2 Maple 1 Yellow Poplar 1 Basswood 1 Cottonwood 1 Buckeye 1 Other Woods 4 Total 100 46. Printing Materials.The equivalent of more than 5 million board feet of lumber is annually used in the manufacture of printing materials, of which cherry supplies nearly twofifths. This classification includes engraving blocks, electrotype blocks, engraving boards, and printing press attachments. Engraving and electrotype blocks and bases are generally made of cherry, basswood, oak, birch, maple, or beech, and sometimes of mahogany. Engravers' boards are generally made of basswood; and the long wooden fingers on cylinder presses, from chestnut. For large wood type which must stand up under heavy service, the hardest of hard maple is used.