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Research workers, practical men, have ever been on the search for means to utilize waste material. "Bagasse," the refuse material left after the sap has been removed from sugar cane, used to present a problem because it was expensive to dispose of. This is now being made into board called Celotex, which is used as the plaster base and insulator. Reversing the old order, sugar is now the by-product in some places where cane is planted to yield the board material. Cornstalks are used to produce paper and a kind of lumber, "Maizewood"' (TIME, Dec. 24, 1928). Straw, virtually valueless as a fertilizer. has always been a problem. Farmers burn a large percentage of the 50 million tons produced each year. Some is being used (250.000 tons) to produce an insulating board whose heat conductivity is comparable to balsa wood and cork. Also from straw an artificial lumber will soon be produced which will have tensile strength of hickory. The current issue of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry predicts that this ''straw'' lumber will soon be in plentiful production and use. Thus plains regions, where trees are scarce and lumber expensive, may in time be able to grow their barns and houses with their wheat.
Another new product is Zalmite, named for Zalmon Simmons, president of Simmons Co. (beds). Similar to Bakelite, this new synthetic resin will take a high gloss, will make strong, tough beds which can be stamped out by single clips of ponderous machines. Carefully guarded is the secret process by which this Zalmite is made. Zalmon Simmons when questioned, facetiously replies that it consists of "peanut shells and burlap bags.''
Synthetic resins (like Zalmite) are basically a chemical synthesis of phenol (carbolic acid), formaldehyde and some form of nitrogen. Wood flour is used as a filler. Zalmite is rendered light and porous by sending a blast of air through the soft uncast material.
*Rayon is produced from any form of cellulose, primarily cotton. When made of wood (viscose rayon) it is treated with sodium hydroxide which reduces it to alpha cellulose. After this it is treated with carbon bisulphide. After one more step an orange-colored, syrupy liquid results which is forced through tiny holes, forming filaments, which after being treated in baths become rayon thread. From a laboratory invention, rayon has grown to be the world's third largest textile.