XXVIII.] 
DANTZIC FIR. 
2 35 
ings, and also for various fitments in cabins and store¬ 
rooms ; and its special fitness for deck purposes has 
been already mentioned. Further, the cheap, common, 
middling quality is in request for props, or shores, re¬ 
quired for supporting a vessel while in course of con¬ 
struction, or while in dock undergoing repairs, for which, 
and similar purposes, its coarse character is not an 
objection. 
Having in former chapters, treating of the hard-wood 
trees, adopted the British Oak timber as the standard 
of quality and fitness for all the purposes of naval and 
civil architecture, so I propose to adopt the Dantzic Fir 
timber—the most important and generally useful of the 
Firs and Pines—as the standard of comparison for the soft 
or white wood class. I have, therefore,gone more fully into 
the experiments on this timber than it would have been 
possible for me to do with each of the other descriptions. 
The transverse experiments recorded in Table 
CXXII. were made upon pieces of well-seasoned wood, 
of good average quality, and in every respect fit to be 
employed in the best architectural works, their specific 
gravity ranging from 478 to 673, and averaging 582. 
Of these specimens the elasticity of one piece was perfect 
immediately after the weight of 390 lbs. was removed, 
and in each of the others it was very nearly so, the 
average of the whole giving only *o66 of deflection. All 
these would probably have recovered their straightness 
if time had permitted of their being left for only a short 
period prior to proceeding with the breaking strain. 
The strains required to break these specimens varied 
very much, the minimum being 175 and the maximum 
242^5 lbs., the average 219' 16 lbs. on the square inch. 
The deflections at the crisis of breaking varied from 
4 - 5 to 6 - 15 inches, and averaged 5'142 inches. 
