26 THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 



shovels, brushes, and saddle-trees. Another important use is in the making 

 of wrest-planks for pianos, and of the Enghsh beech used for this purpose, 

 it has been said that that which is grown in Devonshire or Essex far excels 

 any other. In welding or fusing glass it is used almost exclusively. 

 According to Messrs. J. Powell & Sons, beech-wood billets are used fgr 

 suppl3'ing great local heat whilst large glass objects are being fashioned. 

 AU other wood, except beech, produces a white film (sulphur) on lead- 

 potash glass, which is only removed with some difiEicult}^ In this con- 

 nection some sycamore billets used by mistake caused considerable 

 trouble. 



One of the chief uses of beech is in chair-making. In addition to the 

 manufacture which is carried on in factories, the industry is also plied in 

 the woods of Buckinghamshire and other districts of England. Here the 

 felled trees are sawn through, cleft, and turned into legs and rails for 

 chairs in the same manner, and by the same primitive kind of pole-lathe, 

 as has been in use for centuries. Beech is extensively employed in the 

 brush industry. Its cohesive qualities, associated with a moderate degree 

 of softness, enable this wood to withstand the strain of the close boring 

 without sphtting, as do some stronger and harder woods. It also resists 

 the combined action of soap and water to a greater extent than do most 

 timbers. 



In Hungar}^ for the brush trade the trees are cut into lengths of from 

 6 to 8 feet ; the resultant drums are then cleft into four quarters, which 

 are set out to dry, and are finally sawn into the necessary sizes. This 

 method of cleavage is wasteful, but jields exceedingly bright, good- 

 coloured timber. In that countrj^ the wood is also used for the manu- 

 facture of complete suites of furniture for domestic rooms and offices. 



Beech is an excellent firewood, and is largely used for this purpose in 

 France. It is also admirably adapted for the production of acetic acid 

 (and acetone) by its destructive distillation. 



There seems no reason why Enghsh beech should not make very good 

 wood-pavement and flooring, if properly creosoted and carefully laid. 

 Indeed for the former purpose it has already been used with fairly satis- 

 factory results. It possesses the necessary tough, spongy quahty, and 

 does not become sHppery as do some other hardwoods. Its expansion 

 and contraction is also less. An experiment with a block y^ inches long 

 3^ inches deep by 3 inches wide showed, after being soaked in water for 

 fifteen hours, no change whatever on the two smaller measurements of 

 the block, and only a bare | inch increase on the \vide. Similarly in a 

 smaller size, a piece thoroughly dried, 6yV inches long by 4J inches wide 

 by I inch thick, showed 6g inches long by 4y\- inches wide by i| inch 

 thick. 



The concentric layers are very strongly marked, the pores are small 



