In the not very far distant future there is bound. i0 be a great change in our use of tne material whicn, though not classed as a plastic, has nevertheless served from the very earliest time as one of the most beautatul as well as one of the most adaptable of substances, I reier, of course, to wood. european demands exceed. the annul growth of soit woods by approximately three thousand imiilion' cubic feet. The bulk goe to the paper trade where, incidentally, the world is still waiting ior a successful method for the removal of ink from newsprint.' The plastic trade consumes 4,000 tons of wood dust per antum for mouldings, and the. cellulose ester trade many times this amount. Hard woods are sing) in price, Many attempts have been made to aiseover a material as cheap as wood and as capable of being transformed as easily into the same infinite diversity of shapes, The first really successful' results will be achieved by using a wood waste of some sort. "Plastic wood" (sawdust and cellulose nitrate solution) is an example of an attempt in this direction, Claims for artificial wood, made by the internal disruptive explosion of wood waste, are being made in America. Whatever the ultimate solutions, for there will be several, the raw material will always be of a cellulosic nature. Cellulose and its esters are beginning to come into their own.
At present the. U.S.A. and Great Britain manufacture between them 200,000,000 gallons of paint of all kinds per annum.
In the near future lacquers will be used in the form of an aqueous dis-persian or emulsion of synthetic resin, for our knowledge of interfacial liquid surfaces is rapidly increasing. It will therefore be possible to use emulsions for most purposes of this nature for it is obvious that water is the cheapest and most efficient medium we possess. This paint will be used gs source of illumination by the incorporation of exceedingly active tuminous pigments selected to give a spec-frum range as nearly as possible identical with sunlight. The ceilings and the upper part of the walls of buildings will be treated with this paint which, activated by daylight, will continue glowing all through the hours of dárkness.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.