2 TIMBER 



the case of electric lighting, which it was prophesied would 

 run gas lighting out of the market, the use of the latter 

 increases yearly, so in the case of timber, greatly increased 

 quantities are imported into Great Britain every year, the 

 increase for 1907 over that for 1906 being about 4 per 

 cent., although the year just closed has been one of the 

 worst known in the building trade. 



Although timber has to a certain extent been superseded 

 by other material for building and shipbuilding work, yet 

 it is now used for many purposes for which it was not used 

 in the past. To mention only a few, it is within quite 

 recent years that timber has been adopted for street 

 paving, and now in Great Britain this class of paving can 

 be reckoned by square miles. The same applies to nearly 

 all the countries of the world, and its use in this form is 

 continually increasing. Immense quantities of the smaller 

 softwood trees, spruce and others, are converted into pulp 

 for the manufacture of. paper ; this too is quite a recent 

 business, yet in 1906 nearly 9,000,000 tons were used 

 for pulp in the United States alone. The immense con- 

 sumption of wood for this purpose is brought vividly before 

 us when we are told that the average circulation of a 

 popular daily halfpenny paper requires 200 trees for pulp. 

 Millions of acres of forest are converted into railway 

 sleepers every year, whilst telegraph and telephone poles 

 are erected by millions, and for the casing of electric wires 

 in dwelling-houses many miles of small scantling white 

 wood are employed ; even in ferro-concrete a large quantity 

 of timber is used for temporary purposes. 



Timber was probably one of the earliest, if not the 

 earliest, materials used by man for constructional purposes. 

 With it he built himself a shelter from the elements, it 

 provided him with fuel and ofttimes food, and the tree cut 

 down and let fall across a stream formed the first bridge ; 



