CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



or Mib*r*Uf wood which to well agree* with the glue, 

 or which it to easy to be wrought. It w also excellent 

 for beams, aad other timber work in house*, heiug both 

 lugh and exceedingly Strong, and therefore of very great 

 Wt for ban and bolt* of doore, as well ai for doort them- 

 selves | and, for the beam* of coche>, a board of an inch 

 and half thick will carry the body of a heavy coach 

 with great ease, by reason of a natural spring which 

 u not easily injured. It was formerly used for cans 

 and other carriage*, and also for the pile* to build up- 

 on in boggy grounds. Most of Venice and Amsterdam 

 is built upon them. For scaffolding also, there is none 

 comparable to it. Under the head of fir may be class- 

 ed cedar, a wood of great durability, but too expensive 

 to be used in Britain. 



General Obscn-ations respecting Timber. 



Evelyn makes the following observations upon timber; 

 some of which are well worthy of attention : 



" Lay up your timber very dry, in an airy place, yet 

 out of the wind or sun, and not standing upright, but 

 lying along, one piece upon another, interposing some 

 short blocks between them, to preserve them from a cer- 

 tain mouldiness which they usually contract while they 

 sweat, and which frequently produces a kind of fungus, 

 especially if there be any sappy parts remaining. 



" Some there are yet, who keep their timber as moist as 

 they can by submerging it in water, where they let it 

 imbibe to hinder the cleaving; and this is good in fir, 

 both for the better stripping and seasoning, yea, and not 

 only in fir, but other timber. Lay, therefore, your 

 boards a fortnight in the water, (if running the better, 

 as at some mill pond head,) and then setting them up- 

 right in the sun and wind, so as it may freely pass through 

 them, (especially during the heats of summer, which is 

 the time of finishing buildings,) turn them daily, and 

 thus treated, even newly sawn boards will floor far bet- 

 ter than a many years dry seasoning, as they call it. But, 

 to prevent all possible accidents, when you lay your 

 floors, let the joints be shot, fitted, and tacked down 

 only for the first year, nailing them for good and all the 

 ext ; and by this means they will lie staunch, close, and 

 without shrinking in the least, as if they were all one 

 piece. And upon this occasion, I am to add an observa- 

 tion which may prove of no small use to builders ; that 

 if one take up deal boards that may have lain in the 

 floor an hundred years, and shoot them again, they will 

 certainly shrink (tuliet qitoiies), without the former me- 

 thod. Amongst wheel-wrights, the water seasoning is 

 o/ especial regard ; and in such esteem amongst some, 

 that I am assured, the Venetians, for their provision in 

 the arseoal, lay their oak some years in water before 

 they employ it. Indeed, the Turks not only fell at all 

 times of the year, without any regard to the ceason, but 

 emplov their timber green and unseasoned ; so that, 

 though they have excellent oak, it decays in a short time 

 by this only neglect. 



" Elm felled ever so green, for sudden use, if plunged 

 four or five days i water, (especially salt water,) ob- 

 tains an admirable seasoning, ind may immediately be 

 Med. I the oftener insist on this water seasoning, not 

 oly as a remedy against the worm, but for ks efficacy 

 against warping and distortions of timber, whether used 



thk or exposed to the air. Some, again, commend 

 in the eanh, otkers in wheat j and there be sea- 



Is ctarraa, 



sonings of the fire, for the scorching and hardening 

 of piles, which are to stand either in the water or in the 

 earth. 



" For that to most limber it contributes much to its 

 duration. Thus, do all the elements contribute to tlic 

 art of seasoning. 



" And yet even the greenest limber is sornctires de- 

 sirable for such as carve and turn, but it chokes die 

 of our saws ; and for doors, windows, floors, and other 

 close works, it is altogether to be rejected, especially 

 where walnut trees is the material, which will be sure to 

 shrink. Therefore, it is best to choose such ai is of 

 two or three years seasoning, and that is neither moist 

 nor over dry ; the mean is best. Sir Hugh Plat in- 

 forms us, that the Venelians use to burn and s 

 their timber in a flaming fire, continually turning it round 

 with an engine, till they have gotten upon it an hard 

 black coaly crust ; and the secret carries with it great 

 probability, for the wood is brought by it to such a 

 hardness and dryness, that neither earth nor water can 

 penetrate it ; I myself remembering to have seen cKai - 

 coal dug out of the ground amongst the ruins of an- 

 cient buildings, which had in all probability lain covered 

 with earth above fifteen hundred years. 



" Timber which is cleft is nothing so obnoxious to 

 reft and cleave as what is hewn ; nor that which is squa- 

 red as what is round ; and therefore, where use is to be 

 made of huge and massy columns, let them be bored 

 through from end to end. It is an excellent preserva- 

 tive from splitting, and not unphilosophical ; though, to 

 cure the accident, painters putty is recommended ; also, 

 the rubbing them over with a wax-cloth is good ; or be- 

 fore it be converted, the smearing the timber over with 

 cow dung, which prevents the effects both of sun and 

 air upon it, if, of necessity, it must lie exposed. But. 

 besides the former remedies, I find this for the closing 

 of the chops and clefts of green timber, to anoint *nJ 

 supple it with the fit of powdered beef broth, with 

 which it must be well soaked, and the chasms filled with 

 eponges dipt into it. This to be twice done over. 



" Some carpenters make use of grease and saw-dust 

 mingled ; but the first is so good a way," says my au- 

 thor, " that I have seen wind shock timber to exquisite- 

 ly closed, as not to be discerned where the defects were. 

 This must be used when the timber is green. 



" We spake before of squaring ; and I would now 

 recommend the quartering of such trees, as will allow 

 useful and competent scantlings, to be of much more 

 durableness and effect for strength, than where (as cus- 

 tom is, and for want of observation) whole beams and 

 timbers are applied in ships or houses, with slab and all 

 about them, upon false suppositions of strength beyond 

 these quarters. For there is in all trees an evident in- 

 terstice or separation between the heart and the real of 

 the body, which renders it much more obnoxious to de- 

 cay and miscarry, than when they are treated and con- 

 verted as I have described it ; and it would likewise save 

 a world of materials in the building of great ships, where 

 so much excellent timber is hewed away to spoil, were 

 it more in practice. Finally, 



" I must not omit to take notice of the coating of 

 timber in work used by tlie Hollanders, for the preser- 

 vation of their gates, portcullises, draw-bridge?, sluices, 

 and other huge beams and contignations of timber, ex- 

 posed to the sun and perpetual injuries of the weather, 



M " rt 



| I*CMM nflcwrufHiMci for which ream, when we with to preserve piles from decoy, they houW 

 T? 1 * U *" d '!" u ^ ta "^ wi >)' dewy about two iiithe* above and below Ibe surface, 



Prl woold probably add Mvcral years to tb duration of thc'wood. 





