Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN / - * , * co ct DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE WOODS COMMONLY EMPLOYED IN THIS COUNTRY FOR THK MECHANICAL AND ORNAMENTAL ARTS. INTERSPERSED WITH iExtengite Botanical Notes, BY DR. ROYLE, M.D., F.R.S., L.S., AND G.S., ETC. ETC. OF THE EAST INDIA HOUSE J MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDOf PRECEDED BY SOME REMARKS ON THE GROWTH, DIFFERENCES, AND MODES OF USING AND COMBINING THE WOODS. THE WHOLE BEING AN EXTRACT FROM A WORK ENTITLED TURNING AND MECHANICAL MANIPULATION. ETC. ETC. BY CHARLES HOLTZAPFFEL. ASSOCIATE OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, ETO. LONDON : PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY HOLTZAPFFEL & Co., 64, CHARING CROSS, AND 127, LONG ACRE. And to be had of Booksellers. 1852. IV of each other. This plan is also carried out in the subdivision of the volumes into chapters, which may be considered severally to include all that was deemed necessary to be stated upon the respective subjects ; or to be, so far as they extend, distinct treatises ; and which, in cases of doubt, he has not hesitated to submit to various practical friends for confirmation or extension. These appeals have been answered with an alacrity which calls for his warmest thanks ; and the author gladly avails himself of this opportunity of acknowledging these services, which have given a great additional value to his labours. The work being of a technical nature, the author hopes to escape literary criticism, his main object having been to treat every subject in clear and concise language. As, however, notwithstanding his utmost care, he cannot expect to have been so fortunate as entirely to have escaped errors, ambiguities, or omissions, he requests of his readers the favour of the com- munication of any such defects, in order that those of most material import may be noticed in the Appendix to the second and ensuing volume, a great part of which is already completed. CHAKING CROSS, January I, 1843. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE duty that primarily devolves upon the author, in offering to the public the reprint of his first volume of the work on Turning and Mechanical Manipulation, is to express his warmest thanks for the very nattering reception the volume has met with, and which has greatly exceeded his anticipation ; as the first edition was exhausted within two years of its appearance. The author is disposed to hope that his efforts to obtain accuracy have been found successful, from the circumstance that no corrections have been suggested ; and also that his descrip- tions have been found practical, as various amateurs previously unacquainted with some of the subjects treated of in the work, have upon following its pages as a text-book, succeeded in their earliest attempts at various of the processes described ; and amongst these in some of the more difficult, as flattening thin plates of metal, founding, soldering and others : these successes the author views as his highest encomiums. VI It is the author's earnest endeavour to make his entire work keep pace with the existing state of the mechanical arts, which in this country are at most times in a state of rapid progression. This will be attempted by the introduction in the successive appendixes, of such additions and novelties as the author may consider to appertain to the portions of the work already printed. This scheme whilst it renders the first edition equally complete with the second, leaves the sequence of the pages unaltered, so that the index may, as intended, serve in common for the preliminary volumes ; and which instead of being limited to two, it is proposed to extend to three, as explained at length in the preface to the Second Volume, which further portion of the work is this day also laid before the public. CHARING CROSS, November 10, 1846. GENERAL SKETCH OF THE CONTENTS OF THE WORK. VOL. I. MATERIALS, THEIR DIFFERENCES, CHOICE, AND PREPARATION; VARIOUS MODES OF WORKING THEM, GENERALLY WITHOUT CUTTING TOOLS. Introduction-Materials from the Vegetable, the Animal, and the Mineral KingdomsTheir uses in the Mechanical Arts depend on their structural differences, and physical characters. The modes of severally preparing, working, and joining the materials, with the practical descrip- tion of a variety of Processes, which do not, generally, require the use of Tools with cutting edges. VOL. II. THE PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION, ACTION, AND APPLICATION, OF CUTTING TOOLS USED BY HAND ; AND ALSO OF MACHINES DERIVED FROM THE HAND TOOLS. The principles and descriptions of Cutting Tools generally namely, Chisels and Planes, Turning Tools, Boring Tools, Screw-cutting Tools, Saws, Files, Shears, and Punches. The hand tools and their modes of use are first described ; and subsequently various machines in which the hand processes are more or less closely followed. VOL. in. ABRASIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PROCESSES, WHICH CANNOT BE ACCOM- PLISHED WITH CUTTING TOOLS. Grinding and Polishing, viewed as extremes of the same process, and as applied both to the pro- duction of form, and the embellishment of surface, in numerous cases to which, from the nature of the materials operated upon, and other causes, Cutting Tools are altogether inappli- cable. Preparation and Application of Varnishes, Lackers, &c. VOL. IV. THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF HAND OR SIMPLE TURNING. Descriptions of various Lathes ; applications of numerous Chucks, or apparatus for fixing works in the Lathe. Elementary instructions in turning the soft and hard woods, ivory and metals, and also in Screw-cutting. With numerous Practical Examples, some plain and simple, others difficult and complex, to show how much may be done with hand tools alone. VOL. V. THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF ORNAMENTAL OR COMPLEX TURNING. Sliding Rest with Fixed Tools Revolving Cutters, used in the Sliding Rest with the Division Plate and Overhead Motion. Various kinds of Eccentric, Oval, Spherical, Right-line and other Chucks. Djbetson's Geometric Chuck. The Rose Engine, and analogous contrivances, &e. With numerous Practical Examples. VOL. VI. THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF AMATEUR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. Lathes with Sliding Rests for metal turning, Self-acting and Screw-cutting Lathes Drilling Machines Planing Engines Key-groove, Slotting and Paring Machines Wheel-cutting and Shaping Engines, &c. With numerous Practical Examples. % The First, Second, and Third Volumes of this work, are written as accompanying books, and have one Index in common, so as to constitute a general and preliminary work, the addition to which of any of the other volumes, will render the subject complete for the three classes of Amateurs referred to in the Introductory Chapter. A few additional copies of the Index have been printed for the convenienee of those who may desire to bind the Index with Vols. I. and II. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAP. I -INTRODUCTION. p et Hparle d'un Thericles qui se rendit Liv l celebre dans ces sortes d'ouvrages. " C' estoit avec cette machine qu'ils tournoient toutes sortes de vases, dont quelques-uns estoient enrichis de figures, et d'ornemens en demy-bosse. Les Auteurs Grecs et Latins Lenta quibus 7 -~. 77 . 7 torno fatilis su- en parlent souvent, et Ciceron appelle ceux qui les ptraddita vitis. formoient auTour, Vascularii. C' estoit un proverbe Vascuiarios cwt- parmy les Anciens, de dire que les choses estoient "ci^Orat ^n Ver f a ^ es au tow, pour en exprimer lajustesse, et la delicatesse"* In conclusion the writer adverts to the great extent to which the art of turning had been practised by various persons, (gens libres,} as a source of amusing occupation. Without pursuing these researches it may suffice to observe, that sufficient evidence exists that the art of turning has been successfully practised during a period of not less than two thousand years, although until a comparatively recent date, no description has been given of the methods pursued. Plumier adverts to the following old authors on various sub- jects, in which, amongst other matters, some brief allusions to the art are made, and which in point of date stand as follows : 1582. Besson's work, " Theatrum Instrument orum et Machina- rum" has three engravings of complex lathes for screw-cutting, and oblique turning, with very slight descriptions. 1624. De Caus, " Les Raisons des Forces Mouvantes," contains one engraving, and a few lines explanatory of a mode of turning the oval and of screw-cutting. 1677-83. " Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of * Pages 376-7. 6 GERMAN TREATISES. Handy-works" published in London, in monthly parts. Vol. I. contains, "Smithing, Joinery) Carpentry, Turning ,Bricklayery , and Mechanick Dy ailing" with a good description of the apparatus for turning. Vol. II., " Handy -works applied to the Art of Printing." 1690. Felibien, " Des Principes de V Architecture, de la Sculp- ture, de la Peinture, et des autres Arts qui en dependent :" Paris. This author has devoted twelve pages to his remarks on the lathe, with a few words relative to the modes of oval turning, and to rose-engine work. In 1719, (that is, eighteen years after Plumier's book,) a quarto volume was published at Lyons, styled " Recueil d' Ouvrages curieux, de Mathcmatique et de Mecanique ; ou descrip- tion du Cabinet de M. Grollier de Serviere, par son petit-fils" This work contains eighty plates, with etchings of his grand- father's designs for time-pieces, hydraulic machines, various bridges, military and other works, preceded by twelve plates of several of his highly-ornamental works executed in the lathe. And lastly, in 1724-7, Leupold published at Leipzic eight folio volumes, entitled " Theatrum Machinarum" &c., which include a vast store of curious and useful matter, containing the germs and principles of many contrivances that are now commonly and abundantly used. All these books are contained in the library of the British Museum, except that of Plumier,* who appears not to have seen a rare book of more remote date than any of the above, namely, " Panoplia Omnium" &c., by Hartman Schopper, printed at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 1548, about twenty years after the Reformation: this old work contains ISO highly characteristic engravings, cut plank-ways on wood, and taken from every grade of life, civil, religious, and military, not forgetting the liberal and constructive arts, amongst which are included that of the turner, and those of a variety of artisans whose pursuits are intimately allied to our present subject. This work, which will be again referred to, shows that a great degree of perfec- tion and subdivision in the practice of the mechanical arts existed even at that early period. The execution of Plunder's work is honourable to its author, from the industrious care and exactness which it exhibits, more * It is rather singular that not only Plumier's, but all the subsequent French and English works, written exclusively on turning (except Rich's) should be absent from that extensive and national collection of books. FRENCH TREATISES. 7 especially when it is considered that it is almost the first work published upon the subject : a second edition, with extra plates, and additional text, was published in Paris, 1749, when it also appeared in folio. It formed the basis of the article on the art of Turning, published in 1791, in " V Encyclopedic Mtthodique," (begun in 1782,) by Diderot, D'Alembert, and others, wherein forty crowded engravings of turning machinery are contained : various other French works on the same subject quickly followed. First, the earlier edition of the " Manuel du Tourneur," 2 vols. quarto, 1792-4, Paris, by L, E. Bergeron; this work is highly satisfactory, and is a record of all the material improvements introduced in the mechanism of the lathe by our continental neighbours, subsequent to the period at which Plumier wrote ; and from these machines many of our modern contrivances are taken, although during the interval which has since elapsed, considerable changes have been introduced, as well in the manner of turning as in the material of the apparatus, wood being in many cases supplanted by metal, a more useful change as regards the excellence of construction, and also the strength and durability of the machinery. A second edition of Bergeron's work, revised by his son-in-law, Hamelin Bergeron, was published in 1816 ; another smaller pub- lication, entitled "U Artdu Tourneur , par M.Paulin Desormeux" in 2 vols. 12mo., with an atlas, was printed in Paris in 1824 ; and lastly, two small volumes 16mo, with plates, entitled " Nouveau Manuel du Tourneur, ou Traite complet etsimplifiede cet Art) redige par M. Dessables," the second edition of which, printed in 1839, and forming a part of the " Encyclopedic- Roret" completes the list of French works devoted to the subject, the last two being in some respects compilations from Bergeron ; the latter works only include the practice of hand-turning, leaving unnoticed the rose- engine, the eccentric-chuck, and various apparatus described in the old books, although the" Manuel-Roret" contains, in an appen- dix, some extracts relative to the art of turning, from more recent scientific journals, and the printed transactions of various socie- ties, with explanatory notes, by Mapod, " Tourneur-mecanicien." In England, where, during the last half-century, the art has perhaps been far more extensively practised, both as a source of emolument and of amusement, we find in addition to the brief articles in the various encyclopaedias, periodicals, and a few works 8 ENGLISH TREATISES. devoted to mechanical subjects, only the following treatises on detached portions of the art, namely : 1817. "Specimens of Eccentric Circular Turning, with Practical Illustrations for producing Corresponding Pieces in that Art. By John Holt Ibbetson, Esq." 1819. " Specimens of the Art of Ornamental Turning, in Eccentric and Concentric Patterns, with 6 copper-plate engrav- ings; by Charles H. Rich, Esq., Southampton." 