C. J. tffilliams Says DrV Kilns Doing \(/ondrous Work in Aircraft

We had a visit the other day with Chas. J. Williams, president of the Moore Dry Kiln Company. Mr. Williams spent the summer in Portland, Oregon, as is his custom, and is now back in Jacksonville, Florida, where he will spend the winter. Jacksonville is his home, and also the headquarters of his company. The Moore Dry Kiln Company is a modern colossus in its chosen line, dominating the lumber kiln drying business like foe Louis does heavyweight pugilist circles. Its field is the entire world of lumber production, and its success is based on its program of continual improvement and advancement in the practical yet scientific business of seasoning lumber.

Mr. Williams had many interesting things to tell about what dry kilns are doing in the war efrort, so we jotted some of them down, thinking they would interest our lumber readers, and here they are, just a lot of hit and miss items that deserve more than passing attention.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, the Sitka Spruce Company is operating 12 Moore Cross Circulation kilns, each 112 feet long. These kilns operate 24 hours every day, seven days.in every week, kiln drying Spruce for aircraft manufacture.

In Portland, Oregon, Lumber Manufacturers, Inc., are engaged in manufacturing aircraft lumber exclusively, and are doing a wonderful job of kiln drying Spruce for that purpose. They find that they can perfectly seasqn loads"of aircraft Spruce 40 feet in length, 4 inches thick, and 8 to 12 inches wide, and bring it up to Government Aerona$ical Specifications, showing what wonders have -been done in the art of kiln drying. This concern uses 5 Moore Cross Circulation kilns for this purpose.

Every mill in'Oregon and Washington that can get the' quality of logs to produce aircraft lumber, either in Spruce, Douglas Fir, Noble Fir, or Western Hemloch are giving their very best attention to this field, and producing a maximum amount of stock.

One of the interesting recent installations of recent months made by the Moore Dry Kiln Company was a battery of four kilns shipped to manufacturers of Balsa wood in Ecuador, South America. Practically all of this wood is being brought to the United States and Canada to be used in fighting planes, and particularly in the light-weight Mosquito bombers we have read so much about. Balsa has become one of the desired and premium woods of the present war, and the aircraft makers of North America could use a great deal more than the maximum amount now be-