TIMBER 
CHAPTER I 
TIMBER 
Timber being displaced by Steel — New uses for Timber — Street Paving, 
Pulp Manufacture, Telegraph and Telephone Poles— Advantages 
and Disadvantages of Timber compared with Iron and Steel — The 
artistic side of Timber Structures — Wide-reaching Subject and 
Difficulties of Explanation — Plants from which Timber is pro- 
duced — Description of the Structure of Wood — Annual Eings, etc. 
— Causes of Shrinkage and Expansion of Timber. 
A NEW work on timber may by some be considered of 
questionable value, for do we not live in the " steel age " ? 
It is true that steel plays a much more important part in 
constructional work than was formerly the case, and its 
use will doubtless be increased ; the use of ferro-concrete 
will tend to displace a great quantity of timber in building 
aiid other work, chiefly owing to the smaller risk of fire. 
In the huge " sky-scraper " of forty-seven stories now being 
erected in New York by the Singer Sewing Machine Com- 
pany not a cubic foot of timber enters into the permanent 
construction.* Ferro-concrete is also much used for founda- 
tion work where formerly timber was employed, yet as in 
* Since the above was written a fire has occurred on one of the 
upper stories of this building. 
T. B 
