SAWING. 
practice of splitting timber used in build- 
ing, or in making furniture and utensils, for 
we do not speak here of fire-wood ; and, 
indeed, it must be allowed that this method 
is attended with peculiar advantages, which 
that of sawing can never possess. The wood- 
splitters perform their work niore expedi- 
tiously than sawyers, and split timber is 
much stronger than that which has been 
sawn ; for tlie fissure follows the grain of 
the wood, and leaves it whole ; whereas the 
saw, which proceeds in the line chalked out 
for it, divides the fibres, and by these means 
lessens its cohesion and solidity. Split tim- 
ber, indeed, turns out often crooked and 
warped; hut in many purposes to which it 
is applied this is not prejudicial; and these 
faults may sometimes be amended. As the 
fibres, however, retain their natural length 
and direction, thin hoards, particularly, can 
be bent much better. This is a great ad- 
vantage in making pipe-staves, or sieve- 
frames, which require still more art, and in 
forming various implements of the like 
kind. 
The most beneficial and ingenious im- 
provement of this instrument was, without 
doubt, the invention of saw-mills, which are 
driven either by water or by the wind. Mills 
of the first kind were erected so early as the 
fourth century, in Germany, on the small 
river Roeur or Riier : for though Ansonius 
speaks properly of water-mills for cutting 
stone, and not timber, it cannot be doubted 
that these were invented later than mills for 
manufacturing deals, or that both kinds 
were erected at the same time. The art, 
however, of cutting marble with a saw is 
very old. Pliny conjectures that it was in- 
vented at Caria ;' at least he knew no build- 
ing incnisted with marble of greater an- 
tiquity than the palace of king Mausolus, 
at Halicarnassus. This edifice is celebrat- 
ed by Vitruvius for the beauty of its marble ; 
and l^liny gives an account of the different 
kinds of sand used for cutting it; for it is 
the sand properly, says he, and not the 
saw, which produces that effect. The lat- 
ter presses down the former, and rubs it 
against the marble ; and the coarser the 
sand is, the longer will be the time required 
to polish the marble which has been cut by 
it. Stones of the soap-rock kind, which are 
indeed softer than marble, and wliich would 
require less force than wood, were sawn at 
that period : but it appears that the far harder 
glassy kinds of stone were sawn then also ; 
for we are told of the discovery of a building 
which was encrusted with cut agate, corne- 
lian, lapis lazuli, and amethysts. We have, 
however, found no account in any of the 
Greek or Roman writers of a mill for sawing 
wood ; and as the writers of modern limes, 
speak of saw-rnills as new and uncommon, it 
would seem that the oldest construction of 
them has been forgotten, or that some im- 
portant improvemeni; has made them appear 
entirely new. 
Becher, in his history of inventions, says 
that saw-mills were invented in the 17th 
century. In this he erred, for wlien the in- 
fant Henry sent settlers to the island of 
Madeira, which was discovered in 1420, 
and caused European fruits of every kind to 
be carried thither ; he ordered saw mills to 
be erected also, for the purpose of sawing 
into deals the various species Of excellent 
timber with which the island abounded, and 
which were afterwards transported to Por- 
tugal. About the year 1427, the City of 
Breslau had a saw-mill, which produced a 
yearly rent of three marks ; and in 1490, 
the magistrates of Erfurt purchased a forest 
in which tlicy caused a saw-mill to be erect- 
ed, and they rented another mill in the 
neighbourhood besides. 
Norway, which is covered with forests, 
had the first saw-mill about the year 1530. 
This mode of raamifacturing timber was 
called the new art ; and because the expor- 
tation of deals was ■ by these means in- 
creased, that circumstance gave occasion to 
the deal-tythe, introduced by Christian III. 
in the year 1545. Soon after the cele- 
brated Henry Canzau caused the first mill 
of this kind to be built in Holstein. In 
1552 there was a saw-mill at Joachim- 
sthal, which, as w'e are told, belonged to 
Jacob Gcusen, mathematician. In the year 
1555, the bishop of Ely, ambassador from 
Mary queen of England to the. court of 
Rome, having seen a saw-mill in the neigh- 
bourhood of Lyons, the writer of his tra- 
vels thought it worthy of a particular de- 
scription. In the sixteenth century, how, 
ever, there were mills with different saw- 
blades,, by which a plank could be cut into 
several deals , at the same time. The first 
saw-mill was erected in Holland at Saar- 
dam, in the year 1596; and the inveiitioii 
of it is ascribed to Cornelius Cornelissen. 
Perhaps he was the first person wiio built a 
saw mill at that place, which is a village of 
great trade, and has still a great many saw- 
mills, though the number of them is becom- 
ing daily less ; for within the. last half cen- 
tury a hundred have been given up. The 
first mill of this kind in Sweden was erected 