1819. "Tables; by which are exhibited at one view all the divisions of each circle on the dividing plate. By C. H. Rich, Esq." 1825. A second edition of Ibbetson's Specimens. 1833. "A Brief Account of Ibbetson's Geometric Chuck, manufactured by Holtzapffel & Co., with a selection of 32 Specimens, illustrative of some of its powers. By J. H. Ibbet- son, Esq." * 1838. A third edition of Ibbetson's Specimens of Eccentric Circular Turning. " With considerable Additions, including a description and copperplate engravings of the Compound Eccen- tric Chuck, constructed by the Author, and used by him in the execution of his Specimens/' The mention of the above publications by Mr. Ibbetson, enables me to particularise the services he has rendered to his fellow amateurs ; and their inspection will abundantly show the great care and perseverance that he has devoted to the pursuits of turning, and the deserved eminence he has attained therein. He has not only attended to the production of numerous highly ornamental combinations and effects, many of which are displayed in the treatises before cited ; others in his " Practical View of an Invention for the better protecting Bank Notes against Forgery," editions 1 and 2, 1820 and 21, and in numerous communications to the Mechanics' Magazine; he has done more than this by constructing with his own hands the major pai't of the apparatus that he has used, many of which are original, and will be duly noticed in their appropriate places, in this work. The best notices in our language of the general application of the art, are probably those contained in Rees's Cyclopaedia, under the heads of "Turning," " Lathe," and " Rose Engine." * For Mr. Ibbetson's first description of his modification of the Geometric Chuck, see Mechanics' Magazine, 30th Dec., 1826. DIFFICULTIES OF ARRANGEMENT. 9 Several amateurs have undertaken the translation of Berge- ron's Manuel into the English language, and others have commenced new works, but none of these have been carried to completion. The former proceeding would have called for a re-construction of the book, which, although it abounds .with a great deal of original, useful, and practical matter, is rather diffuse, and refers to apparatus that have been so far altered and superseded by others of more recent construction, and subsequent invention, that such a translation, if adapted to the present state of the art, would almost amount to a new work. The author of these pages has been repeatedly urged, by many amateurs, to write a work upon the subject, but by no one more than by his late father, in conjunction with whom he made several beginnings; but the pressure of other business has prevented their efforts from arriving at maturity, and the delay has been materially lengthened by the difficulty of deter- mining upon the most suitable arrangement. The first intention was to have written the book as a series of lessons ; to have begun with the description of the plain or simple lathe, and so to have selected the examples, as to have successively described the more important and valuable of those instruments and methods which are now used. The writer still pursued the same views after the loss of his father, in 1835, and the work was somewhat advanced on that plan, but ultimately abandoned, as he found the information upon each individual topic would then be scattered, difficult of reference, and introduced without any apparent order. That arrangement of the work would also have prevented him from introducing the notice of many useful contrivances, and from instituting a variety of comparisons between different methods, the insertion of which would greatly facilitate the explanations, and present a choice of proceeding. Moreover, as the art now embraces a much more extensive and still increasing range of objects and instruments, than it did at the time when Bergeron wrote, the difficulties of arrange- ment that he experienced, are now proportionally increased. The author also felt some doubt as to his ability to produce, upon the first method, a work that should satisfactorily meet the wants of amateur turners generally, in reflecting upon the widely different views with which they had, even for some centuries, practised turning and the mechanical arts. 10 DIFFERENT PURSUITS OF AMATEUR TURNERS. Many persons have followed these arts as a source of active and industrious employment, accessible at all hours, in the intervals between their other pursuits ; a source of amusement that renders the amateur independent of the ordinary artisan for the supply of a great variety of works of utility for the common wants of life, including those constantly required either for the domestic establishment, or those personally expe- rienced by its inhabitants, of every age and occupation. Other amateurs have pursued the art of turning as a source of elegant recreation, and of inventive and skilful pastime ; one closely allied to the fine arts, insomuch as its greatest success depends upon a just appreciation of sculpture and painting, and for the attainment of which the education and opportunities of the man of independent leisure eminently qualify him ; whilst the embellishment of the drawing-room, cabinet, and boudoir, stimulate him to apply his knowledge and skill to that end, and in which he frequently administers at the same time to the extension and cultivation of tasteful form in ordinary manu- factures. There is also a class of amateurs who have preferred the pur- suit of such branches of the art as unite, with taste and design, a certain admixture of the more exact acquirements connected with mathematical and general science, and the arts of con- struction ; and who have devoted their time and ingenuity to the production of models, embracing a variety of objects relative to the arts of peace and war ; and also to the construction of various machines and apparatus, or to the still more praiseworthy attempt of improving those already in use, or of inventing new ones ; the services that have been thus rendered by men of independence and education are neither few nor slight. In all such cases the progress is more rapid and certain, when the pencil is devoted to the production of the drawing, and the tool to the formation of the rough model, as proceedings in common, prior to making the finished apparatus. In selecting topics from the very numerous branches of the subject, the author has endeavoured to supply the more imme- diate wants of all classes of amateurs, and under these circum- stances he has thought it best, for the convenience and choice of the general reader, to separate the practical division of the subject of Turning into three distinct and different parts, to be preceded by three general or preliminary volumes, to contain ARRANGEMENT CONSEQUENTLY ADOPTED BY THE AUTHOR. 11 miscellaneous information more or less required in the pursuit of every branch of the mechanical arts; thus dividing the entire work into six volumes namely, VOL. I. MATERIALS, THEIR DIFFERENCES, CHOICE, AND PREPARATION; VARIOUS MODES OF WORKING THEM, GENERALLY WITHOUT CUTTING TOOLS. VOL. II. THE PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION, AND PURPOSES OF CUTTING TOOLS. VOL. III. ABRASIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PROCESSES. VOL. IV. THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF HAND OR SIMPLE TURNING. VOL. V. THE PRINCIPLES ASD PRACTICE OF ORNAMENTAL OR COMPLEX TURNING. VOL. VI. THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF AMATEUR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. The first volume, which is now in the hands of the reader, relates principally to the materials for turning and the mecha- nical arts, arranged under the heads of the three great sources from which they are respectively derived ; namely, the vegetable, the animal, and the mineral departments of nature ; it includes also their treatment in the extended sense of the word, so far as regards their preparation for the Lathe, and their employment in various distinct branches of mechanical art, the practices of which do not in general require the use of tools with cutting edges. The metallic materials are submitted to the greatest variety of processes, and which mainly depend on their properties of fusibility, malleability, and ductility; and consequently, the formation and qualities of alloys are considered, as also the arts of founding and soldering; those of forging works in iron and steel which are comparatively thick, and the nearly analo- gous treatment of thin works, or those in sheet metals ; drawing tubes and wires, hardening and tempering, and a variety of correlative information is also offered, for the particulars of which the reader is referred to the Table of Contents. The second volume, on cutting tools, is intended first to explain the general principles of cutting tools, which are few and simple ; the forms and proportions of tools are however extensively modi- fied, to adapt them to the different materials, to the various 12 CONTEXTS OF THE DIFFERENT VOLUMES. shapes to be produced, and to the convenience of the operator, or of the machine in which they are fixed. The remarks on the tools will inevitably be somewhat commingled with the account of their practical use, and the consideration of the machines with which they are allied, as indeed it is difficult to say where the appellation of tool ends, and that of machine or engine begins. The tools will be treated of in different chapters, on Chisels and Planes, Turning Tools, Boring Tools, Screw Cutting Tools, Saws, Files, Shears and Punches, and in various subdivisions. The third volume will be devoted to the description of abrasive processes; namely, those for restoring or sharpening the edges of the cutting tools ; those for working upon substances to which, from their hardness or crystalline structure, the cutting tools are quite inapplicable; and also to the modes of polishing, which may be viewed as a delicate and extreme application of the abrasive process, and the final operation after the cutting tools ; and lastly, to the ordinary modes of staining, lackering, varnish- ing, and other miscellaneous subjects. The titles of the fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes are, it is expected, sufficiently descriptive of their contents, which will be arranged with a similar attempt at order and classification, upon which it is unnecessary here to enlarge. From the systematic arrangement attempted throughout the six volumes, it is hoped that instead of the numerous descriptions and instructions, being indiscriminately mixed and scattered, they will assume the shape of so many brief and separate treatises, and will in a great measure condense into a few consecutive pages, the remarks offered under every head; a form that will admit of any subject being selected, and of a more easy and distinct reference and comparison, when the reader may find it necessary ; a facility that has been particularly studied. Every one of the six volumes may be considered as a distinct work and complete in itself; this will admit of any selection being made from their number. At the same time it is to be observed that the first, second, and third ^are written as accom- panying volumes, and will have an index in common, so as to constitute a general and preliminary work; the addition to which, of one of the other volumes, will render the subject com- plete for any of the three classes of amateurs before referred to, should the entire work be deemed too extensive. 13 FIRST DIVISION OR PART. CHAPTER II. MATERIALS FROM THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. SECT. I. THEIR GROWTH, STRUCTURE, AND PREPARATION. THE materials used in turning and the mechanical arts are exceedingly numerous : we obtain from the Vegetable Kingdom an extensive variety of woods of different characters, colours, and degrees of hardness, and also a few other substances. The most costly and beautiful products of the Animal King- dom, are the tusks of the elephant, the tortoise and pearl shells; but the horns, hoofs, and some of the bones of the ox, buffalo, and other animals, are also extensively used for more common purposes. From the Mineral Kingdom are obtained many substances which are used in their natural states, and also the important products of the metallic ores. It would be altogether misplaced to attempt a minute and general description of these varied materials, as they will be found in their more appropriate places in works on natural his- tory, physiology, mineralogy, and metallurgy ; and it is the less necessary, as those which are more commonly used, are familiar to us in the buildings, machinery, implements, furniture, and ornaments, by which we are surrounded : others of less extensive supply are, in many respects, only varieties which are subject to similar usage. I shall therefore principally restrict myself, to the description of those characters of the usual materials which lead the artisan to select them for his several purposes, and that also direct the choice of the tools by means of which they are respectively worked. By far the most numerous and important of the materials from the Vegetable Kingdom are the woods, with which most parts of our globe are abundantly supplied ; great numbers of them are used in their respective countries, and are known to the naturalist, although but a very inconsiderable portion of them are familiar to us in our several local practices. 