420 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 
1855." Tests of New South Wales timbers at the Paris Exhibition, by Captain 
Fowke, R.E." (The author has been unable to obtain access to a record of these tests.) 
Some of the results are reproduced in Mr. Balfour's Report (infra). 
The experiments were all made on samples 2 inches square and 1 foot between 
supports, any which did not agree with those standard dimensions being reduced thereto 
by calculation. 
Ig58. " Report of Results obtained from Experiments on the Elasticity and 
Strength of Timber in New South Wales, procured through the Chief Commissioner 
of Railways, and tested at the Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint, in the month of 
March, 1858." Read before the Philosophical Society of New South Wales (now the 
Royal Society), 12th May, 1858, and printed in the Sydney Magazine of Science and 
Art for May, 1858 (p. 258). 
The document was also printed by order of the Legislative Assembly on 3rd 
August, 1858, under the title "Timber of New South Wales (its elasticity and 
strength)." 
The specimens used were fresh cut, taken from trees in the neighbourhood of Belford, which lies 
18 miles from Maitland and 10 miles from Singleton, on the Great Northern Koad. 
The experiments wer<.- conducted as follows: "The distance between the supports was 4 feet; 
th.; beam rested on iron trestle-heads, firmly fixed and prevented from collapsing by stays, the ends left 
free; the weights were applied in the centre, and increased by half-hundred weights at a time, at the 
intervals of half an hour, till the elasticity was evidently destroyed, when the interval between each 
addition was prolonged to an hour. At the end of each interval the beam was relieved of its weight. 
This was effected by means of a screw-jack, which raised the scale on which the weights rested, thus the 
beam was always relieved from pressure, and subjected to it, without jerks." 
I860. " Report of further experiments conducted at the Sydney Branch of 
the Royal Mint, to determine the strength and elasticity of colonial timber, by E. W. 
Ward, Esq., Deputy-Master, presented to Parliament 6th February, 1861." New South 
Wales Votes and Proceedings for 1861, vol. ii. (In the following pages this report is 
referred to when the words " Sydney Mint " are used.) 
The experiments were conducted as follows : " The timber, which usualy consisted of a beam 
2 inches x 2 inches in scantling, and 5 feet in length, was placed horizontally on supports 4 feet apart, 
and consisting of iron trestle-heads firmly fixed and secured from collapsing by stays. The ends of the 
bjam were left free. The weights were applied to the centre by means of a scale suspended from an iron 
staple adjusted half way between the supports. Commencing with a weight of 6 cwt., an addition of 
i cwt. was made at the end of every half-hour until 9 cwt. had been applied, when the interval between 
each successive application was extended to one*hour. At the end of each interval the beam was 
relieved of its weight by means of a screw-jack, which raised the scale in which the weights rested, and 
after the addition of cwt. the weight was brought to bear by gently lowering the scale by the means by 
which it had been raise 1. As soon as it was noticed that the beam on being relieved did not return to its 
horizontal position, the weight in the scale, and the deflection of the beam at that weight (the deflection 
at any particular weight was indicated on a dial fixed above the beam, and having a point connected by 
a simple arrangement with the iron staple to which the scale was attached) were recorded as those at 
which the elasticity had become impaired, and used as the necessary factors for determining the value 
