New Standard Specifications for Wood Poles 



By R. L. JONES* 



This paper summarizes the work of the Sectional Committee on Wood 

 Poles of the American Standards Association covering the preparation of 

 specifications for northern white cedar, western red cedar, chestnut and 

 southern pine poles. The major problems underlying the development 

 of standard ultimate fiber stresses, standard dimension tables and practical 

 knot limitations are discussed and illustrated by supporting tables or 

 figures. Graphical charts comparing the old and the new dimensional 

 classifications are described. The main points relating to the material 

 requirements for the four pole species are outlined briefly. 



REPRESENTATIX'ES of communication, power and light, and 

 transportation utilities, of producers, and of public and general 

 interests have cooperated in the preparation of the new uniform stand- 

 ard specifications for wood poles that were recently approved by the 

 American Standards Association.^ The new specifications cover di- 

 mensions and material requirements for northern white cedar, western 

 red cedar, chestnut and southern pine poles, but rules for preservative 

 treatment are not included. Specifications for lodgepole pine and 

 Douglas fir poles are in preparation. 



Pole specifications deal with natural rather than fabricated prod- 

 ucts. Heretofore, the larger utilities have purchased poles of the 

 various species under specifications that have grown up more or less 

 independently. Confusing differences in material requirements and 

 in the dimensional tables have resulted. Economic production and 

 utilization require the arrangement of the natural cut of pole timbers 

 into groups defined either by top diameters and lengths, or by classes 

 in which circumferences at the top and butt are specified in addition 

 to length. The letter designations, such as ^, B, and C, that have 

 been applied to these classes, have had no common meaning. A pole 

 of a given length and class of one species has not generally been equiva- 

 lent in strength rating to one of the same length and class of another 

 species; and in most cases, the longer poles of a given class have not 

 had the same strength rating as the shorter poles of the same class. 



It is perhaps quite obvious that before rational improvement could 

 be made in the system of dimensional classification, it was necessary 

 to create a foundation for comparison of the strength of the different 



* Chairman, Sectional Committee on Wood Poles, American Standards Asso- 

 ciation. 



1 These specifications were approved on June 20, 1931. 



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