14 VEGETABLE MATERIALS, THE WOODS. The woods that are the most commonly employed in this country, are enumerated in an alphabetical list, together with the most authentic information I could obtain concerning them ; in collecting which, the assistance of various kind friends has been obtained, amongst whom are numbered travellers, natural- ists, merchants and manufacturers. Various museums, collec- tions, and works, have been carefully examined, so as to include in the list, the more important of the various names of the woods, their countries, general and mechanical characters, and their principal uses in the arts of construction. The alphabetical catalogue is preceded by a tabular view, intended to classify the woods that are themost generally selected by our artisans for certain ordinary uses ; it will also serve, in a slight degree, to throw them into groups according to some of the differences between them, referrible principally to their fibrous structures, by which they are distinguished as hard or soft, elastic or non-elastic, of plain or variegated appearance, of permanent figure or the reverse. Their other varieties, in respect to colour and scent, and the oils, resins, gums, medicinal and various other matters, they respectively contain, are questions of equal importance, but they are more connected with the chemical and economic arts, and but slightly concern this inquiry. I shall therefore, nearly restrict myself to the questions arising from the mechanical structure and treatment of the woods, which it is proposed to consider under separate heads, in the present and three following chapters. The general understanding of the principal differences of the woods will be greatly assisted by a brief examination into their structure, which is now so commonly and beautifully developed Figs. I. 2. 3. by the sections for the microscope. The figures 1, 2, 3 are drawn from thin cuttings of beech- wood, prepared by the opti- STRUCTURE OF THE WOODS. 15 cian for that instrument ; the principal lines alone are repre- sented, and these are magnified to about twice their linear distances, for greater perspicuity. Fig. 1, which represents the horizontal or transverse section of a young tree or a branch, shows the arrangement of the annual rings around the centre or pith ; these rings are surrounded by an exterior covering, consisting also of several thinner layers, which it will suffice to consider collectively, in their common acceptation, or as the bark. The fibres which are seen as rays proceeding from the pith to the bark, are the medullary rays or plates. Figs. 2 and 3 are vertical sections of an older piece of beech- wood. Fig. 2 is cut through a plane, such as from a to a, in which the edges of the annual rings appear as tolerably parallel fibres running in one direction, or lengthways through the stem ; the few thicker stripes are the edges of some of the medullary rays. Fig. 3 is cut radially, or through the heart, as from b to b. In this the fibres are observed to be arranged in two sets, or to run crossways ; there are first the edges of the annual rings, as in fig. 2, and secondly, the broad medullary rays or plates. The whole of these figures, but especially the last, show the character of all the proper woods, namely, those possessing two sets of fibres, and in which the growth of the plant is accom- plished, by the yearly addition of the external ring of the wood, and the internal ring of the bark, whence these rings are called annual rings, and the plants are said to be exogenous, from the growth of the wood being external. In fig. 1 the medullary rays are the more distinctly drawn, in accordance with the appearance of the section, as they seem to constitute more determinate lines ; whereas the annual rings consist rather of series of tubes, arranged side by side, and in contact with each other, and which could not be represented on so small a scale. At the outer part of each annual ring these tubes or pores appear to be smaller and closer ; the substance is consequently more dense, from the greater proportion of the matter forming the walls of the tubes ; and the inner or the softer parts of the annual rings have in general larger vessels, and therefore less density. In many plants the wedge-form plates, intermediate between 16 STRUCTURE OF THE WOODS. the medullary rays, only appear as an irregular cellular tissue full of small tubes or pores, without any very definite arrange- ment.* The medullary rays constitute, however, the most cha- racteristic part of the structure, and greatly assist in determin- ing the difference between the varieties of the exogenous plants, as well as the wide distinction between the entire group and those shortly to be described. The medullary rays also appear, by their distinct continuity, to constitute the principal source of combination and strength in the substance of the woods ; most of the medullary rays, in proceeding from the center to the cir- cumference, divide into parts to fill out the increased space. In the general way, the vertical fibres of the annual rings, and the horizontal fibres of the medullary rays, are closely and uniformly intermingled ; they form collectively the substance of the wood, and they also constitute two series of minute inter- stices, that are viewed to be either separate cells or vessels, the majority of which proceed vertically, the others radially. In many, as the oak, sycamore, maple, and sweet chesnut, the medullary rays, when dissected, exhibit a more expanded or foliated character, and pervade the structure, not as simple radial tubes, but as broad septa or divisions, which resemble flattened cells or clefts amongst the general groups of pores, giving rise to the term silver-grain, derived from their light and glossy appear- ance : they vary considerably in size and number. The beech-wood, fig. 3, has been selected as a medium example between this peculiarity and the ordinary crossings of the fibres, which in the firs and several others seem as straight as if they were lines mechanically ruled; and even in the most dense woods are in general easily made out under the microscope. The vessels or cells running amidst the fibres are to the plant what the blood-vessels and air-cells are to the animal ; a part of them convey the crude sap from the roots, or the mouths of the plant, through the external layers of the wood to the leaves, in which the sap is evaporated and prepared ; the fluid afterwards returns through the bark as the elaborated sap, and combines with that in the external layers of the wood, the two constituting * In the CissampeJos Pareira, belonging to the natural order Afenispermacece, this structure is singularly evident ; the medullary rays are very thick, and almost de- tached from the intermediate wedge-form plates, which are nearly solid except the few pores by which they are pierced, much like the substance of the common cane. STRUCTURE OP THE PALMS, ETC. 17 Fig. 5. the cambium. The latter ultimately becomes consolidated for the production of the new annual ring that is deposited beneath the loosened bark, and which is eventually to constitute a part of the general substance or wood; the bark also receives a minute addition yearly, and the remainder of the fluid returns to the earth as an excretion.* The other order of plants grows in an entirely different man- ner, namely by a deposition from within, whence they are said to be endogenous ; these incl ude all the grasses, bamboos, palms, &c. Endogens are mostly hollow, and have only one set of fibres, the vertical, which appear in the transverse section, fig. 4, as irregular dots closely con- gregated around the margin, and gradually more distant towards the center, until they finally disappear, and leave a central cavity, or a loose cel- lular structure. Fig. 5 repre- sents the horizontal, and fig. 6 the vertical section of portions / of the same, or the cocoa-nut palm, (Cocos nucifera,} of half their full size. All the endogens are considered to commence from a circular pithy stem which is entirely solid ; some, as the canes, maintain this solidity, with the exception of the tubes or pores extending throughout their length. The bamboos extend greatly in diameter, so as to become hollow, except the diaphragms at the knots ; these are often used as cases for rolls of papers. The palms generally enlarge still more considerably to their extreme size, which in some cases is fifty times the diameter of the original stem, the center being soft and pithy. Some of the palms, &c., denote each yearly increase by one of * The reader is referred to the following articles in the three editions of Dr. Lindley's Introduction to Botany, namely " Exogenous structure," and " Of the stem and origin of wood ;" and also " Exogens," and " Endogens," by the same author in the Penny Cyclopaedia; all are replete with physiological interest. VOL. i. c 18 STRUCTURE OF THE PALMS, ETC. the rings or markings upon their stems, which are always soft in the upper part, like a green vegetable, and terminate in a cluster of broad pendent leaves, generally annual, and when they drop off they leave circular marks upon the stem, which are some- times permanent, and indicate by their number the age of the plant. The vertical fibres above referred to, proceed from the leaves, and are considered to be analogous to their roots, and likewise to assimilate in function to the downward flow of the sap from the leaves of the exogens : whereas in the palms they constitute separate and detached fibres, that first proceed inwards, and then again outwards, with a very long and gradual sweep, thereby causing the fibres to be arranged in part vertically, and in part inclined, as in the figure.* The substance of the stems of the palms, is not allowed by physiological botanists to be proper wood, (which in all cases grows exteriorly, and possesses the two sets of fibres shown in fig. 3,) whereas the endogenous plants have only the one set, or the vertical fibres; and although many of this tribe yield an abundance of valuable gifts to the natives of the tropical climates in which they flourish, only a portion of the lower part of the shell of the tree is available as wood ; amongst other purposes, the smaller kinds are used by the natives as tubes for the convey- ance of water, and the larger pieces as joists and beams. The larger palms generally reach us in slabs measuring about the sixth or eighth part of the circle, as in fig. 4, the smaller sizes are sent entire ; fig. 5 represents a small piece near the outside, with the fibres half size ; but the different palms vary considerably in the shapes, magnitudes and distances of the fibres, and the colours and densities of the two parts. In the vertical section, fig. 6, which is also drawn half size, the fibres look like streaks or wires embedded in a substance similar to cement or pith, which is devoid of fibrous structure; the inhabitants of the Isthmus of Darien pick out the fibres from some of the palms and use them as nails, they are generally pointed, and in the specimens from which the drawing was made, they are as hard as rosewood, whereas the pithy substance is quite friable. Some of the smallest palms are imported into this country for walking-sticks, under the names of partridge and * The leaves of the exogens are by some thought to send down similar roots or fibres, between the bark and wood for the formation of the annual ring. ANNUAL RINGS. 19 Penang canes, &c. The ordinary canes and bamboos are too well known to require more than to be named. See article PALMS, in the catalogue. To return to the more particular examination of the woods that most concern us, it will be observed that the central pith in fig. 1, happens to be of an irregular triangular shape. This, the primary portion of the plant, is in the first instance always cylindrical ; it is supposed to assume its accidental form, (which is very frequently hexagonal,) from the compression to which it is subjected. The pith governs, in a considerable degree, the general figure or section, as all the series of rings will be observed, in fig. 1, page 14, to have a disposition to project at three points ; but with the successive additions, the angular form is gradually lost, as it would be if we wound a ribbon upon a small triangular wire; for after a time, no material departure from the circular form would be observable. A greater variation amongst the rings is due to the more or less favourable growth of the successive years, and to the different exposure of the tree to the sun and air, which develop that side of the plant in an additional degree ; whereas the tree growing against a wall or any other obstruction, becomes remarkably stunted on that side of its axis, from being so shielded. The growth of a tree is seldom so exactly uniform that its section is circular, or its heart central, often far from it ; and as every annual ring is more consolidated, and of a deeper colour on its outer surface, they frequently serve to denote very accu- rately, in the woods growing in cold and temperate climates, the age of the plant, the differences of the seasons, the circum- stances of its situation, and the general rapidity of its growth. " But in many hot countries the difference between the growing- season and that of rest, if any occur, is so small, that the zones are as it were confounded, and the observer finds himself inca- pable of distinguishing with exactness the formation of one year from that of another."