TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY

As reported in The California Lumber Merchant Octob er 1,1928

J. M. White is president of the California White and Sugar Pine Association which held its annual meeting at Klamath Falls, Oregon, September 2I and 22. H. D. Mortesen, Pelican Bay Lumber Company, was entertainment chairman.

Announcement is made of the formation of the new Douglas Fir Plywood Institute, with offices in Tacoma, Washington. There are nine member firms. Phil Garland, Tacoma Veneer Company, Tacoma, is the first president. The tremendous growth of the Fir plywood business makes the new organization essential. Wm. A. Rawn, Tacoma, is secretary.

The Southern Redwood Company has just f,een organized at Bogalusa, Louisiana, and has taken over all the properties of the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company, in the Redwood districts of California. It is contemplated that later on Redwood logs will be shipped from California to Bogalusa, where they will be manufactured into lumber products in the Great Southern Lumber Company mill.

R. F. Hammatt, secretary-manager of the California Redwood Association, announces that a new bureau of inspection and grades has just been established in the Association.

W. B. Dean, general manager of the Diamond Match Company, at Chico, California, announces that his concern has just purchased seven retail lumber yards from the Tilden Lumber & Mill Company, of Oakland, and will continue their operation. These yards are located at Sacramento, Stockton, Galt, Oakdale, Concord, Martinez, and Suisun. This gives Diamond Match a total of 47 yards in California.

J. C. Ellis has been elected president of the Peninsula Hoo-Hoo Club, at a meeting held in San Jose on August 27.

C. B. Daveney has been elected president of the Tom A. McCann Hoo-Hoo Club. at McCloud. California.

The Diamond Match Company acted as host to a large gathering of lumbermen and Hoo-Hoo at Chico, California, September 8. B. W. Dean acted as host.

New Gloves Pronounced Success Agoinst Sliver Accidents

Splinter accidents-troublesome wood-slivers driven into men's hand5-havg long been considered a "lumberman's burden."

The men and management of Weyerhaeuser Timber Company's Everett lumber division realized the number of splinter cases sustained by mill personnel was a mutual problem-and a challenge. Working together, they have come up with a highly successful solution to these minor, but painful, accidents, which so frequently result in lost time through soreness or infection.

"The solution," says Keene Strobel, plant safety engineer, "had to lie in a glove that would afford adequate hand protection."

Forty to fifty men a month were showing up at the plant's first-aid room for treatment. One man had three fingers rmpaled at once by a dagger-sharp bit of wood which slipped through the seam of his heavy gloves. The men tried a wide variety of gloves, but after a few weeks of arduous lumber handling, even the toughest of these opened seams, providing a gaping entrance for splinters.

Strobel talked to green-chain pullers, planing mill off-bearers, unstackermen and other employees who handle lumber constantly cluring their day's work. Combing the catalogues of a dozen manufacturers, he selected 50 pairs of sample gloves made of plastic, cloth, leather and even metal threads, to try out in the mill. The trouble was finally tracked down to the thumb seams, which usually opened first under the strain.

At this point, industrial ingenuity went to work. A glove with a seamless palm and thumb component was specially designed and manufacturers were contacted to see if they could supply it in quantity.

The first shipment of the new gloves arrived in Everett only a few months ago. Anxiously, Strobel distributed them among employees for testing.

Seven days went by. Two weeks. Three, then four. Like the other gloves offerecl for sale locally, the 'X" model had a leather face, wrist guard and thumb and a canvas back. Sold for seventy-five cents, they were cl.reap insurance against the insistent jabbing of tiny wooden bayonets. After 50 days, the new gloves were pronounced a success. Seven hundred pairs \\'ere snapped up by employees in a {ew weeks as the word got around.

There are still features to be incorporated-the gloves neetl a wider leather face to protect the edge of the wearer's palm on the little finger side, but that is being solved with a minor design modification.

"The important thing," says Strobel, "is that the men themselves helped design and test this glove. The lumber handler can buy-at cost-a glove that he himself helped perfect."

Jim Fair, u.ell kno'ivn in the rvoodworking Iraternity of Southern California, has been appointed to the sales staff of Hallinan Mackin Lunrlter Ctimpany of Los Angeles, and rr.ill cover cabinet shops and allied woodworking otganiza' tions in this territorY.