CATALOGUE OF THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 183 



Being easily cleft, oak is excellently adapted for the manufacture 

 of palings, staves, barrels, wheel-spokes and the like, and is largely so 

 employed. It would also be well adapted for shingles for roofs, though 

 its use for this purpose is not now required. When steamed it is readily 

 compressed, and in this form supplies keys and trenails for fixing railway 

 lines. The presence of a considerable amount of tannin in oak should 

 exclude its use in contact with iron. When so used discoloration 

 ensues, and ultimately results in the disintegration of the wood and the 

 corrosion of the nails, fastening, and other iron work. Copper is therefore 

 preferably used, otherwise the iron work should be galvanised. 



English oak is sometimes attacked by a fungus [Chlorosplenium 

 aeruginosum) which stains the wood a briUiant vivid green. When so 

 affected it is used for inlay work in Tunbridge ware. In Great Britain 

 and Europe generally the tree is peculiarly liable to lightning strokes, 

 which seriously damage, and often destroy, the whole value of the wood. 

 The timber is attacked by various wood-destroying fungi, and is Hable 

 to many defects. 



The seasoning and conversion of oak is of the utmost importance ; 

 too little attention has been paid to this in the past. Excepting where 

 large timber is required for beams, dock-gates, and the like, the best 

 results are obtained by cutting the timber into planks and boards of 

 the sizes likely to be required, at the earliest possible moment after the 

 tree has been felled. The trees should never be sawn through and through, 

 but on the quarter. For all joiners' work, and especially where ventilation 

 is restricted, the seasoning should be complete before use. Even after 

 thorough seasoning, where the best work is desired, the wood should 

 first be roughly worked, then kept for a short time in a warm chamber 

 as near as possible of the temperature of the room in which it will finally 

 be placed, and not until after this should it be fixed together and finished. 

 It is desirable that a period of about forty-eight hours should elapse before 

 fixing the wood, after breaking the skin by fresh planing, as on each 

 occasion when this has to be done a further change and shrinkage will 

 occur, even if the wood is 200 or more years old. 



Oak, Brown. Quercus Robur, Linn. Weight, 47 lbs. 13 oz. The British 

 Isles. 

 When certain individual British oak trees {Quercus Robur) are felled, 

 their ordinary heart-wood is found to be partially or wholly changed into 

 a richer toned reddish-brown wood which is known as " brown oak." 

 It was formerly, and indeed it is occasionally even now, among English 

 timber merchants and others in this country, called " red oak." The 

 colour is much like that of polished crocodile leather, very variable in 

 character, depth, and richness. It may be uniformly of a comparatively 



