Celotex, Etc.

Cutting across the north seas the S. S. Chantier, bearing Lieutenant Commander Richard E. Byrd and his 45 other Polar pilgrims with their two planes and accessory equipment, approached Tromso, Norway, last week. They planned to proceed to Kings Bay, Spitzbergen.

At Kings Bay they will erect for themselves temporary houses, the walls of which will be fortified with "Celotex." This Celotex is a synthetic wood made by the Celotex Co. of New Orleans by shredding sugar-cane residue remaining after the sugar has been abstracted. The shredded cane produces a fibre which is compressed into sheets of sythetic lumber, just as in the lumber regions sawmill wastes are machined and compressed to produce the well known wallboards and sheathings.

Of course all lumber substitutes of this sort are not made from wood byproducts. "Sheetrock," made by the U.S. Gypsum Co. of Chicago, and "Gypsolite" (Universal Gypsum Co., Chicago) are of gypsum suitably treated and squeezed into board-like sheets easily handled by carpenters. They compete as economical alternatives for ordinary lathing and sheathing with "Beaverboard" (Beaver Products Co., Buffalo) and "Linofelt" (Union Fibre Co., Winona, Minn.). Architects thoroughly appreciate these.

They appreciate also another quality found in "Celotex." the quality that induced the Polar pilgrims to take it along to build their temporary homes at Kings Bay and even to line their ship quarters with it--its high insulating index. That this boarding synthesized from sugar-cane waste also deadens sound was immaterial to them. What they valued most was that it would keep out cold--cold which they expected would reach 50DEG to 60DEG below zero during part of their journey towards the Pole, and that it would keep within doors heat adequate for comfort. They might have taken along "Balsam Wool" (Wood Conversion Co., Cloquet, Minn.), "Fibrofelt" (Union Fibre Co., Winona, Minn.), "Corkboard" (Armstrong Cork & Insulation Co., Pittsburgh), "Insulite" (Insulite Co., Minneapolis), "Garrettite" (C. S. Garrett Co., Philadelphia), "Quilt" (Samuel Cabot Co., Boston), or "Mineral Wool" (U.S. Mineral Wool Co., Manhattan)--all of which are excellent insulating materials widely used in building.

"Celotex" was only one of the many gifts to the explorers. Armour & Co. of Chicago donated considerable beef and preserved bear meat. The Standard Oil gave all the fuel of which need might be expected on the flights.