152 Improved Rotary Saw Machine, 



edged in the exact shape in which it should be, to set close 

 on a building, and is the only way of the grain, in which 

 weatherboards of any kind can be manufactured to with- 

 stand the influence of the weather, without shrinking, swel- 

 ling, or warping off the building. Staves, and heading also, 

 must be rived the same way of the grain in order to pass 

 inspection. The mill sawed lumber, which, 1 believe, is 

 now universally used in the middle and southern states, and 

 in the West-Indies, for covering the walls of wooden build- 

 ings is partly cut in a wrong direction of the grain, which 

 is the cause of its cracking and warping off, and of the early 

 decay of the buildings by the admission of moisture. That 

 such is the operation may be inferred by examining a stick 

 of timber which has been exposed to the weather : the 

 cracks, caused by its shrinking all tend towards the heart 

 or centre, which proves that the shrinking is directly the 

 other way of the grain. It follows that lumber cut 

 through or across the cracks would not stand the weather 

 in a sound state in any degree to be compared with that 

 which is cut in the same direction with them. I have no 

 hesitation in stating that one half the quantity of lumber, 

 manufactured in this way, will cover, and keep tight and 

 sound the same number of buildings for an hundred years, 

 that is now used and consumed in fifty years. Add to this 

 the reduction of expense in transportation, and of labour in 

 putting it on, and I think every one must be convinced, 

 that the lumber manufactured in this improved way is enti- 

 tled to the preference. 



In manufacturing staves and heading, a great saving is 

 made in the timber, particularly as to heading, of which at 

 least double the quantity may be obtained by this mode of 

 sawing to what can be procured in the common method of 

 riving it ; nor is the straight grained, or good rift indispen- 

 sable for the saw, as it is for the purpose of being rived. 

 The heading, when sawed, is in the form it should be, be- 

 fore it is rounded and dowelled together, all the dressing/e- 

 quired, being merely to smooth off the outsides with a plane. 

 Timber for staves ought to be straight in order to truss, but 

 may be manufactured so exact in size as to require but little 

 labour to fit them for setting up. 



Both articles are much lighter for transportation, being 

 nearly divested of superfluous timber, and may be cut to any 

 thickness required for either pipes, hogsheads, or flour bar- 

 rels. 



Brunswick, Me.jlpriU, 1822. 