* It is, however, difficult to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion respecting the qualities of woods from the appearance of their annual rings ; for instance, in two specimens of larch, considered by Mr. Fincham f to be exceedingly similar, in specific gravity, * Dr. Lindley's Introduction to Botany, second edition, p. 74. t Principal builder of Her Majesty's Dock-yard, Chatham. c 2 20 CIRCULATION OF THE SAP. strength and durability ; iii the one, Scotch larch, there were only three annual rings in five-eighths of an inch, whereas in Italian larch there were twenty-four layers in the same space. In some of the tropical woods the appearance of the rings can scarcely he denned, and in a specimen of the lower or butt end of teak, now before me, three annual rings alone, cover the great space of one inch and three-eighths. The horizontal section of a tree, occasionally looks as if it were the result of two, three, or more separate shoots or stems con- solidated into one ; in some of the foreign woods in particular, this irregularity often gives rise to deep indentations, and most strange shapes, which become eventually surrounded by one single covering of sap ; so that a stem of considerable girth may yield only an insignificant piece of wood, scarcely available for the smallest purposes of turnery, much less for cabinet work.* The circulation of the sap is considered to be limited to a few of the external layers, or those of the sap-wood, or albur- num, which are in a less matured state than the perfect wood, or duramen, beneath. The last act of the circulation, as regards the heart-wood, is supposed to be the deposition of the colouring matter , resin or gum, through the agency of the medullary rays that proceed from the bark towards the center, and leave their contents in the layer outside the true wood perfected the year previous. We may fairly suppose by analogy, that as one ring is added each year, so one is perfected annually, and thrown out of the circulatory system. That the circulation has ceased in the heart-wood, and that the connexion between it and the bark has become broken, is further proved by the fact, that numbers of trees may be found in tolerably vigorous growth within the bark, whereas at the heart they are decayed and rotten. In fact some of the hardest foreign woods, as king-wood, tulip-wood, and others, are rarely sound in the center, and thus indicate very clearly that * This is not peculiar to the tropical woods ; for example, some of the yew-trees in Hampton Court gardens, appear to have grown in this manner from three or four separate stems, that have joined into one at a short distance above the ground. As an instance of the singular manner in which the separate branches of trees thus combine, I may mention that stones, pieces of metal, and other substances, are occasionally met with in the central parts of timber, from having been accidentally deposited in. a cleft, or the fork of a branch, and entirely inclosed or overgrown by the subsequent increase of the plant. THE TREE WHEN FELLED. their decay commenced whilst they were in their parent soil ; and as in these, the appearance of annual rings is scarcely to be distinguished, this also appears to indicate a great term of age, enough to account for this relatively premature decay. The quantity of sap-wood is various in different plants, and the line of division is usually most distinctly marked ; in some, as boxwood, the sap-wood is very inconsiderable, and together with the bark is on the average only about the thickness of a stout card, whereas in others, as the snake-wood, it constitutes fully two-thirds of the diameter, so that a large tree yields but an inconsiderable stick of wood, of one third or fourth the external diameter. It may be presumed that in the same variety of wood, about an average number of the layers exist as sap-wood, as in cutting up a number of pieces of the same kind, such as the black Botany-Bay wood, and others, it is found that in those measuring about two inches diameter, the piece of heart-wood is only about as large as the finger, but in pieces one, two, or three inches larger, the heart- wood is also respectively one, two, or three inches larger, or nearly to the full extent of the increase of the diameter. The sap-wood may be therefore, in general, considered as of about an average thickness in each kind of wood : it is mostly softer, lighter, more even in colour, and more disposed to decay than the heart-wood, which prove it to be in a less matured or useful state, whether for mechanical or chemical purposes. At the time the tree is separated from its root, its organic life ceases, and then commences the gradual evaporation of the sap, and the drying and contracting of the tubes, or tissues, previously distended by its presence. The woods are in general felled during the cold months, when the vegetative powers of the plant are nearly dormant, and when they are the most free from sap ; but none of the woods are fit for use in the state in which they are cut down, for although no distinct circulation is going on within the heart-wood, still the capillary vessels keep the trees continually moist throughout their substance, in which state they should not be employed. If the green or wet woods are placed in confined situations, the tree or plank, first becomes stained or doated, and this 22 GREEN WOOD UNFIT FOR USE. speedily leads to its decomposition or decay effects that are averted by careful drying with free access of air.* Other mischiefs almost as fatal as decay also occur to unsea- soned woods ; round blocks cut out of the entire circular stem of green wood, or the same pieces divided into quarterings, split in the direction of the medullary rays, or radially, also though less frequently upon the annual rings. Such of the round blocks as consist of the entire section contract pretty equally, and nearly retain their circular form, but those from the quarterings become oval from their unequal shrinking. As a general observation, it may be said the woods do not alter in any material degree in respect to length. Boards and flat * On this account the timbers for ships are usually cut out to their shape and dimensions for about a year before they are framed together, and they are com- monly left a twelvemonth longer in the skeleton state, to complete the seasoning ; as in that condition they are more favourably situated as regards exposure to the air than when they are closely covered in with the planking. Mr. Fincham considers that the destruction of timber by the decay commonly known as dry-rot, cannot occur unless air, moisture, and heat, are all present, and that the entire exclusion of any of the three stays the mischief. By way of expe- riment, he bored a hole in one of the timbers of an old ship built of oak, whose wood was at the time perfectly sound ; the admission of air, the third element, to the central part of the wood, (the two others being to a certain degree present,) caused the hole to be filled up in the course of twenty-four hours with mouldi- ness, a well-known vegetation, which very speedily became so compact a fungus as to admit of being withdrawn like a stick. He considers the shakes or splits in timber to predispose it to decay in damp and confined situations, from admitting the air in the same manner. The woods differ amazingly in their resistance to decay ; some perish in one or two years, whereas others are very durable, and even preserve their fragrance when they are opened after many years, or almost centuries. Mr. G. Loddiges says, the oak boxes, for the plants in his green-houses, decay in two or three years, whereas he has found those of teak to last fully six or seven times as long : the situation is one of severe trial for the wood. There are two quarto works on dry-rot; the one by Mr. M'William, 1818 ; the other by Mr. John Knowles, Surveyor of Her Majesty's Xavy, 1821. The process of Kyanizing is intended to prevent the re-vegetation of timber, by infusing into its pores an antiseptic salt : the corrosive sublimate is generally employed, other metallic salts are also considered to be applicable, but the general utility of the process, especially in thick timbers, or those exposed to much wet, is still unsettled amongst practical men. The Kyanizing is sometimes done in open tanks, at others/ (by Timperley's pro- cess, Hull and Selby Kailway.) in close vessels from which the air is first exhausted to the utmost, and the fluid is then admitted under a pressure of about 100 pounds on the inch. See Minutes of Proceedings, Inst, Civ. Eng., p. 83, 1841. See also note H in Appendix to Vol. II., page 953, in which Payne's more recent pre- servative process is described. SEASONING THE WOODS. 23 pieces contract however in width, they warp and twist, and when they are fitted as panels into loose grooves, they shrink away from that edge which happens to be the most slightly held ; but when restrained by nails, mortices or other unyielding attach- ments, which do not allow them the power of contraction, they split with irresistible force, and the materials and labour thus improperly employed will render no useful service. In general, the softest woods shrink the most in width, but no correct observations on this subject have been published. Mr. Fincham considers the rock-elm to shrink as much as any wood, namely, about half an inch in the foot, whereas the teak scarcely shrinks at all; in the "Tortoise;" store-ship, when fifty years old, no openings were found to exist between the boards. In the woods that have been partially dried, some of these effects are lessened when they are defended by paint or varnish, but they do not then cease, and with dry wood, every time a new surface is exposed to the air, even should the work have been made for many years, these perplexing alterations will in a degree recommence, even independently of the changes of the atmosphere, the fluctuations of which the woods are at all times too freely disposed to obey. The disposition to shrink and warp from atmospheric influ- ence, appears indeed to be never entirely subdued; some bog- oak, supposed to have been buried in the island of Sheppy, not less than a thousand years, was dried for many months, and ultimately made into chairs and furniture ; it was still found to shrink and cast, when divided into the small pieces required for the work. SECT. II. SEASONING AND PREPARING THE WOODS. HAVING briefly alluded to the mischiefs consequent upon the use of woods in an improper condition, I shall proceed to describe the general modes pursued for avoiding such mischiefs by a proper course of preparation. The woods immediately after being felled, are sometimes immersed in running water for a few days, weeks, or months, at other times they are boiled or steamed ; this appears to be done under the expectation of diluting and washing out the sap, after which it is said the .drying is more rapidly and better accom- plished, and also that the colours of the white woods are im- 24 SEASONING THE WOODS. proved, (see article HOLLY iu Catalogue, also EBONY,) but the ordinary course is simply to expose the logs to the air, the effect of which is assisted by the preparation of the wood into smaller pieces, approaching to the sizes and forms in which they will be ultimately used, such as square logs and beams, planks or boards of various thicknesses, short lengths or quarterings, &c. The stems and branches of the woods of our own country ; such as alder, birch, and beech, that are used by the turner, frequently require no reduction in diameter ; but when they are beyond the size of the work, they are split into quarterings and stacked in heaps to dry, which latter proceeding should never be forgotten under any circumstances. We know but little of the early treatment of the foreign Avoods used for cabinet-work and turning; some few of them, as mahogany and satin-wood, are imported in square logs ; others, as rosewood, ebony, or coromandel, are sometimes shipped in the halves of trees, or in thick planks ; but the generality of those used for turning are small, and do not require this reduc- tion ; these only reach us in billets, sometimes with the rind or bark upon them, and sometimes cleaned or trimmed. The smaller hard woods are very much more wasteful than the timber woods; in many of the former, independently of their thick bark, the section is very far from circular, as they are often exceedingly irregular, indented, and ill-defined ; others are almost constantly unsound in their growth, and either present central hollows and cavities, or cracks and radial divisions, which separate the stem into three or four irregular pieces. Probably none of the hard woods are so defective as the black Botany-Bay wood, in which the available produce, when it is trimmed ready for the lathe, may be considered to be about one third or fourth of the original weight, sometimes still less ; but unfortunately many others approach too nearly to this condition, as a very large proportion of them partake of the imperfections referred to, more especially the cracks; the larger hard woods are by comparison much less wasteful. All the harder woods require increased care in the seasoning, which is often badly begun by exposure to the sun or hot winds in their native climates : their greater impenetrability to the air the more disposes them to crack, and their comparative scarcity and expense, are also powerful arguments on the score of pre- PREPARING THE TURNERY- WOODS. 25 caution. It is therefore desirable to prepare them for the transition from the yard or cellar to the turning room, by removing the parts which are necessarily wasted, the more intimately to expose them to the air, some time before they are placed in the house, and they should be always kept away from the fire, or at first in a room altogether without one. It is usual to begin by cutting the logs into pieces a few inches or upwards in length, to the general size of the work ; and if possible to prepare every piece into a round block, or into two or three, when the wood is irregular, hollow, or cracked. In the latter case, a thin wedge is inserted into the principal crack, and driven down with a wooden maul ; or a cleaver such as Fig. 7. / fig. 7, which has a sharp edge, and a pole to receive the blow, is used in the same manner ; these tools, or the hatchet, are like- wise used in splitting up the English woods, when they are beyond the diameters required.