Crime and Punishment: Insurrection Day's Most Wanted, Pt. 31

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9. This wood sat in storage for 100 years. Now it's being used to fix Capitol riot damage

Only a few people on Earth know where to find a stash of century-old rare mahogany that can be used to repair priceless furnishings damaged on Jan. 6 by a pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol.

Robert “Bob” Ross is one of those people.

The acting assistant director of the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis., knew the exact location of a 3,000-pound stack of the wood that was collecting dust. The 78 mahogany boards, likely brought to the Badger State as part of research into airplane propeller materials during World War I, sat in a basement storage stall for a century waiting for a purpose.

“We actually had an allocation from the War Department to put together a propeller research laboratory,” he said. “And I believe these specimens were used in the research.”

While the origin of the wood is hazy, Ross said he’s confident of several facts. The lab originally got it through a New York supplier called I.T. Williams & Sons, which harvested mahogany from places in Central America, Africa and Asia.

https://www.rollcall.com/2021/04/15/this-wood-sat-in-storage-for-100-years-now-its-being-used-to-fix-capitol-riot-damage/