100 years ago today in Spokane: White pine tested for building airplanes

Local lumber companies were exploring a new and intriguing use for the region’s white pine: the manufacture of airplanes.

The light and strong Sitka spruce was the preferred variety of lumber (which helps explain why William Boeing, a Seattle lumberman, was getting into the airplane business), but it was considered “somewhat scarce.” So the government asked the Western Pine Manufacturer’s Association, to send some white pine logs in for testing.

White pine was one of the common species in northern Idaho lumber camps. The results of the testing were still pending.

The region’s common spruce three, the Engelmann spruce, was considered too brittle and the fibers too short for airplane manufacturing.

From the war beat: The U.S. Army wasn’t the only army that was recruiting in Spokane.

A lieutenant from the British army and a sergeant from the Canadian army were at the Davenport Hotel, recruiting the Spokane region’s many Britons and Canadians.

They then planned to make “flying squadron visits” to the surrounding towns in the Inland Northwest.

From the pet beat: Three boys were being treated for possible rabies after a Boston terrier pup inflicted slight bites and scratches on them.

At the time, the boys thought nothing of it, since the dog did not “attack” them, but was merely nipping and playing with them.

Later, however, the pup showed evidence of a possible rabies infection.