CHAPTER V 



THE USES OF WOODS. 



So multifarious are the uses to which wood is applied that it is 

 wellnigh hopeless to attempt to classify or enumerate them. Still 

 less is it possible here to mention all the different kinds of wood 

 locally employed for each purpose, or to describe the methods in 

 which they are treated. We must be content with a rough cata- 

 logue mainly confined to species widely used or known in general 

 commerce, with occasional mention of less known kinds of timber 

 for which we beheve there may be a demand in the near future. 



The term '' timber," from the Old BngHsh " timbrian," to build, 

 is strictly applicable only to felled and seasoned wood fit for build- 

 ing, as distinguished from "fancy" or furniture-woods, dye- 

 woods, etc. Undressed trunks without branches are termed " round 

 timber"; or, if of young trees, "spars"; hewn logs are called 

 "square timber"; or when quartered, "billets"; when split, 

 "staves" or "lathwood"; or when sawn, "deals," "battens," 

 "planks," "boards," and "scantling." 



Some very strong timbers, such as Teak, Sal, and Padouk, are 

 specially designated as " Ordnance woods." 



Shipbuilding.— There is, perhaps, no purpose for which timber 

 has been, and requires to be, more carefully tested and selected 

 than for shipbuilding. From this point of view we have a full 

 account of most timbers so employed in the late Mr. Thomas 

 Laslett's Timber and Timber-trees, originally published in 1875, of 

 which a new edition by Professor Marshall Ward appeared in 

 1894. The requirements of the dockyard are, however, very 

 varied, durabihty being generally necessary ; but great strength, 

 even if accompanied by weight, and freedom from decay on contact 

 with metal, being important for armoured vessels ; resistance to 

 ship-worms or termites for those not metal-sheathed; Hghtness 

 for boats ; freedom from sphntering for planks ; extreme toughness 

 for blocks ; evenness of growth and great resistance to strain for 

 masts; flexibihty for oars. For general purposes, among the 

 heavier woods, Teak {Tectona grdndis) is taken as a standard, and 



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