TIMBERS. 343 
a scale suspended from the middle until the piece broke, note 
being taken of the deflection with 390lbs. weight, and also at the 
crisis of breaking. 
“* After this, a piece two feet six inches in length was taken, 
whenever it was found practicable, from one of the two pieces 
broken by the transverse strain, and tested for the tensile strain 
by means of a powerful hydraulic machine, the direct cohesion of 
the fibres being thus obtained with great exactness. Further, for 
the purpose of determining the proportions of size to length best 
adapted for supporting heavy weights, a great many cube blocks 
were prepared, of various sizes, as also a number of other pieces 
of different form and dimensions, which were then, by the aid of 
the same machine, subjected to gradually increasing vertical 
pressure in the direction of their fibres, until a force sufficient to 
crush them was obtained.” 
1879. F. Byerley, C.E.,in The Australian Engineering and 
Building News, November, 1879. 
He experimented (see Eucalyptographia, under £. fesselaris) 
on seasoned specimens of one inch square, weights being applied 
to the middle of the rods between supports one foot apart, the 
ends being free. 
1879. ‘‘ Experiments on the Tensile Strength of a few of the 
Colonial Timbers,” by Fred. A. Campbell, C.E., Zrans. Royal 
Soc. of Victoria, 1879. 
“As the power I could bring to bear on the specimens did 
not exceed one ton, I found it necessary to work upon specimens 
with a sectional area of one-sixteenth of an inch. . . . The 
apparatus used was of the roughest description, but it answered 
its purpose. The specimens were held at each end by wrought 
iron clips (figures are given with the paper), and then hung and 
pulled by means of a lever. Using known weights, and sliding 
them along the lever, which was graduated, I readily obtained the 
breaking weight of the specimen. The weights were always 
applied in such a way as to cause a gradually increasing stress 
upon the specimen, perhaps fifteen to twenty minutes being taken 
to work up to the breaking weight.” 
