-, LU -LOSE H STAYr'PAK Cilfrl-'PREG i TOT = r

)ou know?

Oar industry's quest for new products is creating

I a lumber language of tecbnical terms. Tbey're

Forest products research is contributing its mite to the growth of the English lan' guage as well as to science and technology'

Among the 45,000 or so o'entries" in the much-discussed Webster's Third New International Dictionary are terms coined at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, for wood components, products and processes. That the editors combed publications of the national laboratory maintained by the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, is obvious from the definitions.

Ever wonder what impreg is? According to Webster, it is o'wood impregnated with a resin so that face checking is reduced and compressional strength and hardness, electrical resistance, and resistance to mois' ture, acid, and decay are increased."

This may not be quite so technically rigid as the FPL scientists would prefer; but it does, they agree, give a pretty good summary of the product and its properties.

The same holds for comPreg, a com' pressed and densified form of impreg; and papreg, which consists of paper sheets treated with resin and bonded together to make a plastic laminate.

Staypak, another of the so-called "modifred wood" products developed at FPL, is also a newcomer to W'ebster's, where it is defined as "wood densified by pressure and heat and stabilized by its lignin content with no added resin."

Dr. Alfred J. Stamm, veteran FPL phys'

ical chemist who pioneered in research on wood structure and properties and methods of curbing shrinkage and swelling, was the developer of impreg, compreg, and staypak-and coiner of the terms. All are now in common commercial use as die models for automobile body parts, dies and molds for metalworking, electrical control equipment, radio and radar structures, picker sticks for textile mills, door handles, and numerous other applications.

"Hollocellulose," a term inv6nted by another FPL chemist, Dr. George Ritter, has been incorporated in Webster's Third, which defines it as:

"The total polysaccharide fraction of wood or straw and the like that is made up of cellulose and all of the hemicelluloses and that is obtained by removing the extractives and the ligning from the original natural material."

Dr. Ritter intended it as a collective term, and the definition carries out his intention.

Then there is 'osemichemicalo" a term for a pulping process developed at FPL and now in wide use throughout the world. TheThird defines it as o'cooked verylightly by any of the chemical processes to give increased yield but less pure fiber."

The greatest application of semichemical pulping has been for hardwoods. Until the process was developed, only softwoods were considered suitable for chemical pulping and hardwoods were very little used except as filler pulps in book paper.

'oMoisture meter" gains a place in the Third as "a device for determining the percentage of moisture in material( as timber....)." D.. Stamm originated the concept and M. E. Dunlap of FPL developed it for use on lumber.

Some words have undereone revisions in definition as to their foreJt products application. For instance, the Second (1934) edition defined "catface" as o'a blemish in wood caused by a partly healed scar and appearing on implements as 4 rough small depression."

In the Third, catface has become ooa partially healed scar on a tree or log." FPL researches adopted this meaning to describe catfaces on logs as guides in log grading, and W'ebster picked it up.

Other terms making their bow in the Third include "compression {ailure," o'compression woodr" "tension wood," ttdelamination" (of plywood), and "interlocked grain."

"Dimension" gets recognition for the first time in its application to dimension lumber (2 to 5 inches thick) and furniture dimension stock, which is hardwood material cut to special sizes for manufacturerst requirements.

All in all, the FPL scientists are satisfied with the recognition accorded their contributions to the Ianguage. And they're busy now cranking out new ones for the Fourth editio-

THE NEW LOOK IN EXTERIOR DOUGTAS F'R S'D'NGI