Tour for "Dry Standards" Advuate

Perry Prentice, a vice president of Time, Inc., has spent a day in the field observing lumber distribution in actual practice rather than theory, courtesy of a group favoring lr/g-inch green lumber. Time, [nc. publishes Time, Lile and, House & Home magazines.

After Prentice's recent speech for o'Grade Standardization" in San Francisco at the Western Forest Industries Association convention (CLM-lune, p. B) an invitation was extended to him by some of the Los Angeles retail lumbermen.

Miles W. Davidson, Sun Lumber Co., and Ralph D. Hill of Owens-Parks Lumber Co., and Wayne Gardner, exec. vice president of the Lumber Association of Southern California met Prentice for a full briefing of what could be visited.

The tour started by looking at some new housing developments and discussing building practices-using "on site" methods as opposed to pre-fab orfactory built housing. They continued to Los Angeles harbor, where Prentice was shown various handling and storage facilities for water borne lumber shipments. This included observing the offloading of cargo lumber carried by the Cynthia Olson. They also saw Sun Lumber Company's retail yard in San Pedro, one of the largest retail outlets in southern California. After completing the Harbor tour, the group proceeded to Vernon to see the Owens-Parks Lumber Co., where the balance of the day was spent watching the various operations from resawing to breaking down lift lots of dimension, sheathing and other items necessary to make up basic units for the construction of a house and reassemble them into deliverable units.

Although the tour was 'owhirlwind" by some standards, it was an excellent opportunity to see lumber distribution in southern California operating. o'The practical examples clearly demonstrated why industry methods here have so successfully served the construction industry, and why American Lumber Standards Committee's proposed revisions to SPR 16-53 are wholly unworkable in this area," a spokesman for the group told the controversial Prentice.

Yqrd Moves After 52 Yeqrs

After 52 years of doing ,business at the same address, Eagle Rock Lumber has announced it is vacating the location to make way for a shopping center and supermarket.

President Emil F. Swanson of the pioneer Eagle Rock firm said the company has sold its land to Mayfair Markets. It plans a shopping center with parking for 300 cars.

At the same time, Swanson said he hopes to relocate the lumber company in Eagle Rock "because of its long history as an important business in the community."

o'W'hile we're liquidating our $175,000 inventory," Swanson said, o'we'll be negotiating to relocate the yard in the GlendaleEagle Rock area.

Swanson recalled th'at when the firm opened 52 years ago, Eagle Rock Boulevard was an unpaved street called Central Avenue. At that time, he adde4 75 percent of Eagle Rock was open land and Eagle Rock Lumber consisted of one man in the office, one man in the vard and a team of mules with a wason for deliveries.

"1.Q." Lumber Proposed

The lumber industry has made an initial move toward the marketing of lumber marked with a seal.

A C,ommittee of the National Wood Promotion Committee has recommended the designation ooIQ" as a tentative symbol, standing for 'Tnsured Qr"ltty," to be used on the products, stationery and other material of supporters of regional and national wood promotion programs.

The committeg headed by T. P. Gallagher, asked the NLMA stafi to perfect the tentative symbol and seal and develop detailed proposals for its control and use.

Gallagher's committee, meanwhile, will undertake to inform the lumber industry of the advantages of the seal and to gain acceptance of the idea as a means of id,entifying the sponsors of national and regional promotion efiorts.

Betfer Forest Products Seen

Foreseeing new and rbetter fores,t products, and the birth of a new research-based industry, plus developments at two international scientific conferences on wood are among highlights of the U. S. Forest Products laboratory annual report.

Growing worldwide needs for better scientific and technological knowledge of wood as an industrial raw material were focused upon by scientists of 33 nations at the conference. Frominent among the delegates were many from underdeveloped countries with rich but little-used timber resouroes, the report points out.

Among research findings highlighted in the report are advances in the pulping of wood and bleaching of pulps for pa.permaking; a method of prestressing laminated wood beams to increase their load-carrying capacity; new information about how weather effects wood and the coatings used on it; and the successful application of FPL information in the development of a plywood nose fairing for the Navy's Polaris missile.

The laboratory is maintained by the Forest Service in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin.

Most recent major industrial application of the laboratory's research was the launching of a new southern pine plywood industry. Before yearos end, one plant was in production and others were being built. FPI foreseeing the possibilities, worked with an industry eommittee on the solution of technical problems that had blocked earlier use of this widespread group of wood species for structural plywood.