This is how lumber got its name

Modern lumbermen probably would not associate the name "lumber" with Julius Cesar, the Roman historian Tacitus and a Teutonic race of savages with long flaxen hair and beards, but that's where the word originated.

The interesting story was researched some years ago by the late Maurice W. Moe, who was a teacher in Milwaukee and was revising a collegiate dictionary.

According to Tacitus, Moe found, Cesar encountered in the forests of Germania a long haired, bearded tribe, which he dubbed ool,angobardi," referring to the lush chin whiskers they sported.

Five hundred years later, the Teutonic tribe stuck with this name settled in the Po valley in Italy. Inevitably their neighbors softened oolangobardi" to Lombardi, and called the district "Lombardv".

The transplanted race, thrifty and prudent, began to dominate commerce and finance. As Maurice Moe reported: "Numbers of them emigrated to England in the l6th century, and in time the term, 'Lombard' became synonymous with banker, or moneylender, anil Lombard Street became the Wall Street of Elizabethan London."

In the middle ages, the principal peisonal possession that could be pawned was bulky household furniture. Every moneyJender needed a store room to house these pledges. The room became known as his "Lombard room", and eventually was applied to any. one's attic or storeroom filled with household storage or cast.offs.

Eventually the term was softened to "lumber" and designated almost any kind of refuse. The word emigrated to America with the English colonists. The early Ameri- can colonies had no surplus of furniture or household goods, but they did have plenty of refuse lying around. The thing so overabundant and lying around everywhere was trees.

"What more natural than tlat these should inherit the Old World term for use. less. discarded stufi? asked Moe. "The short step from useless to useful "lumber" is sim. ple and obvious.

So, the word ancestors of lumber lived in a wild Gerrnan forest, grew bushy beards, ran irrto Casar, migrated to ltaly, to England, and finally to the American colonies.

Abqndoned Yord Burns

An abandoned lumber yard, formerly the Frank Curran Lumber Co. in Huntington Beach, Calif., suffered $10,000 worth of fire damage recently. Flames destroyed three storage buildings and were visible over five miles away.

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l1/z Dry Stondqrd Proposed by Feds

Commerce Secretary Alexander Trowbridge has proposed a new lumber standard setting the nominal two by four at I 9 116" x 35/a" green and I\b" x 3 9llf'dry. Green is defined as having more than 19 percent moisture content, dry as having less.

The federal government department also recommended development of stress, or working strength, values in lumber grading rules.

Comments will be accepted on the proposed new standard until January 31. Informal public hearings begin February 19.

The present standard, SPR 16-53, remains in effect until sometirrie after they review and analyze the February hearings.

The terms of the members and alternates on the American Lumber Standards Committee were extended until June 20. 1968 by the Commerce Secretary.

Two Big Hqrdwqre Shows In Feb.

Two big West Coast hardware shows will be held in February. The l9th annual Western States Hardware-Housewares-Paint and Garden Supply Show, sponsored by the California Retail Hardware Association, is set for February 25-27. The 46th annual West Coast Hardware/Housewares Exhibit, put on rby the Pacific Southwest Hardware Association, is scheduled for February 9-Il.

The CRHA show will be held at Brooks Hall, Civic Center, San Francisco, Calif. The PSHA shindig takes place at Anaheim Convention Center, near Disneyland, Anaheim, Calif., according to Otto H. Grigg, managing director, PSHA.

K. B. Jacobson, show manager, CRHA, says the growth of his show is impressive. Exhibitor interest in the show is running well ahead of 1967.

The Anaheim Convention Center has 125,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space. The association plans to use the Disneyland Hotel as headquarters hotel.

Mountqin Deqler's 75th Annuql

The Mountain States Lum,ber Dealers Assoc. will take "A Look Into Your Future'o at their 1968 convention. Members will meet at the Denver Hilton Hotel, Denver, Colo., January 25-27.

The 75th annual convention will lead off with a Thursday evening cocktail party for exhibitors and a preview of ,exhibits for home builders, AG.C. contractors, mortgage bankers, architects and real estate people.

After registration on Friday, the ,breakfast meeting will feature a speech from William Archibald, Edward Hines Lumber Co., Skokie, Ill. Exhibits are open until the second business session, where Herbert Richheimer will speak on ooMy Remodeling Operation in the Brand Name Winning Lumber Yard of the Year." Then there will be a cocktail party and Hoo Hoo Club Concat.

New G-P Socromenfo Cenfer

A new building products distribution center, a major expansion by Georgia-Pacific Corp. in the Sacramento, Calif., area, has been completed with 60,000 sq. ft. of warehouse, office and covered yard storage space, reports vice president Harold E. Sand.

The new QL/r.acre complex is nearly three times as large as the former one. It is a major concentration yard supplying building materials to brokers, wholesalers and retailers in northern California and western Nevada.

A full inventory of virtually every major wood and gypsum building material now becomes easily available, according to J. Max Thomas, Sacramento manager,

This includes factory finished hardwood panelings, plastic overlaid plywoods, g'ypsum and hardboard paneling, moldings, lumber sidings and panelings, gypsum Firestop and sound deadening board, and related building products.

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