Items of Interest April 8, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

More than twenty thousand tons of woodflour, valued at $300,000, are used annually in the United States in two widely different industries,—the manufacture of dynamite and the manufacture of inlaid linoleum. Wood-flour is also used in making composition flooring, oatmeal paper, and in several other industries. It forms one of the means by which the huge waste product of our lumber mills is beginning to find some better means of disposal than the burner. A total of 36,000,000 cords of such waste is produced each year at sawmills in the United States, of which about one half goes into the furnaces as fuel, while the rest is burned as refuse. All industries that use wood-flour require a white or very light creamcolored flour having good absorptive powers.

In the manufacture of linoleum, either wood or cork flour is used. The flour is mixed with a cementing material, spread out on burlap, and rolled or pressed to a uniform thickness. The cement is the expensive constituent. Cork linoleum is the cheaper, because less cement is necessary. For inlaid or straight-line linoleum, wood-flour is used exclusively. Cork linoleum is always dark, and slightly more elastic than that produced from wood-flour. The wearing qualities are about the same.

The administration bill providing for the creation of a tariff commission has been introduced into the House of Representatives. In many respects the administration measure conforms to practical suggestions offered the committee on ways and means by the various business organizations. The Chamber of Commerce of the United States advocated a limited number of commissioners, preferably not more than five, and the National Tariff Commission League, with headquarters in Chicago, suggested six. The bill provides for six, of whom not more than three shall be members of one party. The chamber advocated official terms of not less than six years, and the bill makes the longest original term twelve years, successors being appointed for full twelve-year terms. The object of this long tenure is to insure that commissioners shall be removed as far as possible from temporary partizan influences.

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