258 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND AMT. 
the philanthropist, it famishes the legislator with 
materials on which to found remedial measures for 
social derangement and plans for increasing the mass of 
sociat happiness ; and though its conclusions often con¬ 
sist in a bare numerical statement of aggregate results, 
vet they come home with all the authority ot stubborn 
facts, and often tell more than the most elnliorate moral 
appeal. From information thus furnished, it cannot 
be questioned that public attention is often fastened 
with an intensity never before given to the subject, to 
the physical and" moral degradation of a State—dry 
facts are interpreted—and means have been adapted 
for carrying the blessings of education and order into 
those dark recesses where ignorance, vice, and misrule 
appeared to have fortified themselves. _ 
“ Governments have almost exclusively the means 
of making extensive series of observations in the held 
of statistics, yet the exertions of individuals directed 
by voluutarv association can accomplish much, and in 
the invention and proving of methods of investigation 
will often bring forth plans of which Governments may 
avail themselves with advantage. All sciences depend 
for their advancement upon that individual ardour in 
search for truth, and delight in communicating its 
discovery, which in each succeeding age expand the 
realms of human knowledge nud power. Association 
opens a career for exertion ; but the victory over dark¬ 
ness and error must be achieved "by individuals under 
these influences ; and it will be no unworthy object of 
this society to take a part in farthering investigations 
which help to solve problems of deep social and econo¬ 
mical importance, and which instruct and interest us 
in the physical and moral condition of our fellow- 
men.” 
STEENGTH of COLONIAL TIMBER. 
The Master oftheMint,CaptainWard,R.E., 
lias laid before tlie Philosophical Society 
the following valuable paper, containing the 
results of some experiments, made by him, 
on the strength and elasticity of some of 
the ordinary timbers of New South 
Wales. To architects and engineers, and 
indeed, to all interested in the advance¬ 
ment of the colony, this paper cannot fail 
to be highly acceptable. For years our 
builders have been placing girders and 
joists of iron bark and other colonial tim¬ 
bers, in houses,without any accurate means 
of estimating the strain that they will bear 
and what should he their dimensions. 
They will now he able to form definite con¬ 
clusions, on at least four descriptions of 
colonial timber. To this report is ap¬ 
pended another paper, also by Captain 
Ward, exhibiting the results obtained 
from experiments on sixteen varieties of 
New Zealand timbers. 
Report of results obtained from experiments 
on the elasticity and strength of Timber in 
New South Wales, procured through the 
Chief Commissioner for Railways, and 
tested at the Sydney Branch of the Royal 
Mint, in the Month of March, 1858. 
The specimens tried were fresh cut, taken 
from trees in the neighbourhood of Belford, 
which lies eighteen miles from Maitland and 
i ten miles from Singleton, on the Great 
I Northern Road. 
The experiments were conducted as fol- 
' lows :—The distance between the supports 
| was four feet; the 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 sub¬ 
jected to it without jerks. 
The specific gravities were obtained 
with great care, by means of a delicate 
balance in the mint. 
The timber was obtained hv Captain 
Martindale, R.E., Chief Commissioner of 
Railways, through Mr. Collett, an officer 
of his department. The experiments were 
conducted in the Sydney Branch of the 
Royal Mint, under the superintendence of 
Mr. Trickett, superintendent of the coining 
department of the Mint. 
In order that a comparison may be insti- 
uned between the woods of this colony and 
others, I append the values of E. and S. 
of some well-known, ascertained at Wool¬ 
wich D ock-y ard, by P.Barlow, E sq., F. R. S. 
E. 
S. 
Teak .. 
603,600 
2462 
English Oak. 
362,800 
1672 
Canadian Do. ... 
536,201) 
1766 
Asli . 
411,200 
2020 
Beech . 
338,400 
1556 
Pitch Pine . 
300,400 
1032 
It may be as well to explain the use of the 
results exhibited in these tables to those 
not conversant with then- practical bearing. 
Problem I. To determine the strength of 
a rectangular beam of timber when it is 
supported at the ends and loaded in the 
middle. Multiply value of the table in S 
by four times the depth in inches and by 
the area of the section in inches, and divide 
the product by the distance between the 
supports in inches. The quotient will he 
the greatest weight the beam will bear 
in lbs. 
One-fourth the weight found by the rule 
should he the greatest weight upon a-beam 
in practice. 
