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ORIGINAL: Ruphus

Cream that´s meant to distribute moisture deeper into the skin contains urea, but does not smell like pee.

Smell can be had other ways. I own a guitar that was taken to exhibition. It took a bunch of years and multiple times cleaning with damp clothes to remove subtle but unpleasant scent from finish.

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ORIGINAL: keith

ruphus, urea is one thing, bull piss is another.

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ORIGINAL: keith

As I recall the good violin professor was doing experiments using bovine urine to cure spruce. I guess slow roasting spruce has to smell better than urine soaked spruce.

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Thermowood improves the acoustic properties of musical instruments - Friedrich-und-Elisabeth-Boysen-Förderpreis 2006 awarded

Kim-Astrid, Magister Press Office
Technical University Dresden

In his dissertation, Alexander Pfriem from the Institute for Wood and Paper Technology of the TUD investigated for the first time the use of thermally modified woods in the construction of musical instruments - with success. The environmentally friendly material, which makes the use of tropical woods largely superfluous, also improves the sound of the instruments. For this, the scientist was awarded the Förderpreis der Friedrich-und-Elisabeth-Boysen-Stiftung 2006 in Dresden last weekend.

What is the difference between the darker thermo wood and normal wood, and how is it made? Wood consists essentially of three components: cellulose and lignin, which are responsible for the compressive and tensile strength of the material, and hemicellulose, which binds the other two substances together. If wood is now heated to 180-220 ° C with oxygen being excluded, this third component is primarily mined; the short-chain sugar molecules crystallize out. Due to the degradation of hemicellulose the docking points for water are missing; The wood swells and shrinks less and is less prone to wood consuming organisms. However, as the heating time increases, the strength properties also decrease more and more. The corresponding procedures were originally developed and patented in Germany. Since the mid-nineties, thermo wood has been used in various European countries primarily as weather-resistant facade and floor wood.

Since heating also changes the acoustic properties of the wood, thermo wood should also be of interest to the musical instrument industry, thought dr. Awl. In a joint project with the Institute for Musical Instrument Making Zwota, which was funded by the Association of Industrial Research Associations (AiF), he investigated the material behavior of thermally modified woods, their damping and elastic properties. A musical instrument maker made a series of guitars with thermal wood ceilings, and the instruments were characterized, tested and evaluated in a cooperation of the TU Chair Wood and Fiber Material Technology with the Institute for Musical Instrument Making in Zwota. Result: the acoustics of the wood are significantly improved by the thermal modification. An instrument maker from Vienna now offers successfully handmade plucked thermowood instruments.

In wind instruments such as the bassoon or instruments such as the harmonica, not at last the lower water absorption is a major argument for the new material. Investigated with funds from a DFG project
Dr. Pfriem therefore now more accurately invests the moisture transport in the wood. His next research object is the Queen of Instruments, the organ. Financing applications have been made, with three organ builders from Saxony first contacts.