Wood Conversion Company Announce ImproYements in Manufacture of Balsam Wool

"Puncture-proof insulating-blanket" may become the unique nicknlme for Balsam-Wool as a result of radical irnpiovements in the material which are announced-by the manufacturer, the Wood Conversion Company, of Cloquet, Minn., to go into effect July 1. The heavy kraft liners.on both sideJ of the wood-fibre "wool" or mat, with u/hich lumber retailers and builders throughout the country are familiar, is to be replaced by a heavy crepe paPer which, besides being tougher, stronger and more flexible than the old liner, trai Z5 per cent stretch and therefore makes the blanket virtually puncture-proof.

Use of this liirei for the insulating blanket is no untried innovation. For several years' a double thickness of it has been applied to each side-of the mat in the sqecial grade of Balsam-Wool used for the insulation of refrigerator and Dassenger cars. The material has been adopted by many iailroads and equipment builders because it withstands all the weaving, diitortion and racking to which rolling stock is subject ind at the same time retains its- insula-ting.effiatlng effiMadison, ciency. Tests by theBurgess Laboratories at Wis., showed that it would meet these requirements over ciency. the Bur 60,000 miles of travel t'/ith the rails a quarter-inch out of alignment.

Recently a new machine was developed which does the crepe-ing as part of the regular process. of manufacture. This olices the better and more expensive type of liner This places within reach of the general building market. The new equipment was patented several months ago and is being installed now. Production of the improved material will be on a volume-basis by July 1 and shipments of it will begin on that date.

Accidents that occur during the handling and application of the insulation, as when children play in an unfinished house, are far less likely to damage it than wlhen the old type of liner was used. Since the improved material can siietch 25 per-cent of its length and width, it is practically puncture-Proot.

' Other iinprovements that will make it easier and quicker for the carpenter to apply also are being introduced. Both the 17-inch and the 25-inch widths are increased one-quarter inch in width so as to give a little more leeway in tucking the insulator in between studding, joists or rafters. All 17inch and 2l-inch.material is ruled to indicate the flange by which it should be attached to the framing and is creased or scored to facilitate flanging.

All material is lined down the center with marks indicating foot-measure, so that it will be unnecessaty to measure ofi with a rule the strips required to fill a given space. The logotype,'fBalSam-Wool-It Tucks In," and the Weyerhaeuier'tiade mark are printed on the face of the material every six feet to provide positive identification and increaied display value on the job. At the same time, the "wool" or mat has been made firmer without sacrifice of its insulating efficiency and the bond between it and the liners has been increased.

This new type of Balsam-Wool will go to the lumber merchant and onto the building lot in an improved package. Each roll will be wrapped in heavy kraft paper as,heretofore, but a convenient opening device has been added, and a specification-sheet is inseqted in each roll, and an attrac-tivi label-has been devised to increase the display-value of the material as it appears in the lumber warehouse or display room.

Besides these improvements in its older and more extensively .used product, and the recent engagement as sales maniger of H. E. Peterson, former vice-president of the Beavel Products Companv, Wood Conversion Company announces large expansion of its Cloquet plant. A 36Gfoot extension to iti waiehouse is being built. Ofifice space is being doubled and the laboratory spaie is being increased. The capacity of the charger house, which serves both the Batsam-Wbot machines ind the machines that make Nu-Wood, the rigid structural insulation, is being doubled' And within thJnext few months the drier for the latter product will be increased in size, so that its Z4-hour capacity will be increased from 70,0@ to 125,000 feet.

Architectuml Exhibit to be Held at Los An$eles

Architectural exhibitions of noteworthy interest scheduled for the last two weeks in Jtrne and the firsttwo in July are those of Mr. John C. Austins, New York Art A1ii"tt". and the Nationil House Beautiful Competition. Mr. Austins' exhibit will be the seventh of the series of "one man" exhibits, held in the exhibition rooms of the Archi tects' Building, Los Angeles, under the new policy of-elhibiting recettlly started by the architects of Southern Cali' fornia "in ordei to stimdlate a statewide continuity of thoueht toward better architecture.

Mi. Jotrn C. Austin, the prominent commercial architect, has plinned to display several sketches of proposed work never exhibited before.

One of the features of their exhibit, the New York Art Alliance, will display some drawings recently exhibited in

New York of the Monel Metal Sink Competition.

Then the National House Beautiful Competition traveling exhibit for 792!. has created considerable acclaim due to the fact that two first prizes and five honor awards were won by Southern California architects: First ptize, 5 to,7room house, H. Roy Kelley, architect; first prize, 8 to l? room house, Gordon Kaufmann, architect; first in highly com,mended list, A. C. Zimmerman; honor awards, Loyal F. Watson and David J. Witmer, Albert J. Schroeder, Donald D. MacMurray.

'This is the Second Annual Small House Competition held by the House Beautiful Magazine. The traveling exhibition started from Boston Jan., l9D, and, has visited nine cities en route to Los Angeles and the exhibition rooms of the Architects' Building.