Long-Bell Developing Ne* Wood Products Through Research

The construction of a pilot plant for use of low grade wood by-products in the manufacture of more refined wood items has been announced by The Long-Bell Lumber Co.

The hokus-pokus of converting wood. by-products from the Longview, 'Washington, milling operation has reached the stage of commercial exploration and a pilot plant, equipped with all the necessary equipment will soon be constructed on the millsite. The machinery is scheduled for delivery in early 1948.

The findings of the Long-Bell research department have reached the stage of commercial production and the new plant is being constructed to carry on commercial scale experimentation.

The Long-Bell research department is not new to the company. Back in 1927, the research department was established wii:h several outstanding contributions made to the industry by Long-Bell personnel. Long-Bell research has previously followed the trend of product and manufacturing improvement rather than the test tube type of exploration

From the research of Long-Bell employees have come such adaptions as the Cone Vent, perfected by H. M. Cone, steam engineer, for use in dry kilns as a device for steam economy. The Huffman Hog, developed by the late C. A. Huffman, is used for cutting slab and other trimmings into materials for fuel.

Martin Air Dogs, used throughout the industry to hold logs on the saw carriage, was the development of Fred Martin at the Weed, California operation. Also coming from the Weed operation is the edge gluer which is used to glue up short lengths of stock into panels developed by Wayne Bassett and the late C. E. Williams. Paul Peterson, chief engineer of the Weed operation, has contributed many improvements including a flipper for loading large valuable logs onto the saw carriage without injury.

T. E. Heppenstall, assistant to Vice President and Manager J. D. Tennant, developed the Heppenstall moisture meter which is an electrical device for the determination of moisture content in wood. He also developed a similar meter for the moisture measurement in grains which is now used extensively by the government

A laboratcry was established several months ago to carry on various experiments in new uses of by-products.

The purpose of the experimentation has been to develop a higher return for the low grade materials. Facts have been gathered and te'chnical data have been compiled to form a basis for the experimentation.

Long-Bell

Some Long-Bell research has been placed in the hands of large commercial laboratories for various tests.

Development of present Long-Bell products has been carried on for several years in the development department. This is a phase of research which is aimed at the improvement of present products. In this department products have been revamped to improve quality, and many new items have been developed. The Long-Bell furniture line was built and rebuilt several times before being placed on the market.

The development department designs the furniture for quantity production, and uses the small lengths of lumber reclaimed from the lower grades. These practices have been brought about by research and development.

Long-Bell research is a cooperative effort of all LongBell t6chnicians with Heppenstall acting in the role of coordinator. Arthur L. Mottet is the research engineer, who works on present product development and the developing of new products.

Basically the Long-Bell research department is seeking to develop new products that will bring greater value from

(Continued on Page 22)