* The cleft pieces are next roughly trimmed with the hatchet, or else with the paring knife, (fig. 8 over leaf) a tool of safer and more economical application in the hands of the amateur : it is a lever knife, from two and a half to three feet long, the cutting edge is near that end which termi- nates in a hook, the other extremity has a transverse handle; an eye-bolt for the hook to act against, is screwed into the bench or block, and a detached cutting board is fixed under the blade, to serve as the support for the wood, and for the knife to cut upon. To avoid waste of material, it is advisable, until the eye is well accustomed to the work, to score with the compasses upon each end of the rough block, as large a circle as it will allow, to serve as a guide for the knife. The block, represented in fig. 8, is adapted to the bearers of the lathe, but any other support will serve equally well. The paring-knife is also employed for other purposes besides those of the turner : it is sometimes made with a curved edge like a * Sometimes the glazier's chipping knife is used for small pieces of wood instead of the cleaver represented. See also Appendix, Note I., page 953, vol. ii. 26 PREPARING THE TURNERY-WOODS. gouge, and is used in many shaping operations in wood, as in the manufacture of shoe-lasts, clogs, pattens, and toys.* Fig. 8. In the absence of the paring-knife or hatchet, the work is fixed in the vice, and rounded with a coarse rasp, but this is much less expeditious ; by some manufacturers the preparation both of the foreign and English woods is prosecuted still further, by cutting the material into smaller pieces, rough turned and hollowed in the lathe, to the forms of boxes, or other articles for which they are specifically intended, and in fact every measure that tends to make the change of condition gradual, assists also "in the economy, perfection, and permanence of the work. Many of the timber woods are divided at the saw-pit into planks or boards, at an early stage, in order to multiply the sur- faces upon which the air may act, and also to leave a less distance for its penetration : after sawing, they should never be allowed to rest in contact, as the partial admission of the air often causes stains or doating : but they are placed either perpendicularly or * A paring-knife similar to the above, but working in a guide, and with an edge 12 or 14 inches long, is a most effective instrument in the hands of the toy -makers. The pieces of birch, alder, &c. are boiled in a cauldron for about an hour to soften them, and -whilst hot they may be worked with great expedition and perfection. The workmen pare off slices, the plankway of the grain, as large as 4 by 6 inches, almost as quickly as they can be counted : they are wedged tight in rows, like books, to cause them to dry flat and straight, and they seldom require any subsequent smoothing. In making the little wheels for carts, &c., say of one or two inches diameter, and one-quarter or three-eighths of an inch thick, they cut them the cross- way of the grain, out of cylinders previously turned and bored ; the flexibility of the hot moist wood being such, that it yields to the edge of the knife without breaking transversely as might be expected. PREPARING THE TIMBER- WOODS. 27 horizontally in racks, or they are more commonly stacked in horizontal piles, with parallel slips of wood placed between at distances from about three to six or eight feet, according to the quantity of support required ; the pile when carefully stacked forms a press and keeps the whole flat and straight. Thin pieces will be sufficiently seasoned in about one year's time, but thick wood requires two or three years, before it is thoroughly fit to be removed to the warmer temperature of the house for the completion of the drying. Mahogany, cedar, rosewood, and the other large foreign woods, require to be carefully dried after they are cut into plank, as notwithstanding the length of time that sometimes intervenes between their being felled and brought into use, they still retain much of their moisture whilst they remain in the log." In some manufactories the wood is placed for a few days before it is worked up, in a drying-room heated by means of stoves, steam, or hot water, to several degrees beyond the temperature to which the finished work is likely to be subjected. Such rooms are frequently made as air-tight as possible, which appears to be a mistake, as the wood is then surrounded by a warm but stagnant atmosphere, which retains whatever moisture it may have evaporated from the wood. Of late a plan has been more successfully practised in seasoning timber for build- ing purposes, by the employment of heated rooms with a free circulation of air, which enters at the lower part in a hot and dry state, and escapes at the upper charged with the moisture which it freely absorbs in the heated condition. The continual ingress of hot dry air, greedy of moisture, so far expedites the drying, that it is accomplished in one-third of the time that is required in the ordinary way in the open air.f * Scientifically considered, the drying is only said to be complete when the wood ceases to lose weight from evaporation ; this does not occur after twice or thrice the period usually allowed for the process of seasoning. In many modern buildings small openings are left through the walls to the external air to allow a partial circulation amidst the beams and joists, as a preser- vative from decay, and for the entire completion of the seasoning, t Price's Patent. 2S CHAPTER III. USEFUL CHARACTERS OF WOODS. SECT. I. HARD AND SOFT WOODS, ETC. THE relative terms hard and soft, elastic or non-elastic, and the proportions of resins, gums, &c., as applied to the woods, appear to be in a great measure explained by their examination under the microscope, which develops their structure in a very satisfactory manner. The fibres of the various woods do not appear to differ so materially in individual size or bulk, as in their densities and distances : those of the soft woods, such as willow, alder, and deal, appear slight and loose ; they are placed rather wide asunder, and present considerable intervals for the softer and more spongy cellular tissue between them ; whereas in oak, mahogany, ebony, and rosewood, the fibres appear rather smaller, but as if they possessed a similar quantity of matter, just as threads containing the same number of filaments are larger or smaller accordingly as they are spun. The fibres are also more closely arranged in the harder woods, the intervals between them are necessarily less, and the whole appears a more solid and compact formation. The very different tools used by the turner for the soft woods and hard woods respectively, may have assisted in fixing these denominations as regards his art ; a division that is less specifi- cally entertained by the joiner, who uses the same tools for the hard and soft woods, excepting a trifling difference in their angles and inclinations ; whereas the turner employs for the soft woods, tools with keen edges of thirty or forty degrees, applied obliquely, and as a tangent to the circle ; and for the hard woods, tools of from seventy to ninety degrees upon the edge, applied as a radius, and parallel with the fibres, if so required. The tools last described answer very properly for the dense woods, in which the fibres are close and well united ; but applied to the softer kinds, in which the filaments are more tender and less firmly DENSITY OF THE WOODS. 29 joined, the hard- wood tools produce rough, torn, and unfinished surfaces. In general the weight or specific gravity of the woods may be taken as a sure criterion of their hardness; for instance, the hard lignum-vitse, boxwood, ironwood, and others, are mostly so heavy as to sink in water ; whereas the soft firs, poplar and willow, do not on the average exceed half the weight of water, and other woods are of intermediate kinds.* The density or weight of many of the woods may be increased by their mechanical compression, which may be carried to the extent of fully one third or fourth of their primary bulk, and the weight and hardness obtain a corresponding increase. This has been practised for the compression of tree-nails for ships, by driving the pins through a metal ring smaller than themselves directly into the hole in the ship's side;f at other times, (for railway purposes,) the woods have been passed through rollers, but this practice has been discontinued, as it is found to spread the fibres laterally, and to tear them asunder ;J an injury that does not occur when they are forced through a ring, which condenses the wood at all parts alike, without any dis- turbance of its fibrous structure, even when tested by the * The most dense wood I have met with is in Mr. Fincham's collection ; it is the Iron Bark wood from New South Wales : in appearance it resembles a close hard mahogany, but more brown than red ; its specific gravity is 1-426, its strength, (compared with English oak, taken as usual at TOGO,) is 1-557. On the other hand the lightest of the true woods is probably the Cortifa, or the Anona pcdustris, from Brazil, in Mr. Mier's collection ; the specific gravity of this is only 0'206, (whereas that of cork is 0'240,) it has only one-seventh the weight of the Iron Bark wood. The Cortifa resembles ash in colour and grain, except that it is paler, finer, and much softer ; it is used by the natives for wooden shoes, &c. The Pita wood, that of the Fourcroya gigantea, of the Brazils, an endogen almost like pith, (used by the fishermen of Rio de Janeiro, as a slow match, for lighting cigars, &c. ; also like cork for lining the drawers of cabinets for insects,) and the rice paper plant of India and China, which is still lighter and more pithy, can hardly be taken into comparison. t Mr. Annersley's Patent, 1821, for building vessels of planks only, without ribs. J Dublin and Kingston Railway. The mode at present practised by the Messrs. Ransome of Ipswich, (under their patent,) is to drive the pieces of oak into an iron ring by means of a screw press, and to expose them within the ring to a temperature of about 180 for twelve or sixteen hours before forcing them out again. The tree-nails may be thus compressed into two-thirds their original size, and they recover three-fourths of the compression on being wetted ; they are used for 30 DURABILITY OF THE WOODS. microscope ; after compression the wood is so much harder, that it cuts very differently, and the pieces almost ring when they are struck together ; fir may be thus compressed into a substance as close as pitch-pine. In many of the more dense woods, we also find an abundance of gum or resin, which fills up many of those spaces that would be otherwise void : the gum not only makes the wood so much the heavier, but at the same time it appears to act in a mecha- nical manner, to mingle with the fibres as a cement, and to unite them into a stronger mass ; for example, it is the turpen- tine that gives to the outer surface of the annual rings of the red and yellow deals, the hard horny character, and increases the elasticity of those timbers.* Those woods which are the more completely impregnated with resin, gum, or oil, are in general also the more durable, as they are better defended from the attacks of moisture and insects. Timbers alternately exposed to wet and dry, are thought by Tredgold and others, to suffer from losing every time a certain portion of their soluble parts ; if so, those which are naturally impregnated with substances insoluble in water may, in conse- quence, give out little or none of their component parts in the change from wet to dry, and on that account the better resist decay : this has been artificially imitated by forcing oil, tar, &c., through the pores of the wood from the one extremity.f Many of the woods are very durable when constantly wet ; the generality are so when always dry, although but few are suited to withstand the continual change from one to the other state ; but these particulars, and many points of information respecting timber-woods that concern the general practice of the builder, or naval architect, such as their specific gravities, relative strengths, resistances to bending and compression, and other characters, are treated of in Tredgold's Elements of Carpentry, at considerable length.J railway purposes, but appear equally desirable for ship-building, in which the tree- nails fulfil an important office, and in either case their after-expansion fixes them most securely. See Minutes, Inst. Civ. Eng., 1841, p. 83-7. * See the treatment of the Firs in Norway, article FIRS, in Catalogue. t The durability of pitch pine, when " wet and dry," is however questioned. J The work contains a variety of the most useful tables : the reader will likewise find a set of tables of similar experiments on American timbers, by Lieut. Denison, Royal Engineers, F.R.S., &c., in the Trans. Inst. Civ. Eng., vol. ii. p. 15, and also ELASTIC WOODS. 31 SECT. II. ELASTIC AND NON-ELASTIC WOODS. THE most elastic woods are those in which the annual or longitudinal fibres are the straightest, and the least interwoven with the medullary rays, and which are the least interrupted by the presence of knots ; such woods are also the most easily rent, and the plainest in figure, as the lancewood, hickory and ash ; whereas other woods, in which the fibres are more crossed and interlaced, are considerably tougher and more rigid ; they are also less disposed to split in a straight or economical manner, as oak, beech and mahogany, which, although moderately elastic, do not bend with the facility of those before named. Fishing-rods, unless made of bamboo, have generally ash for the lower joint, hickory for the two middle pieces, and a strip cut out of a bamboo of three or four inches diameter as the top joint. Archery bows are another example of elastic works ; the " single-piece bow" is made of one rod of hickory, lancewood, or yew tree, which last, if perfectly free from knots, is considered the most suitable wood : the " back or union bow " is made of two or sometimes three pieces glued together. The back-piece, or that furthest from the string, is of rectangular section, and always of lancewood or hickory ; the belly, which is nearly of semicircular section, is made of any hardwood that can be obtained straight and clean, as ruby-wood, rose- wood, green - heart, king- wood, snake-wood, and several others : it is in a great measure a matter of taste, as the elasticity is principally due to the back-piece ; the palmyra is also used for bows.