Show Business Today Fiber Board Plants Keep Busy By JAMES IES MARLOW l and WILLIAM VILLIAM PINKERTON NEW YORK July 15 lIS Wide World World Today Today tanks and planes are getting material discovered accidentally by a scientist who went out to lunch without knowing knowing know- know ing ng he had left lefta a leaky steam pipe Behind him What the scientist found when he returned led to the development of wood fiber boards by the Ma- Ma onite corporation whose huge southern plant now Is working at capacity around the clock to meet war needs The firms firm's wood fiber board board- or hardboard is is going into signal corps trailers arsenal shell holders blackout shutters shutters' army buses medical corps laboratory table tabletops tabletops tops ops tank linings ambulance interiors in- in tenors and die stock for pressing airplane parts This is in addition to its civilian uses for refrigerator exteriors fili filbig fil- fil i big ng g cabinets housing grain storage storage storage stor stor- age bins motor housings fan blades concrete molds stationary awnings and amid office furniture Executives of the United States Gypsum company holding a separate separate separate sepa sepa- rate patent for hard hardboards boards say their heir company's product too Is being eing used for war purposes in ina a addition to its civilian uses Unlike some other industries the hardboard makers so far have been een confronted neither with shortages shortages shortages short short- ages nor priorities In raw raw materials materials materials mate mate- rials since they use small pine and hardwood trees Employs Employs' Thousands The plant whose Capacity capacity ca Ca- recently was enlarged 33 per cent employs thousands of workers and officials say its daily production exceeds o one e million square feet The Gypsum company has plants both soth in the south and New Eng Eng- l land nd The scientist the late William H. H Mason who had been vice president president president dent of the firm in irs charge of research and later its president made his discovery at Laurel Miss in 1924 Working with him in inthe inthe th the development of the process was Charles M. M Westphalen now the company's production manager Mason had worked with Thomas A. A Edison 17 years and went to Laurel to experiment with the byproducts byproducts by by- products ts of southern lumber mills whose trash burners were devouring devouring devouring devour devour- ing hundreds of tons of small odd- odd sized pieces of lumber Mason was looking for some use for that over left-over wood so he searched for a process by which the wood could be reduced to fiber without destroying the natural lignin holding all wood together Such a process he thought would result in a strong tough paper aper or perhaps a new kind of insulating board He decided to cut the waste wood into small chips and explode them under pressure Drilling a hole in a steel shaft he made an industrial gun which was charged with chips and water The end was sealed with a tapered steel plug Blow torches were applied to the bottom of the gun until the pressure within had reached pounds per square inch The plug jarred loose by an iron bar shot out with such speed it never was found but with it came a a. mass massof massof massof of fine wood fibers Experiment Fails Falls Then Mason mixed a wet lap lapof lapot of ot fiber and water he tried to press into a flat mass that might be baked hard in an oven the hardness of course being the central central central cen cen- idea That experiment failed He tried to squeeze the wet lap between steam-heated steam platens of a small letter press This also was unsuccessful unsuccessful unsuccessful un un- un- un successful until the accident hap hap- In the midst of one of his experiments experiments experiments ex ex- ex- ex Mason went out to lunch carefully turning off the steam but leaving a a. portion of the wet lap in the press When he returned two hours later he was astonished to find that not only had a steam pipe been leaking but that within the two hours the wet lap had become a hard board Within three years the Mason Mason- ite corporation had set up its plant at Laurel in irs the midst of ot Mississippi Mississippi Mississippi sippi pineland w where ere the raw materials materials materials ma ma- were close at hand |