

TIMBER AND TIMBKR-TRADE. 



TIMBER AND TIMBER Tl:AI>K. 



and uaturaluU on tli boring- worm, published in Amsterdam 

 should be consulted by all who are mteru*ted in the durability >'f 

 hydraulic orU. or in shipbuilding. Opinions *eeui to ba divided <u 

 to the merits of the variou* tcheniM proposed for resisting the attack* 

 of tho worm* upon timber. Some engineers rocoiumeud exclu.i.,ly 

 the u*e of copper sheeting, or of oopper nail*, over the whole exposed 

 surface*; wbiUt other* recommend exclusively the UM of creosote. 

 In practice, it U found that tho worms frequently make their way into 

 tiaiU-r in the interval* between the nails, and then devour the inner 

 portion*. Ten yean' experience would also appear to ahow that 

 when the creosote Ua* been thoroughly injected into the heart of a 

 piece of timber, the worm* will not attack the hitter. . The injection 

 uf mineral ealU, by Kyau'i patent (mercury) or by Margery'* patent 

 (cupper), doe* not *eem to produce any permanently good eflect ; for 

 they are all removed in ooune of time by the action of tea-water 

 frequently renewed by the tide. 



Tho system of injecting creaaote innmi abio to provide on efficient 

 protection agaitut the ravage* of the white ants, which are ao incal- 

 culably numerous, and *o destructive to timber in tropical latitudes. 

 It also add* greatly to the durability of timber in damp confined 

 poaition* ; and resists the tendency of the timber to assume either tho 

 wet or the dry rot. The two la*t-named mode* of decay are of the 

 meet aeriou* importance to the solidity of the building* into whose 

 construction timber enter* largely. They affect all kinds of timber, 

 whether native grown or foreign ; and though tolerably well under- 

 stood by physiologists, and by practical men, it is too much the case 

 that they arc unattended to in the application of these materials. 



DRY HOT has already been treated of. The Wet Rut proceeds from 

 a chemical action in the wood itself, which may either arise from the 

 decomposition of the up retained in it, or from the decomposition of 

 the vegetable tiuue under the influence of confined moisture : for the 

 albuminous parts of the sap, or of the wood, commence a putrefactive 

 process directly they meet with the conditions of heat and moisture 

 neoeovary for its development. It is therefore important that all 

 timber should be cut at the season of the year when the trees contain 

 least aap, and that the timber should be preserved in such positions as 

 to allow the sap to pass away, for some considerable time before it ie 

 used in a building ; this precaution is technically called Hamming. It 

 is therefore the custom to fell timber during the winter and early 

 cpring months, because at those seasons the sap circulates with the 

 least activity ; or the time of the year for carrying on this description 

 of work may be said to range between October and April. In addition 

 however to this precaution, and to a careful seasoning, it is essential 

 to remove all the alburnum of a tree, if it should be required for use 

 in confined situations, for the fluids it retains ferment quite as 

 dangerously to the durability of the timber as does the sap itself. The 

 architect and the shipbuilder cannot be too particular in excluding 

 soppy timber from positions where there would not exist a free circu- 

 lation of air, and where there is any moisture. Sappy wood, moreover, 

 is soft, and of a feeble power of resistance. The decomposition which 

 takes place in timber affected by druxy, or by dead knots, is of the 

 same character as the ordinary wet rot ; that is to say, it proceeds 

 from a chemical action in the wood. 



A mode of rendering timber less combustible has been described 

 under PiRK-PBOoruro. 



Working in Wood. The cutting up of timber into beams and planks is 

 described under SAW, SAW-MII.I. ; and into thin layers under V 

 ISO. The use of timber in building-work is illustrated in such article* 

 a* CARI'EKTRY, HocsR, ROOF, &c. ; and tho use of fine woods in 

 CAHVIKO and HABQUETRY. We proceed to a few manufacturing 

 prucmaOT not hitherto described : first noticing, however, that Mr. 

 Holtcopffel, for practical purposes, classifies woods under eighteen 

 groups, according a* they are used for ship-building, hydraulic engineer- 

 ing, bouse carpentry, machinery frame-work, rollers, teeth of wheels, 

 foundry patterns, common turnery toys, best Tuubridgo toys, hard- 

 wood turning, common furniture, best furniture, ornamental work, 

 elastic work, inelastic work, carving, colour and dye-wood*, and scent- 

 woods. 



Timber-battling has recently occupied considerable attention. Variou* 

 plans have been introduoed by Meadows, Hookey, and other ii, 

 for this purpose, chiefly by the application of steam and pressure ; 

 but the most effective Mem* to be that of Mr. Blanchard, of Boston, 

 llu ha* e*Ubli*hed a manufactory for bending tiinl*-r of 

 kinds and sizes, and rendering it applicable for tho making of chair- 

 book*, gig-shafts, sofa-frames, horse-homes, plough-handles, wheel- 

 felloes, arch-piece*, staircase-rails, curved mouldings, ship-timbers, 

 Ac. Oak-timber 14 feet long and 16 inches square can be bent 

 to a curve in one hour, and timber of inches square in twenty 

 minute*. A piece 12 feet long, 12J inches wide, and 7 inches thick, 

 eon be bent into a perfect and permanent semicircle. A trough is 

 prepared, of the proper tux and form for tho curve ; one side of w hieh 

 is rendered movcable. There is a lever, turning on a central axis, and 

 a travelling table und- r, The timber, after King steamed 



for some hours, U hud on a flexible bond of metal placed on th< 

 ling table, and is pressed and chun|>ed down firmly to it. One end of 

 the timber is next clomped to one end of the curved trough ; the other 

 end butts against o block, acted on by a screw. The action "f the 

 lever then drives or forces the timber into the trough ; the two end* 



timber ire connected by a tie or chord ; the fourth side . 

 trough is then put in iU proper place ; and the timber, Urns clamped 

 and bound with a combination of force*, U left till cold. It . 

 iound tu have acquired a permanent **t, without any rending . 

 pling, or loo* of hardness and durability. The timber, in the first 

 instant, is not put simply into o vessel full of steam ; it U introduced 

 into a hot cloeet, through which steam at low pressure posses in * 

 continuous current. 



