TIMBER: ITS STRENGTH, AND HOW TO TEST IT. 3 
possible to carry out the actual tests on perfectly dry specimens, 
since, if the specimens were perfectly dry. before the tests began, 
they would rapidly reabsorb moisture during the time the 
experiment was being carried out. 
In order to be able to compare results of different tests, it 
is desirable that a standard of dryness should be adopted, and 
Bauschinger, as the result of his research, recommended that 
all tests upon timber should be reduced to a standard of 
15 per cent. dryness. 
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To reduce results to such a standard, it is clear that we 
must have for each quality of timber a definite numerical law, 
connecting together the mechanical strength and the percentage 
of moisture present. This law can be experimentally determined 
by making tests of a number of samples of the same quality of 
timber with different percentages of moisture in the different 
specimens. 
Fig. 1 shows the plotted results of such an experiment 
