Douglas Fir in 1941 and lndications for 19.42

By R. T. Titus Director Trcde Extension" West Cocst Lumbermen s Associtrtion" Setrttle, Wcrsh.

Defense demands on lumber in the latter part of. I94O were a warning shot across the bow compared to the broadside which hit the Douglas fir industry in 1941. Camp Lewis and Camp Ord were completed; dozens of other smaller camps were ready for or occupied by the new Army at the end of '4O. The job of supplying more than half a billion feet of dimension, boards, drop siding and flooring for these cantonments had put the woods and mills of the Douglas fir region "full steam ahead" by the beginning of 1941; prepared them for the impact of the all-out defense demand to come.

A giant new program for the building of tanks and planes and motorized big guns called for the expansion of existingindustrial plants and the erection of new plants for such production. And the first requirement of that job was lumber. No concrete could be poured without form lumber; no structural steel erected without lumber scaffolding.

New shipyards and new ways for old shipyards were rapidly brought into the picture, and again materialization had to depend upon the delivery of lumber as the first step.

More than 40 thousand delense housing units for workers and enlisted personnel were built.

The defense construction program, both industrial and residential, will amount to $4,200,000,000 for 1941. Added to this are what might be termed the defense program "byproduct" demands-hundreds of new factories to service the Army and Navy and equipment plants; thousands of new railroad cars to handle the increased transportation; ships to supply England and Russia without enforcing restrictions on our essential commerce, many of them built entirely of wood and all calling for quantities of lumber for hatch covers, cargo battens, bilge ceiling, hold lining, bulkheads, decks.

Retail yard buying reached a new high, as lumber dealers tried to meet the need of the farmer for grain storage and other buildings, to handle this year's bumper crops and care for the additional livestock needed to feed the augmented Army and Navy; or to furnish lumber for privately-financed homes, a booming market resulting both from increased buying power and from housing-shortages in industrial areas.

These are the highlights of the lumber market that pushed production of West Coast mills to a peak 15 per cent higher than estimated normal capacity, and to a record of shipping seven and a half billion feet of lumber before November 1 this year.

They are an indication of the markets ol 1942, and of the way in which the Douglas fir industry will serve them.

Defense construction lor 1942 will at least equal that of l94l; and, the "by-products" purchases will logically follow. There may be some curtailment of defense housing, but there will also probably be a new cantonment program.

Probably there will continue to be-and this, of course, is of prime importance to the retail lumber dealer-curtailment of privately-financed home constructioir, and nonessential civilian building outside defense areas, but present SPAB rulings on this undoubtedly will be altered. They were not necessitated by any lack of lumber, and when hardware and nails and tools, wiring and plumbing, are available in quantities greater than those needed by defense purchasers, home building, farm building, store and factory building will again hit its stride.

The remodeling market looms strong for next year. Just as we are going to have to recondition the family car a,nd get another twenty thousand miles out of it, so we are going to have to patch and repair our homes. There's a strong movement on to remodel the old "big family" type house to two or more modern apartments, as an answer to our need for housing space without too much drain on materials.

The brightest prospect for 1942, to both manufacturer and retail dealer, is in the respect being earned by Douglas fir as a structural material.

Modern engi,treering designs and methods and the use of power tools in timber fabrication have greatly increased the efficiency of Douglas fir as a material for heavy construction. Timber is now being rediscovered by engineers and designers, and this trend will have a strong bearing on the lumber markets of. 1942.

Douglas fir trusses for factories, for airplane hangers, for shipyards, are releasing steel and other metals urgently needed for planes,. tanks, ships and guns, and in doing so wood is not just a "substitute" but is earning recognition as an engineering material of the first quality.

In an editorial. "Timber Proves fts Worth," in the October 9 issue of Engineering News-Record, this highest authority in the engineering field states:

"Now that the structure (A British Columbia plane factory) is completed, it appears that little could have been gained by using steel even if no emergency had existed .' the required roof truss span is provided with an ample safety margin and at low cost . , This building and others in our own country emphasize that tirhber is not only a defense material of first rank, but that modern practices in its manufacture and use ofier the designer what is in effect a new material for peace-time applications."

New timber use is reflected in the Army's statrdard specifications for a 184foot span wood truss tgngar; new specifications of standard timber truss construction for Army motor repair shops, previously steel, and on which 2160 wood trusses of 4Gfoot and 60-foot spans are now being fabricated in Portland for shipment to New York and Pennsylvania. USO buildings, sports arenas, theatres, all specified in steel in first Army specifications, are being made standard for timber truss or Lamella roof construction.

A prime example of the effective use of structural Doug- las fir in shipyard construction is that of the West Basin plant of the California Shipbuilding Company at Los Angeles. Erection of 14 Summerbell Teco-connected trusses in the West Basin mold loft was done in the record time ot 5l hours. The trusses have a span of lt6,?r.

A highly publicized story has been.that of the comeback of the old-time wood shipbuilder,s of Maine. This is of special interest to the Douglas fir industry of the West Coast, for no other wood is long enough and strong enough to turn out ship keels 108 feet long, or the other required big timbers uniform in strength.

The new Port of Embarkation at Oakland is of timber truss construction. Major E. J. Walters, constructing quartermaster, commended the design and added: "IIeavy timbers being used in the construction are more fire resistant than the exposed light-steel trusses commonly used in warehouse and shed construction," declaring that light steel will melt at a temperature of 1300 degtees, a temperature always exceeded in any major conflagration, but that heavy timbers would char to a depth of approximately a half-inch and the charcoal formed on the outside will ha'lt combustion and resist re-ignitiorl.

Wood in plane construction, even in the big ships of Lockheed, Douglas and Vega, is increasing rapidly. Five of the largest producers of training planes are now using Sitka spruce spars, and England, which has used Sitka spruce as a basic plane material since the beginning of the emergency, is now using quantities of Douglas fir also. These cases are cited to illustrate the manner in which

Federal specifiers are turning to wood construction. Civilian building will follow suit, influenced not only by the greater economy and availability of wood, but by the weight of approval from Army and Navy engineers and architects.

For this increased construction market, the West Coast Lumbermen's Association has prepared technical data and designs, as Supplements to the Douglas Fir Use Book, as part of the Blue Ox Series of Structural Designs, and in a new publication: "Highway Structures of Douglas Fir." Single copies of these publications are available to all retail dealers without charge. The Association's staff of engineers and field men are contacting engineers, architects and specification writers throughout its consuming territory, offering assistance in Douglas fir structural design.

In meeting the combined requirements of civilian use and defense construction in 1941 the Douglas fir industry did a great emergency job. No defense work was delayed by lack of lumber; and lumber is one of the very few basic materials to show a capacity of production so great as not to need priorities. With reasonable assura,nce of machinery and equipment replacements, the production capacity of the region will be as high in 1942. Government requirements of the grades commonly needed by the retail lumber dealer for his home and farm building market will probably be less than last year. All indications point to there being a steady flow of lumber from the mills of the Douglas fir region to the retail lumber market.

This is the season of good cheer when we pause to review the past, count our bless' ings, and look ahead in anticipation of what the future holds. # We are grateful to you who have borne with us in our effort to supply simultaneously the needs of Defense