turpentine

Accompanying note: "Firemen at far right, barely distinguishable, play a stream of water on a 6,000 gallon fuel tank just at the right of the main building of the W.J. Boynton and Sons Naval Stores refinery which was entirely consumed by fire this morning at an estimated loss of $175,000. Firemen played water on this tank for nearly an hour to keep the huge vessel from exploding and showering boiling fuel over the area."

"naval stores" there's a term you don't run across much any more.

Accompanying note: "Huge clouds of black smoke billow for hundreds of yards into the air from where the main building of the W.J. Boynton and Sons Naval Store refinery stood before being consumed by fire this morning."

This could be paraphrased as such if this were today: Snake oil interests are now said to be seeking control of the health care industry.

The turpentine industry was the heart and soul of the Southeastern United States. Also known as the Naval Stores Industry, highly sought supplies of pitch, tar and turpentine was created from the resinous sap of the pine tree. I find it interesting that war in Europe caused Naval Stores work to start in the British Colonies and War in Europe (WWI) was the beginning of the end for the turpentine industry in the U.S.

More on Eloise Gerry: www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/People/Gerry/Gerry.aspx

I wonder if she knew her contemporary Clara Fritz who worked at the Canadian Forest Products Laboratories in Montreal.