XXVIIL] DANTZIC FIR. 235 



ings, and also for various fitments in cabins and store- 

 rooms ; and its special fitness for deck purposes has 

 been already mentioned. Further, the cheap, common, 

 middling quality is in request for props, or shores, re- 

 quired for supporting a vessel while in course of con- 

 struction, or while in dock undergoing repairs, for which, 

 and similar purposes, its coarse character is not an 

 objection. 



Having in former chapters, treating of the hard-wood 

 trees, adopted the British Oak timber as the standard 

 of quality and fitness for all the purposes of naval and 

 civil architecture, so I propose to adopt the Dantzic Fir 

 timber the most important and generally useful of the 

 Firs and Pines as the standard of comparison for the soft 

 or white wood class. I have, therefore, gone more fully into 

 the experiments on this timber than it would have been 

 possible for me to do with each of the other descriptions. 



The transverse experiments recorded in Table 

 CXXII. were made upon pieces of well-seasoned wood, 

 of good average quality, and in every respect fit to be 

 employed in the best architectural works, their specific 

 gravity ranging from 478 to 673, and averaging 582. 

 Of these specimens the elasticity of one piece was perfect 

 immediately after the weight of 390 Ibs. was removed, 

 and in each of the others it was very nearly so, the 

 average of the whole giving only *o66 of deflection. All 

 these would probably have recovered their straightness 

 if time had permitted of their being left for only a short 

 period prior to proceeding with the breaking strain. 



The strains required to break these specimens varied 

 very much, the minimum being 175 and the maximum 

 242*5 Ibs., the average 21 9*1 6 Ibs. on the square inch. 

 The deflections at the crisis of breaking varied from 

 4' 5 to 6-15 inches, and averaged 5*142 inches. 



