Furniture Fun

In booming West Coast war centers, metal filing cabinets are hens'-teeth scarce. The Army, Navy and the big manufacturers have combed the countryside, town by town, unable to find any.

Result: up blossomed a tiny war-baby industry, making wooden filing cabinets whose drawers are apt to sound like a crate of apples rolling downstairs when they are opened--when they can be opened.

One of the best of these war babies is the Carnation Lumber Supply Co. in Carnation (pop. 400), in Washington's Snoqualmie Valley, some 35 miles from Seattle. Father of the baby is chunky, inventive Claire W. Austin, 34. In the spring of '42, he quit his carpenter's job in Seattle's Grandy Shipyards after he got a $35 Army order for wooden letter trays. Soon he landed a bigger order for a desk he designed. He also designed special jigs and fixtures, so that beginners could turn out good cabinet work.

Shortly, the Carnation Co. was grossing $8,000 monthly on desks and office tables. Later, Austin designed a wooden filing cabinet whose drawers actually slide smoothly. His simple secret: when resinous pine is rubbed against a hard wood, both become slippery and glass-smooth, slide more easily the more they are rubbed. Orders for 1,700 poured in, have kept the Carnation Co. hustling as it supplied a good chunk of the requirements of the Army and Boeing Aircraft in Seattle.

Unlike many a war-baby boss, Austin does not worry over absenteeism. His workers wander off at any time to do chores, tend their bees, chickens and strawberry plants. Nor does he worry over profits. Said he: "We aren't exactly doing this to make money. What would we do with it? We're just having some fun."

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