FIR-TEX COMPANY
St. Helens
August 6, 1930: "With the formal opening in St. Helens yesterday the new Fir-Tex Insulation Board plant got under way. The occasion was marked by quite a celebration with felicitations from leading civic and commercial men of Portland and other Oregon points. Mayor Geo Baker spoke glowingly of friendship between Portland and industries outside of that city. Julius Meier congratulated the manager, A. E. Millington, and other organizers on their splendid accomplishment. In short it seems that this new enterprise is well on its way.
Fir-Tex is a product well in keeping with the times. A few short years ago waste of any kind was thought to be of little value or importance. Lumber waste is still largely considered to be a total loss. In Fir-Tex we have a product made from chips of fir wood including bark, knots and other material usually classified as waste.
The material is first baked in huge cylindrical digesters for 21 hours for softening, and then pressed out into enormous sheets. These sheets are baked in large dry kilns, cut into pieces twelve feet long and one inch in thickness. They may later be cut into any desired size or shape at the will of the consumer. Most of them are shipped in four foot squares, which weigh 24 pounds. All culls or second grades are shredded and worked over again to produce nothing but first class product.
The plant, in which capitalists from all parts on the United States are interested, was located in Oregon for two reasons. The first named was that of cheap power, the second an abundance of the raw material needed." (The World)
Fir-Tex is a product well in keeping with the times. A few short years ago waste of any kind was thought to be of little value or importance. Lumber waste is still largely considered to be a total loss. In Fir-Tex we have a product made from chips of fir wood including bark, knots and other material usually classified as waste.
The material is first baked in huge cylindrical digesters for 21 hours for softening, and then pressed out into enormous sheets. These sheets are baked in large dry kilns, cut into pieces twelve feet long and one inch in thickness. They may later be cut into any desired size or shape at the will of the consumer. Most of them are shipped in four foot squares, which weigh 24 pounds. All culls or second grades are shredded and worked over again to produce nothing but first class product.
The plant, in which capitalists from all parts on the United States are interested, was located in Oregon for two reasons. The first named was that of cheap power, the second an abundance of the raw material needed." (The World)