Labour-saving expedient* io the working of wood have been intro- 

 duoed in recent year* nearly in a* great variety a* in the working of 

 metal*. The American*, on account portly of the abundant u; 

 timber in that country, have been very successful in thi* dii. 

 Mr. Moles worth, in a paper on thi* subject read befi 

 Civil Engineers in 1867, said that the American* have :,.-\\ in use no 

 less than fiv. 



many varieties. In one group the plane has a rnipr~?f'fng o 

 in another there is a fixed cutter ; in another a rot. : in a 



fourth, the cutter in on a vertical axis ; ami in the fifth a oookei 

 is used. The angle of the cutter U made to vary with the quality < 

 the wood operated on, tin- natuiv of the work, and the s|>< 

 luent. There are also machines for shaping irnyular work : :> t< nun- 

 ing, either with circular saw* or tenoning cutters ; for 

 carving, by means of rotatory cutters advancing to imd i 

 on iron pattern; for dovetailing, by reciprocating cl. 

 tailing cutters ; for making boat*' oars ; for making railway key* ; and 

 for sawing, planing, boring, shaping, and jointing timber in various 

 way*. One ingenious machine shape* the arm* and legs of chair* ; 

 there are two vertical cutters revolving in opposite directions, at 1 "uu 



ions per minute ; the pattern to winch tin- v..<,. c l in temporarily 

 fastened i* so pressed against the cutters as to guide the cut. .' 

 cutters revolve in opposite directions, tin- work nay be pressed agaiiwt 

 the one or the other, so a* to suit the cut to th- ' the grain, 



without the trouble of reversing the position. In some districts, where 

 wooden houses are mode in large number* for emigrant* and back- 

 woodsmen, the timber is cut up with great rapidity ; one saw of a par- 

 ticular kind will cut into shape 10,000 shingle boards in a day ; m 

 will cut 60,000 or 70,000 laths in the some time ; while another will 

 plane 60 feet of flooring-boards per minute, tongue anil groove them 

 at the same time, and convey the chips and shavings to a fuel-home. 



The inventions are little less varied, although the operations are on 

 a much smaller scale, in England. The Kutield rifle stock is , 

 entirely by machines, no less than a dozen dill'crent machines being 

 employed in succession, some of the cutters of which revolt 

 times per minute. A series of machines at Woolwich Arsenal make 

 wooden scabbard-linings for cavalry swords ; and so efficient are these, 

 that by their aid two boys can make 500 scabbard-linings in a day. 

 Rifle-bullets sometimes hare a email box-wood plug inserted in the 

 real' of each : there are machines at Woolwich which will cut and 

 shape 300,000 of these plugs per day. Mr. Kinder, of Worcester, has 

 invented and brought into use a complete series of machines for work- 

 ing in wood, by the use of which he con plane scantlings 6 or 7 inches 

 square; work the edges of curved timbers on the square ; form both 

 regular and winding bevels ; work oblique sections of irregular figures ; 

 cut tenons with shoulders of almost any pitch ; make rebates and 

 grooves of various kinds ; box down or sink irregular surfaces in such 

 a manner that the surface destroyed shall be reproduced at the required 

 depth ; and produce curved or straight beads and mouldings all by 

 making the wood move while the cutting instrument remains sta- 

 tionary. Mr. Wilson, of Banbury, has brought into use a curious 

 aerie* of machines for making broom and mop-handles, umbrella sticks, 

 brush-backs, and railway-pegs. Mr. Dickie, of Glasgow, ha* a series of 

 machines for producing irregular forms in wood, such as boot-tree*, 

 shoe-lasts, gun-stock*, and shovel-handles, by a kind of differential 

 action of several cutters. Other morticing, moulding, dovetailing, 

 tenoning, planing, jointing, dowelling, rebating, and chauifering- 

 tnochines have been invented in great variety, and introduced in various 

 ways ; but they need not be separately described. 



The application of elaborate machines to the production of cheap 

 articles is curiously illustrated in the manufacture of fire-wood and of 

 malclici. Terry's fire-wood machinery, introduced in 16. r )7. pi-iiorms 

 all the operations of sawing, splitting, cutting, and Minting. Rough 

 block* of wood slide down an inclined table ; they are pressed by a 

 drum agonist circular saws; they are sawn into pieces of a uniform 

 length; the pieces slide down a shoot to the i.plit.tiiig -mill, and fall 

 against a series of circular cutters, which cut t In m into tl.it slabs ; th* 

 slabs slide down and are split into Mi,'U. which f .11 into a moveable 

 carriage, and are discharged down another shoot; they fall into a 

 horizontal channel, where a piston, by the action of a lever and weight, 

 presses together enough stick* to form one bundle ; the piston diivc*. 

 them half through a circular opniin;; : wire from a reel is made to pan 

 round the middle "f tl m > it is twisted and out off; and 



finally, an incoming bundle pushes out the completed one. Thus the 



. not touched by hand tin. iu:lmnt the operations. In tin 1 

 making of splint* for congreves or lueifcrs, the wood is first cut into 

 blocks by circular sows; and these are either separated into four- 

 .-ided splints, by a series of lancet-points ranged . .|uidii-tant. or into 

 cylindrical splints by being forced through small p. i forati.ni* in 

 plate. The best pine plonk, free from knots and irregularities, i* 



