Fireproof Wood

Builders, property owners, shippers and insurance men last week added up the nation's fire loss for 1935, found that conflagrations had cost $245,000,000 and swallowed up some 10,000 human lives. They could reflect sadly that wood is still the commonest building material. But on the good side of the ledger was a report from the National Board of Fire Underwriters containing well-documented assurance that there is such a thing as fireproof wood.

The wood tested, processed by a New Jersey manufacturer, was red oak and maple impregnated thoroughly and uniformly in pressure tanks with ammonium salts which, when hot, release combustion-smothering gases. The treated wood is almost as easily tooled as ordinary wood, a little heavier because of the salt content, no different in appearance. It takes varnish well. The Board's testers created conflagration conditions in large chambers fired by gas nozzles, watched through windows. Under conditions that sent untreated walls and floors roaring up in flames, the treated wood did not burn at all. When exposed to intense heat for long periods, the processed oak and maple charred deeply, but did not produce appreciable flame or aid the spread of combustion. The Board's final verdict: "Practically noncombustible and non-flammable."

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