TIMBERS. 339 
the weights were then replaced, and removed at each succeeding 
eighth of an inch of deflection, until the wood was observed to lose, 
however slightly, the power to recover its rectilineal form; a 
failure in this respect, amounting to the diameter of the thread, 
was sufficient to determine its character for elasticity, after which 
the weights were continued until the fracture took place. 
“The apparatus used for ascertaining the direct cohesion was 
as follows: Lengths of about 16 inches were cut from the pieces 
broken transversely, and turned in an ordinary lathe to about one 
and ahalf inches diameter; about an inch inthe middle was further 
turned down to three-eights of an inch diameter, which was then 
carefully squared to a quarter of an inch with a fine file; and this, 
in each case, formed the portion to be tested. Through a hole 
accurately bored across the thick part of these pieces, near each 
end, short bolts were passed; to these bolts were attached short 
pieces of good rope, having eyes spliced in each end to receive 
them. A second piece of rope, passed through the first in the form 
of a link, sustained the scale at the lower end; and a similar one 
at the upper end hooked the beam which held the whole.” 
1855. Tests of New South Wales timbers at the Paris Exhi- 
bition, by Captain Fowke, R.E. (The author has been unable to 
obtain access to a record of these tests.) Some of the results are 
reproduced in Mr. Balfour’s Report (zz/ra). 
The experiments were all made on samples two inches square 
and one foot between supports, any which did not agree with those 
standard dimensions being reduced thereto by calculation. 
1858. ‘Report of Results obtained from Experiments on 
the Elasticity and Strength of Timber in New South Wales, pro- 
cured through the Chief Commissioner of Railways, and tested at 
the Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint, in the month of March, 
1858,” Read before the Philosophical Society of New South 
Wales (now the Royal Society), 12th May, 1858, and printed in 
The Sydney Magazine of Science and Art for May, 1858 
(p. 258). 
“The specimens used were fresh cut, taken from trees in the 
neighbourhood of Belford, which lies eighteen miles from Maitland 
and ten miles from Singleton, on the Great Northern road. 
