Items of Interest July 1, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

There are more than forty-eight thousand sawmills in the United States, and their output of waste in the form of sawdust, shavings, slabs, and other wood refuse is estimated as thirty-six million cords per year. This is equal to over four and a half billion cubic feet of waste, which is the capacity of a bin half a mile high, with a base covering a forty-acre lot. Perhaps one half of this so-called waste product is not strictly speaking wasted, but serves a useful purpose as fuel under the boilers. Much of the remaining 18,000,000 cords not only serves no useful purpose, but in most cases is a source of inconvenience and danger. Sawmill waste is disposed of in various ways. Some goes to the local fuel market, some to pulp mills or to wood distillation plants. Shavings and log cuttings, as well as other mill waste, are sometimes used to fill low places in the yard. However, the most common method of getting rid of waste is by burning either in an open fire-pit or in a burner enclosed on all sides and having a spark-arresting screen at the top and a fire grate.

The municipal savings bank scheme initiated by the lord mayor of Birmingham, England, Alderman Neville Chamberlain, was recently discussed at a meeting of trade union leaders and officials. The lord mayor said he believed there was only one way of helping people to save, and that was by getting them to have the money deducted from their wages before it reached them. That, of course, involved bringing in the employer. Under the scheme, while the employer made the deductions, and gave the workman a coupon representing the amount of the deduction he made, he did not keep any books, and he had no idea what the workman was taking out. The employer would have no notion whatever of the transactions that would take place between the man and the bank, and he believed that so far as it was possible to overcome that objection it had been done by this scheme. With regard to facilities for withdrawal, the lord mayor said there was only one check upon the man getting his money out, and that was seven days' notice before withdrawal.

California is building a system of good roads on a grand scale. It started four or five years ago with a bond issue of $18,000,000, of which all but about two million dollars has now been expended. In connection with the state work the counties have spent between fifteen and sixteen million dollars. To continue the work, the last legislature voted a new bond issue of $15,000,000, and this goes before the people at the election in November. Public sentiment is strongly in favor of good roads. Roughly, the California plan is for two long roads extending the length of the state, one along the coast and the other through the valley, with cross connections between the principal cities. Already 1490 miles of road have been built, and 2280 miles have been surveyed. Concrete is used extensively.

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