The Uses of Lumber

Maine uses nearly one-third of all the material consumed in the United States for shuttles, spools, and bobbins; New Hampshire, about oneeighth; while Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York produce the articles in lesser quantities. Tennessee is perhaps the most important State in supplying the dogwood and persimmon used in the Northern factories for the manufacture of shuttles.

25. Tobacco Boxes.

The standard material for cigar boxes is Spanish cedar. The highestgrade boxes are made entirely of this wood, while the cheaper boxes often have a veneer of Spanish cedar laid over a backing of tupelo, yellow poplar, red gum, or some cheaper wood. These latter woods are sometimes stained to imitate Spanish cedar without the application of the more costly veneer. In addition to the woods shown in Table 39, smaller quantities of oak, cedar, sycamore, white pine, mahogany, magnolia, redwood, African cedar, maple, cottonwood, circassian walnut, and rosewood are also used.

Containers for plug, smoking, and chewing tobacco are largely made from sycamore and red gum, usually in the form of three-ply veneer.

Table 80 Tobacco Boxes (Annual lumber consumption, 63 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent Spanish Cedar 47 Tupelo 16 Yellow Poplar 12 Red Gum 11 Basswood 7 Elm 3 Cypress 2 Other Woods 2 Total 100 Among the more prominent States in the manufacture of cigar and tobacco boxes, are Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Alabama.

26. Sewing Machines.

The manufacture of sewing machines annually requires about 60 million feet of lumber, of which oak and red gum each supply nearly one-third, and yellow poplar and black walnut each a little more than one-eighth, the balance being made up of tupelo, chestnut, cottonwood, maple, basswood, birch, sycamore, mahogany, yellow pine, and redwood.

Tops of sewing machines are usually made of hardwood veneer such as oak or walnut, or of other woods stained to imitate mahogany. In addition to its use for veneered tops, red gum is used in sewing machine parts and for veneer backing, as is also tupelo. The sewing machine industry is rather local, and centered most largely in Indiana and Illinois.

Table 40 Sewing Machines (Annual lumber consumption, 60 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent Oak 32 Red Gum 32 Yellow Poplar 13 Black Walnut 13 Tupelo 7 Chestnut 1 Other Woods 2 Total 100 27. Pumps and Wood Pipe.While many

more pumps and parts of pumps are made of other materials than was once the case, the pump-making industry consumes a considerable quantity of wood in the form of piping, tubing, rods, handles, platforms, buckets, cylinders, etc.

Table 41 Pumps and Wood Pipe (Annual lumber consumption, 56 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent Douglas Fir 38 White Pine 22 Redwood 16 Red Gum 6 Cypress 4 Yellow Poplar 3 Maple 3 Ash 2 Hickory 2 Oak 1 Tupelo 1 Larch 1 Other Woods 1 Total 100 White pine is largely used for piping, tubing, siding, curbing, and , covering. Well buckets are made of maple, ash, beech, and oak; pump handles and rods, of oak, ash, and beech; water pipes, of yellow poplar, maple, and white pine; and platforms, of cypress. Shortleaf pine and cypress are used for boxes for chain and bucket pumps; tupelo, for pump stocks; and short and longleaf pine, for pump poles. In the West, Douglas fir and redwood are largely used for pumps, and more especially for wood pipe, where some exceptionally large pipes of this character carry city water supplies.

28. Automobiles.

Statistics of the consumption of wood in automobile manufacture are by no means complete, since, in many cases, the reports do not distinguish between the manufacture of automobiles and that of other vehicles. Such figures as are available, however, indicate the percentage of various woods used as shown in Table 42.

Automobile manufacturers generally demand high grades of lumber. Ash, oak, longleaf pine, and birch are employed for frames; hickory, for wheels; elm, for the interior of bodies; yellow poplar, black and circassian walnut, birch, and red gum, for the finish of tops and bodies. The wood finisher employs his highest art in giving a fine appearance to automobiles, and he must have good materials with which to work.

Table 42 Automobiles (Annual lumber consumption, 37 million board feet) Woods Used Per Cent Ash 22 Hickory 19 Yellow Poplar 19 Birch 11 Maple 11 Elm 8 Oak 2 Other Woods 8 Total 100 29. Pulleys and Conveyors.The manufacture of pulleys and conveyors requires about 36 million feet of wood annually, of which red gum supplies more than one-half, and oak one-fifth, the balance being made up of some twenty species, of which maple, birch, beech, tupelo, and basswood are the most important.