* The elasticity or rather the flexibility of the woods, is greatly increased for the time, when they are heated by steaming or boiling; the process is continually employed for bending the oak two other sets of experiments on Indian timber woods, by Captain H. C. Baker, late of the Bengal Artillery, superintendent of the half- wrought timber-yard, Cal- cutta, at pp. 123 and 230 of the Gleanings of Science, published at Calcutta, 1829. * The union bow is considered to be " softer," that is more agreeably elastic than the single-piece bow, even when the two require the same weight to draw them to the length of the arrow. In the act of bending the bow, the back is put into tension, and the inner piece into a state of compression, and each wood is then employed in its most suitable manner. Sometimes the union bow is imitated by one solid piece of straight cocoa-wood, (of the West Indies, not that of the cocoa-nut palm,) in which case the tough fibrous sap is used for the back, and in its nature sufficiently resembles the lance-wood more generally used. 32 FLEXIBILITY AND SOFTENING. and other timbers for ship-building, the lance- wood shafts for carriages, the staves of casks, and various other works. The woods are steamed in suitable vessels, and are screwed or wedged, at short intervals throughout their length, in contact with rigid patterns or moulds, and whilst under this restraint they are allowed to become perfectly cold ; the pieces are then released. These bent works suffer very little departure from the forms thus given, and they possess the great advantage of the grain being parallel with the curve, which adds materially to their strength, saves much cost of material and time in the preparation, and gives in fact a new character to the timber. The inner and outer plankings of ships are steamed or boiled before they are applied ; they are brought into contact with the ribs by temporary screw-bolts which are ultimately replaced by the copper bolts inserted through the three thicknesses and riveted : or they are secured by oak or locust tree-nails, which are caulked at each end.* Boiling and steaming are likewise employed for softening the woods, to facilitate the cutting as well as bending of them.f When the two sets of fibres meet in confused angular direc- tions, they produce the tough cross-grained woods, such as * See the description of Mr. William Hockey's apparatus for bending ships' timbers, rewarded by the Society of Arts, and described in their Trans., vol. 32, p. 91. Preference is now given to the " Steam Kiln " over the " Water Kiln," and the time allowed is one hour for every inch of the thickness of the timber ; it loses much extractive matter in the process, which is never attempted a second time, as the wood then becomes brittle. Colonel G. A. Lloyd devised an ingenious and economical mode of bending the timbers to constitute the ribs of a teak-bridge which he built in the Mauritius. Every rib was about 180 ft. long, and of 8 ft. rise, and consisted of five thicknesses of wood of various lengths and widths. The wood had been cut down about a month ; it was well steamed and brought into contact with a strong mould, by means of an iron chain attached to a hook at the one extremity of the mould and passed under a roller fixed at the other ; the chain was drawn tight by a powerful capstan. Whilst under restraint the neighbouring pieces were pinned together by tree-nails, after which a further portion of the rib was proceeded with : the seasoning of the timber was also effected by the process. f Thus in Taylor's Patent Machinery for making casks, the blocks intended for the staves are cut out of white Canada oak to the size of thirty inches by five, and smaller. They .are well steamed, and then sliced into pieces one-half or five-eighths inch thick, at the rate of 200 in each minute, by a process far more rapid and economical than sawing ; the instrument being a revolving iron plate of 12 or 14 feet diameter, with two radial knives, arranged somewhat like the irons of an ordi- nary plane or spokeshave. RIGIDITY; LIGNUM-VIT.E. 33 lignum-vitse, elm, &c., and, like tlie diagonal braces in carpentry and shipping, they deprive the mass of elasticity, and dispose it rather to break than to bend, especially when the pieces are thin, and the fibres crop out on both sides of the same ; the confusion of the fibres is, at the same time, a fertile source of beauty in appearance to most woods. Elm is perhaps the toughest of the European woods ; it is con- sidered to bear the driving of bolts and nails better than any other, and it is on this account, and also for its great durability under water, constantly employed for the keels of ships, for boat-building, and a variety of works requiring great strength and exposure to wet. A similar rigidity is also found to exist in the crooked and knotted limbs of trees from the confusion amongst the fibres, and such gnarled pieces of timber, especially those of oak, were in former days particularly valued for the knees of ships : of later years they have been in a great measure superseded by iron knees, which can be more accurately and effectively moulded at the forge to suit their respective places, and they cause a very great saving in the available room of the vessel. The Iignum-vita3 is a most peculiar wood, as its fibres seem arranged in moderately thick layers, crossing each other obliquely, often at as great an angle as thirty degrees with the axis of the tree ; when the wood is split, it almost appears as if the one layer of annual fibres grew after the manner of an ordinary screw, and the succeeding layer wound the other way so as to cross them like a left-hand screw. The interlacement of the fibres in lignum-vitse is so rigid and decided, although irregular, that it exceeds all other woods in resistance to splitting, which cannot be effected with economy; the wood is consequently always prepared with the saw. It is used for works that have to sustain great pressure and rough usage, several examples of which are given under the head LIGNUM-VITJE, in the Catalogue already referred to. CHAPTER IV. ORNAMENTAL CHARACTERS OF WOODS. SECT I. FIBRE OR GRAIN, KNOTS, ETC. THE ornamental figure or grain of many of the woods, appears to depend as much or more upon the particular directions and mixings of the fibres, as upon their differences of colour. I will first consider the effect of the fibre, assisted only by the slight variation of tint, observable between the inner and outer surfaces of the annual layers, and the lighter or more silky character of the medullary rays. If the tree consisted of a series of truly cylindrical rings, like the tubes of a telescope, the horizontal section would exhibit circles ; the vertical, parallel straight lines ; and the oblique sec- tion would present parts of ovals ; but nature rarely works with such formality, and but few trees are either exactly circular or straight, and therefore although the three natural sections have a general disposition to the figures described, every little bend and twist in the tree disturbs the regularity of the fibres, and adds to the variety and ornament of the wood. The horizontal section, or that parallel with the earth, only displays the annual rings and medullary rays, as in fig. 1, p. 14, and this division of the wood is principally employed by the turner, as it is particularly appropriate to his works, the strength and shrinking being alike at all parts of the circumference, in the blocks and slices cut out of the entire tree, and tolerably so in those works turned out of the quarterings or parts of the transverse pieces. But as the cut is made intermediate between the horizontal line, and the one parallel with the axis, the figure gradually slides into that of the ordinary plank, magnified portions of which are shown in figs. 2 and 3 : and these are almost invariably selected for carpentry, &c. The oblique slices of the woods possess neither the uniformity of grain of the one section, nor the strength of the other, and it ORIGIN OF THE CUELS IN WOOD. 35 would be likewise a most wasteful method of cutting up the timber; it is therefore only resorted to for thin veneers, when some particular figure or arrangement of the fibres has to be obtained for the purposes of ornamental cabinet-work. The perpendicular cut through the heart of the tree is not only the hardest but the most diversfied, because therein occurs the greatest mixture and variety of the fibres, the first and the last of which, in point of age, are then presented in the same plank ; but of course the density and diversity lessen as the board is cut further away from the axis. In general the radial cut is also more ornamental than the tangental, as in the former the medullary rays produce the principal effect, because they are then displayed in broader masses, and are considered to contain the greater proportion of the colouring matter of the wood. The section through the heart displays likewise the origin of most of the branches, which arise first as knots, in or near the central pith, and then work outwards in directions corresponding with the arms of the trees, some of which, as in the cypress and oak, grow out nearly horizontally, and others, as in the poplar, shoot up almost perpendicularly. Those parts of wood described as curls, are the result of the confused fillingin of the space between the forks, or the springings Fig. 9. B of the branches. Fig. 9 represents the section of a piece of yew-tree, which shows remarkably well the direction of the main stem A B, the origin of the branch C, and likewise the D2 36 BRANCHES AND KNOTS. formation of the curl between B and C ; fig. 10 is the end view of the stem at A. In many woods, mahogany especially, the curls are particularly large, handsome and variegated, and are generally produced as explained. It would appear as if the germs of the primary branches were set at a very early period of the growth of the central stem, and gave rise to the knots, many of which however fail to penetrate to the exterior so as to produce branches, but are covered over by the more vigorous deposition of the annual rings. All these knots and branches, act as so many disturbances and interruptions to the uniformity of the principal zones of fibres, which appear to divide to make way for the passage of the off-shoots, each of which possesses in its axis a filament of the pith, so that the branch resembles the general trunk in all respects, except in bulk, and again from the principal branches smaller ones continually arise, ending at last in the most minute twigs, each of which is distinctly continuous with the central pith of the main stem, and fulfils its individual share in causing the diversity of figure in the wood. The knots are commonly harder than the general substance, and that more particularly in the softer woods ; the knots of the deals, for example, begin near the axis of the tree, and at first show the mingling of the general fibres with those of the knot, much the same as in the origin of the branch of the yew in fig. 9, but after a little while it appears as if the branch, from elongating so much more rapidly than the deposition of the annual rings upon the main stem, soon shot through and became entirely detached, and the future rings of the trunk were bent and turned slightly aside when they encountered the knot, but without uniting with it in any respect. This may explain why the smooth cylindrical knots of the outer boards of white deal, pine, &c., so frequently drop out when exposed on both sides in thin boards ; whereas the tur- pentine in the red and yellow deals may serve the part of a cement, and retain these kinds the more firmly. The elliptical form of the knots in the plank, is mostly due to the oblique direction in which they are cut, and their hardness, (equal to that of many of the tropical hard woods,) to the close grouping of the annual rings and fibres of which they are them- selves composed. These are compressed by the surrounding wood ROOTS; POLLARD TREES. 37 of the parent stem, at the time of deposition ; whereas the princi- pal layers of the stem of the tree are opposed alone by the loosened and yielding bark, and only obtain the ordinary density. The knots of large trees are sometimes of considerable size, I have portions of one of those of the Norfolk Island pine, (Auracaria excelsa,} which attained the enormous size of about four feet long, and four to six inches diameter. In substance it is thoroughly compact and solid, of a semi-transparent hazel- brown, and it may be cut almost as well as ivory, and with the same tools, either into screws, or with eccentric or drilled work, &c. ; it is an exceedingly appropriate material for orna- mental turning.