vii.] EXPERIMENTS ON TIMBER. 41 



France, Prussia, Asia Minor, and European Turkey, and 

 also in the royal forests in England, and later on as 

 Timber Inspector of a dockyard, and Timber Inspector 

 to the Admiralty, every effort has been made to acquire 

 a knowledge of the capabilities and characteristic 

 properties of the several varieties of timber which came 

 under notice. 



Many of the experiments to which I shall have to 

 refer were made at Woolwich Dockyard, where it was 

 necessary, as a part of the duty of my office, to ascertain 

 the specific gravities, strength, and measurement, and 

 attend to the receipt of the timber coming in under 

 contract with the Admiralty. 



Especial care was taken to carry out the experiments 

 upon wood brought to a well-seasoned condition and fit 

 for appropriation to works of construction ; and in many 

 instances we have tried not only a number of pieces 

 taken from different trees, but a series of pieces from 

 the same tree, with a view to find, if possible, in what 

 part the maximum of strength lay. 



Formerly, I believe, it was the practice to carry out 

 these experiments upon exceedingly small pieces of 

 wood, and I have seen it stated that some were no 

 bigger than a French line, = '0888-inch measurement, and 

 varying in size from that to about one quarter of an inch 

 of English measure, the result per square inch being 

 obtained by subsequent calculations. This was probably 

 done in consequence of the great difficulty there is in 

 securely holding, and bringing a sufficient strain to bear 

 upon and break the larger scantlings. I should not, 

 however, be disposed to place much reliance in the 

 results so worked out, as it would seem to be impossible 

 to reduce pieces of wood to such small dimensions 

 without cutting across some of the fibres^ and thus 



