92 



SELLING LUMBER 



A Railway 



"Heart" 



Specification 



Douglas Fir 

 and Long Leaf 

 Pine on an 

 Equal Basis 



' and Texas, oh, I suppose, for twenty years, and there are 

 many there today that will ship you timber on that specification 

 without asking a question about it. Of course, I understand that 

 under the new rules and specifications we are working under that 

 that is now an obsolete specification; but that was a standard 

 specification down there for many years. 



Dr. von Schrenk : You are entirely correct in that; and 

 so far from being obsolete, it may be obsolete with the mills, but 

 it certainly is not obsolete with the engineering concerns. 



Mr. Woodhead : I judged from your remarks it was, but I 

 don't know of my own knowledge. 



Dr. von Schrenk : No. You remember, I tried at least to 

 specifically except the two rules made by the American Railway 

 Engineering Association and the American Society for Testing 

 Material. For instance, the standard grade for the American 

 Railway Engineering Society, I believe the term is standard heart 

 grade, after specifying dense and sound pine, which of course 

 does not relate to the grade, then they have a grade, standard 

 heart grade, which means 85 per cent heart and defines how the 

 sap shall be the inches on corners ; or 75 per cent for posts and 

 struts. The term is actually in use today, and more and more 

 railways every day are adopting it. 



The Chairman: Any other questions, gentlemen? 



Mr. Ash : Now, on the question of this specification which 

 was read, where it said long leaf yellow pine standard heart; 

 where it read, Douglas fir or long leaf yellow pine I think that 

 is the way the question read: Now, then, would a salesman 

 understand that those standard heart specifications would have to 

 apply to Douglas fir? I think that was the object of the ques- 

 tion. And if they do, what did the architect mean when he wrote 

 that? 



Dr. von Schrenk : The reason why those two woods have 

 probably been coupled together in that standard heart grade is 

 that the two technical bodies I spoke of made no distinction in 

 their use for stringers, caps, sills, struts and girders between long 

 leaf yellow pine and Douglas fir, because of the equality in 

 strength. They said, for instance, at the head of the specification 

 for stringers, "May be either long leaf pine or Douglas fir," and 

 then the next paragraph will give two grades; one is called, I 

 believe, standard heart grade, and the other is called standard 