* It is by some supposed that the root of a tree is divided into about as many parts or subdivisions as there are branches, and, that speaking generally, the roots spread around the trunk under ground, to about the same distance as the branches wave above ; the little germs or knots from which they proceed being in the one case distributed throughout the length of the stem of the tree, and in the other crowded together in the shorter portion buried in the earth. If this be true, we have a sufficient reason for the beautiful but gnarled character of the roots of trees when they are cut up for the arts ; many a block of the root of the walnut-tree, thus made up of small knots and curls, and that was first intended for the stock of a fowling-piece, has been cut into veneers and arranged in angular pieces to form the circular picture of a table, and few pictures of this natural kind will be found more beautiful. The roots of many trees also display very pretty markings ; some are cut into veneers, and those of the olive-tree, and others, are much used on the Continent for making snuff-boxes. The tops of the pollard trees, such as the red oak, elm, ash, and other trees, owe their beauty to a similar crowding together of the little germs, whence have originated the numerous shoots which proceeded from them after they had been lopped. The burrs or excrescences of the yew, and some other trees, appear to arise from a similar cause, apparently the unsuccessful attempts at the * I am indebted to Maj. Brown for my specimens of this knot, and the informa- tion concerning it ; a part of a knot of the same species, with some of the surround- ing wood, is in the model room of the Admiralty, Somerset House. 38 BUKIIS OR WENS; KIABOOCA, MAPLE, ETC. formation of branches from one individual spot, from this may arise those bosses or wens, which almost appear as the result of disease, and exhibit internally crowds of knots, with fibres sur- rounding them in the most fantastic shapes. Sometimes the burrs occur of immense size, so as to yield a large and thick slab of highly ornamental wood of most confused and irregular growth : such pieces are highly prized, and are cut into thin veneers to be used in cabinet-work. It appears extremely clear likewise, that the beautiful East Indian wood, called both Kiabooca and Amboyna, is, in like manner, the excrescence of a large timber tree. Its character is very similar to the burr of the yew-tree, but its knots are com- monly smaller, closer, and the grain or fibre is more silky. The Kiabooca has also been supposed to be cut from around the base of the cocoa-nut palm, a surmise that is hardly to be main- tained although the latter may resemble it, as the Kiabooca is imported alone from the East Indies, whereas the cocoat-nut palm is common and abundant both in the eastern and western hemispheres.* (See KIABOOCA in the Catalogue.) The bird's-eye maple shows in the finished work the peculiar appearance of small dots or ridges, or of little conical projections with a small hollow in the centre, (to compare the trivial with the grand, like the summits of mountains, or the craters of volcanoes,) but without any resemblance to knots, which are the apparent cause of ornament in woods of somewhat similar character, as the burrs of the yew and kiabooca, and the Russian maple (or birch tree) : this led me to seek a different cause for its formation. On examination, I found the stem of the American bird's-eye maple, stripped of its bark, presented little pits or hollows of irregular form, some as if made with a conical punch, others ill-defined and flattened like the impression of a hob-nail ; sus- pecting these indentations to arise from internal spines or points in the bark, a piece of the latter was stripped off from another block, when the surmise was verified by their appearance. The * I have a beautiful specimen of a Burr, found occasionally upon the teak, which is fully equal in beauty to the Amboyna, but a smaller figure ; I owe it to the kindness of Dr. Horsfield of the India-House. Mr. G. Loddiges considers the burrs may occur upon almost all old trees, and that they result from the last attempt of the plant to maintain life, by the repara- tion of any injury it may have received. BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE, ETC. 39 layers of the wood being moulded upon these spines, each of their fibres is abruptly curved at the respective places, and when cut through by the plane, they give, in the tangental slice, the appearance of projections, the same as in some rose-engine patterns, and the more recent medallic glyptographic or stereo- graphic engravings, in which the closer approximation of the lines at their curvatures, causes those parts to be more black, (or shaded,) and produces upon the plane surfaces, the appearances of waves and ridges, or of the subject of the medal. The short lines observed throughout the maple wood, between the dots or eyes, are the edges of the medullary rays, and the same piece of wood when examined upon the radial section, exhibits the ordinary silver grain, such as we find in the syca- more, (to which family the maple tree belongs,) with a very few of the dots, and those displayed in a far less ornamental manner. The piece examined measured eight inches wide, and five and a half inches radially, and was apparently the produce of a tree of about sixteen inches diameter ; the effect of the internal spines of the bark was observable entirely across the same, that is through each of the 130 zones of which it consisted. The curvature of the fibres was in general rather greater towards the center, which is to be accounted for by the successive annual depositions upon the bark, detracting in a small degree from the height or magnitude of the spines within the same, upon which the several deposits of wood were formed. Other woods also exhibit spines, which may be intended for the better attach- ment of the bark to the stem, but from their comparative minuteness, they produce no such effect on the wood as that which exists, I believe exclusively, in the bird's-eye maple. This led me to conclude, that in woods the figures of which resemble the undulations, or the ripple marks on the sands, that frequently occur in satin-wood and sycamore, less frequently in box-wood, and also in mahogany, ash, elm, and other woods, to be due to a cause explained by fig. 11, namely a serpentine or guilloche form in the grain : and on inspection, the fibres of all such pieces will be found to be wavy, on the face, at right angles to that on which the ripple is observed, if not on both faces. Those parts of the wood which happen to receive the light, appear the brightest, and form the ascending sides of the ripple, 40 SERPENTINE GRAIN; SILVER GRAIN. just as some of the medallic engravings appear in cameo or in intaglio, according to the direction in which the light falls upon them. Fig. 11. The woods possessing this wavy character, generally split with an undulating fracture, the ridges being commonly at right angles to the axis of the tree, or square across the board ; but in a speci- men of an Indian red wood, the native name of which is Caliatour, the ridges are inclined at a considerable angle, presenting a very peculiar appearance, seen as usual on the polished surface.* In those woods which possess in abundance the septa or silver grain, described by the botanist as the medullary plates or rays, the representations of which as regards the beech tree are given in fig. 3, p. 14, another source of ornament exists ; namely, a peculiar damask or dappled effect, somewhat analogous to that artificially produced on damask linens, moreens, silks, and other fabrics, the patterns on which result from certain masses of the threads on the face of the cloth running lengthways, and other groups crossways. This effect is observable in a remark- able degree in the more central planks of oak, especially the light- coloured wood from Norway, and the neighbourhood of the Rhine, called wainscot and Dutch oak, &c., and also in many other woods, although in a less degree. In the oak plank, the principal streaks or lines are the edges of the annual rings, which show, as usual, parallel lines more or less waved from the curvature of the tree, or the neighbouring knots and branches ; and the damask pencillings, or broad curly veins and stripes, are caused by groups of the medullary rays or septa, which undulate in layers from the margin to the center of the tree, and creep in betwixt the longitudinal fibres, above some of them and below others. The plane of the joiner, here and there, intersects portions of these groups, exactly on a level Dr. Royle favoured me with this curious specimen. OAK, ETC. 41 with their general surface, whereas their recent companions are partly removed in shavings, and the remainder dip beneath the edges of the annual rings, which break their continuity ; this will be seen when the septa are purposely cut through by the joiner's plane. Upon inspecting the ends of the most handsome and showy pieces of wainscot oak and similar woods, it will be found that the surface of the board is only at a small angle with the lines of the medullary rays, so that many of the latter " crop out " upon the surface of the work : the medullary plates being seldom flat, their edges assume all kinds of curvatures and elongations from their oblique intersections. All these peculiarities of the grain have to be taken into account in cutting up woods, when the most showy character is a matter of consideration. The same circumstances occur in a less degree in all the woods containing the silver grain, as the oriental plane-tree, or lace-wood, sycamore, beech, and many others, but the figures become gradually smaller ; until at last, in some of the foreign hard woods, they are only distinguishable on close inspection under the magnifier. Some of the foreign hard woods show lines very nearly parallel, and at right angles to the axis of the tree, as if they were chatters or utters arising from the vibration of the plane-iron. The medullary rays cause much of the beauty in all the showy woods, notwithstanding that the rays may be less defined than in the woods cited.* In many of the handsomely figured woods, some of the effects attributed to colour would, as in damask, be more properly called those of light and shade, as they vary with the point of view selected for the moment. The end grain of mahogany, the surfaces of the table-cloth, and of the mother- of-pearl shell, are respectively of nearly uniform colour, but the figures of the wood and the damask, arise from the various ways in which they reflect the light. Had the fibres of all these substances been arranged with the uniformity and exactitude of a piece of plain cloth, they would have shown an even uninterrupted colour, but fortunately for * The Cuticaem branco, from Carvalho da Terra, Brazils, and Cuticaem vermo, brought over by Mr. Morney, (Admiralty Museum,) show the silver grain very prettily ; the first in peculiar straight radial stripes, the other in small close patches. The Rewa-rewa, (Knightia excelsa,) from New Zealand, is of similar kind ; all would be found handsome light- coloured furniture woods. 42 VARIATION OF COLOUR. the beautiful and picturesque such is not the case ; most fibres are arranged by nature in irregular curved lines, and therefore almost every intersection through them, by the hand of man, partially removes some and exposes others, with boundless variety of figure. If further proof were wanted, that it is only the irregular arrangement that causes the damask or variegated effect, I might observe that the plain and uniform silk, when passed in two thicknesses face to face, between smooth rollers, comes out with the watered pattern ; the respective fibres mutually emboss each other, and with the loss of their former regular character they cease to reflect the uniform tint.* To so boundless an extent do the interferences of tints, fibres, curls, knots, &c., exist, that the cabinet-maker scarcely seeks to match any pieces of ornamental wood for the object he may be constructing. He covers the nest of drawers, or the table, with the neighbouring veneers from the same block, the proximity of the sections causing but a gradual and unobserved difference in the respective portions ; as it would be in vain to attempt to find two different pieces of handsomely figured wood exactly alike. SECT. II. VARIATIONS OF COLOUR. THE figures of the woods depend also upon the colour as well as on the fibre ; in some the tint is nearly uniform, but others partake of several shades of the same hue, or of two or three different colours, when a still greater change in their appearance results. In the horizontal sections of such woods, the stripes wind partly round the center as if the tree had clothed itself at different parts with coats of varied colours with something like caprice : tulip-wood, king-wood, zebra-wood, rose-wood, and many others, show this very distinctly; and in the ordinary plank these markings get drawn out into stripes, bands and * The brilliant prismatic colours of the pearl are attributed to the decomposition and reflection of the light by the numerous minute grooves or striae, a more vivid effect of the same general kind. A beautiful artificial example of the same description was produced by Sir John Barton, then comptroller of the Royal Mint ; he engraved with the diamond, the surfaces of hard steel dies in lines as fine as 2000 in the inch, arranged in hexagons, &c. The gold buttons struck from these dies display the brilliant play of iridescent colours of the originals. VAEIEGATED WOODS PROPER FOR SMOOTH WORKS. 43 patches, and show mottled, dappled, or wavy figures of the most beautiful or grotesque characters, upon which it would be needless to enlarge, as a glance at the display of the upholsterer will convey more information than any description, even when assisted by coloured figures.