4 
TIMBER 
red hot, buckle and twist, and fall. It is a very difficult 
matter to thoroughly burn a 12-inch beam of timber. 
As to the aesthetic side of timber work, it will be readily 
admitted that nothing from an artistic point of view can 
excel the old timber-framed houses in our old towns, and 
they are not only artistic but substantial, as their long life 
shows ; and when we look at some of these which were built 
several centuries ago, the thought comes to our mind, what 
will be the condition of the steel structures now being 
erected several centuries hence ? 
A well-known writer on architectural matters, Mr. T. G. 
Jackson, in a recent work, " Keason in Architecture," says : 
" All experience hitherto tends to show, that an architect 
who wishes his building to go down to posterity, will do 
wisely to let iron play as small a part in his construction 
as possible." 
One of the reasons why so much less timber is now used 
in the large buildings erected for commercial purposes is 
that greater strength can be obtained in steel with much 
less depth of girder, and thus a gain in height is obtained 
which is of great advantage. 
There are few more extensive and wide-reaching subjects 
on which to treat than timber, which in this book refers to 
dead timber, the timber of commerce, as distinct from the 
living tree ; such a great number of different kinds of wood 
are now being brought from various parts of the world, new 
kinds are continually being added, and what renders the 
subject more difficult to explain is that timber of practi- 
cally the same character which comes from different coun- 
tries goes under different names. If one were always to 
adhere to the botanical name there would be less confusion, 
although botanists differ as to names, and except in the 
case of the older and better known timbers one rarely 
takes up two books dealing with timbei' and finds the 
