[Gasification] Liquid Fuel the Root of All Evil?

[AJH]

On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 15:26:04 -0700, Tom Miles wrote:

>New England was a source of mast timbers and Charleston was a main port for
>pith, tar and turpentine. There's a treasure treasure-trove of history on
>this topic and on charcoal production of the period if you search Google
>Book Search for keywords like: New England, mast timber, charcoal, pitch,
>pine, tar, naval stores, etc. 


We could end up seriously off topic here ;-)

It's only in my working lifetime that we have grown trees in UK over
200 foot tall and that is largely due to species (Douglas fir) sourced
from the new world. UK has only a small number of conifers as the time
between the recession of the ice age and the cutting of the land link
with continental Europe was insufficient to allow other species to
migrate in before trade imports brought them.

You only need to stroll along the decks of Constitution to see the
large sizes necessary for mast poles and even on that ship (the oldest
ship still in service with a navy when I was there) they are made from
two trees to get the necessary height.

Mind I would think you'd have a struggle to find these timbers in
Boston's hinterland now as it was cut over, used for agriculture and
then largely abandoned for cropping. Presumably because the glacial
soils wouldn't stand it and the boulder strewn fields didn't suit
mechanised agriculture??

AJH