* Those woods which are variegated both in grain and colour, such as Amboyna, king-wood, some mahogany, maple, partridge, rose-wood, satin-wood, snake-wood, tulip-wood, zebra-wood, and others, are more generally employed for objects with smooth surfaces, such as cabinet-work, vases, and turned ornaments, as the beauties of their colours and figures are thereby the best displayed. Every little detail in the object causes a diversion in the forms of the stripes and marks existing in the wood : these terminate abruptly round the mouldings which have sharp edges, and upon the flowing lines they are undulated with infinite variety into curves of all kinds, which often terminate in fringes from the accidental intersections of the stripes in the woods. The elegant works in marquetry, in which the effect of flowers, ornamental devices, or pictures, is attempted by the combination of pieces of naturally coloured woods, are invariably applied to smooth surfaces. In the same manner the beautifully tesselated wood floors, abundant in the buildings of one or two centuries back, which exhibit geometrical combinations of the various ornamental woods, (an art that has been recently pursued in miniature by the Tunbridge turners in their Mosaic works,) are other instances, that in such cases the plain smooth surface is the most appropriate to display the effect and variety of the colours, for such of the last works as are turned into mouldings fail to give us the same pleasure. Even-tinted woods are best suited to the work of the eccentric chuck, the revolving cutters, and other instruments to be ex- plained ; in which works, the carving is the principal source of ornament : the variation of the wood, in grain or colour, when it occurs, together with the cutting of the surface, is rather a source of confusion than otherwise, and prevents the effect either * Attempts have been made to stain some of our European woods during their growth, by inserting certain portions of their roots in vessels filled with colouring matters, but I am not aware with what success. It is not however to be expected, that such a mode would be either so effective or permanent, as that produced by the natural absorption during the entire period of the life of the plant, an experiment of too lengthened and speculative a character to be readily undertaken. 44 PLAIN WOODS PROPER FOR ECCENTRIC TURNING. of the material, or of the work executed upon it, from being thoroughly appreciated. The transverse section, or end grain of the plain woods, is the most proper for eccentric turning, as all the fibres are then under the same circumstances; many of the woods will not admit of being worked with such patterns, the plankway of the grain : and of all the woods the Black Botany-Bay wood, or the black African wood, by which name soever it may be called, is most certainly the best for eccentric turning ; next to it, and nearly its equal, is the cocoa-wood (from the West Indies, not the cocoa-nut palm) ; several others may also be used, but the choice should always fall on those which are of uniform tint, and sufficiently hard and close to receive a polished surface from the tool, as such works admit of no subsequent improvement. Contrary to the rule that holds good with regard to most sub- stances, the colours of the generality of the woods become con- siderably darker by exposure to the light ; tulip-wood is, I believe, the only one that fades. The tints are also rendered considerably darker from being covered with oil or lacker, and although the latter checks their assuming the deepest hues, it does not entirely prevent the subsequent change. The yellow colour of the ordi- nary varnishes greatly interferes also with the tints of the light woods, for which the whitest possible kinds should be selected.* When it is required to give to wood that has been recently worked, the appearance of that which has become dark from age, as in repairing any accident in furniture, it is generally effected by washing it with lime water ; or in extreme cases, by laying on the lime as water-colour, and allowing it to remain for a few minutes, hours, or days, according to circum- stances. In many cases the colours of the woods are heightened or modified, by applying colouring matters either before or with the varnish ; and in this manner handsome birch-wood is some- times converted into factitious mahogany, by a process of colour- ing rather than dyeing, that often escapes detection. The bog-oak is by some considered to assume its black colour from the small portion of iron contained in the bog or moss, * Specimens of woods for cabinets should be left in their natural state, or at most they should be polished by friction only ; or if varnished, then upon the one side alone. Their colours are best preserved when they are excluded from the light, either in drawers or in glass cases, covered with some thick blind. CARVED AND MOULDED WORKS. 45 combining with the gallic acid of the wood, and forming a natural stain, similar to writing ink. Much of the oak timber of the Royal George that was accidentally sunk at Spithead, in 1782, and which has been recently extricated by Col. Pasley's sub- marine explosions, is only blackened on its outer surface, and the most so in the neighbourhood of the pieces of iron ; the inside of the thick pieces, is in general of nearly its original colour and soundness. Some specimens of cam-wood* have maintained their original beautiful red and orange colours, although the inscription says that they were " washed on shore at Kay Haven, in October, 1840, with part of the wreck of the Royal Tar, lost near the Needles twenty years ago, when all the crew perished." The recent remarks on colour equally apply to the works of statuary, carving and modelling generally : the materials for which are either selected of one uniform colour, or they are so painted. Then only is the full effect of the artist's skill apparent at the first glance ; otherwise it frequently happens either that the eye is offended by the interference of the accidental markings, or fails to appreciate the general form or design, without a degree of investigation and effort, that detracts from the gratification which would be otherwise immediately experienced on looking at such carved works. This leads me to advert to modes sometimes practised to produce the effect of carving ; thus, in the Manuel de Tour- neur,f a minute description will be found of the mode of making embossed wooden boxes, which are pressed into metallic moulds, engraved with any particular device. The wood is first turned to the appropriate shape, and then forced by a powerful screw- press into the heated mould, (which is made just hot enough to avoid materially discolouring the wood,) it is allowed to remain in that situation until it is cold ; this method however only applies to subjects in small relief, and is principally employed on knotty pieces of box-wood and olive wood of irregular curly grain. The following method may be used for bolder designs, more resembling ordinary carving : the fine sawdust of any particular wood it is required to imitate, is mixed with glue or other cementitious matter, and squeezed into metallic moulds, but in the latter case the peculiar characteristic of the wood, namely its fibrous structure, is entirely lost, and the eye only views the * Received from the hands of H. Hardman, Esq. t Second Edition, vol. ii., pp. 441-51. 46 EMBOSSED WORKS, ETC. work as a piece of cement or composition, which might be more efficiently produced from other materials, and afterwards coloured. Each of these processes partakes rather of the proceeding of the manufacturer than of the amateur ; extensive preparations, such as very exact moulds consisting of several parts, a powerful press, and other apparatus, are required,* and the results are so proverbially alike, from being " formed in the same mould/' that they lose the interest attached to original works, in the same manner that engravings are less valued than the original paintings from which they are copied. Another method of working in wood may be noticed, which is at any rate free from the objections recently advanced : I will transcribe its brief description. f "Raised figures on wood, such as are employed in picture frames and other articles of ornamental cabinet-work, are produced by means of carving, or by casting the pattern in Paris plaster or other composition, and cementing or otherwise fixing it on the surface of the wood. The former mode is expensive, the latter is inapplicable on many occasions. " The invention of Mr. Straker may be used either by itself or in aid of carving ; and depends on the fact that if a depression be made by a blunt instrument on the surface of wood, such depressed part will again rise to its original level by subsequent immersion in water." " The wood to be ornamented having first been worked out to its proposed shape, is in a state to receive the drawing of the pattern ; this being put in, a blunt steel tool, or burnisher, or die, is to be applied successively to all those parts of the pattern intended to be in relief, and at the same time is to be driven very cautiously, without breaking the grain of the wood, till the depth of the depression is equal to the subsequent prominence of the figures. The ground is then to be reduced by planing or filing to the level of the depressed part ; after which, the piece of wood being placed in water, either hot or cold, the parts previously depressed will rise to their former height, and will thus form an embossed pattern, which may be finished by the usual operations of carving." See Appendix, Note A, page 459 of this volume, and also Appendix, Notes J.K.L., of Vol. II., pages 954-956, for recent and more available modes of carving by machinery. * See the Section on Tortoiseshell. t Trans. Soc. of Arts, vol. xlii., p. 52. 47 CHAPTER V. PERMANENCE OF FORM, AND COMBINATION OF THE WOODS. SECT. I. SHRINKING AND WARPING. THE permanence of the form and dimensions of the woods requires particular consideration, even more than their compara- tive degrees of ornament, especially as concerns those works which consist of various parts, for unless they are combined with a due regard to the strength of the pieces in different direc- tions, and to the manner and degree in which they are likely to be influenced by the atmosphere, the works will split or warp, and may probably be rendered entirely useless. The piece of dried wood is materially smaller than in its first or wet state, and as it is at all times liable to re-absorb moisture from a damp atmosphere, and to give it off to a dry one, even after having been thoroughly seasoned, the alterations of size again occur, although in a less degree. The change in the direction of the length of the fibres is in general very inconsiderable.* It is so little in those of straight grain, that a rod split out of clean fir or deal is sometimes employed as the pendulum of a clock, for which use it is only inferior to some of the compensating pendulums; whereas a piece of the same wood taken diametrically out of the center of a tree, or the crossway of the grain, forms an excellent hygrometer, and indicates by its change of length the comparative degree of * Good box-wood and lance-wood are approved by the Tithe Commissioners as materials for the verified scales to be employed in laying down the plans for the recent Parliamentary survey, as being next in accuracy to those of metal ; whereas scales of ivory are entirely rejected by them, owing to their material variation in length under hygrometrical influence. See their printed papers. Mr. Fincham says he has found a remarkable variation in the New Zealand pine the Kowrie or Cowrie, corrupted into Cowdie, which expands so much as to cause the strips constituting the inside mouldings of ships to expand and buckle, probably from the comparative moisture of our atmosphere : and Colonel Lloyd says he found the teak timbers used by him in constructing a large room in the Mauritius, to have shrunk three quarters of an inch in length in thirty-eight feet, although this wood is by many considered to shrink sideways least of all others. 48 SHRINKING AND SPLITTING. moisture of the atmosphere. The important difference in the general circumstances of the woods, in the two directions of the grain, I propose to notice, first as regards the purposes of turning, and afterwards those of joinery- work, which will render it neces- sary to revert to the wood in its original, or unseasoned state. The turner commonly employs the transverse section of the wood, and we may suppose the annual rings then exhibited, to consist of circular rows of fibres of uniform size, each of which, for the sake of explanation,! will suppose to be the one-hundredth of an inch in diameter. When the log of green wood is exposed to a dry atmosphere, the outer fibres contract both at the sides and ends, whereas those within, are in a measure shielded from the immediate effect of the atmosphere, and nearly retain their original dimen- sions. Supposing all the outside fibres to be reduced to the one hundred and tenth, or the one hundred and twentieth of an inch, as the external series can no longer fill out the original extent of the annual ring, the same as they did before they were dried ; they divide, not singly, but into groups, as the unyielding center, or the incompressible mass within the arch, causes the parts of which the latter is composed to separate, and the divisions occur in preference at the natural indentations of the margin, which appear to indicate the places where the splits are likely to commence. Fig. 12. The ends being the most exposed to the air are the first attacked, and there the splits are principally radial with occa- AS REGARDS TURNED WORKS. 49 sional diversions concentric with the layers of fibres, as in fig. 12, and on the side of the log, the splits become gradually extended in the direction of its length. The air penetrates the cracks, and extends both cause and effect, and an exposure of a few weeks, days, or even one day, to a hot dr/ atmosphere, will, sometimes, spoil the entire log, and the more rapidly the harder the wood, from its smaller penetrability to the air. This effect is in part stayed by covering the ends of the wood with grease, wax, glue or paper, to defend them, but the best plan is to transfer the pieces very gradually from the one atmosphere to the other, to expose them equally to the air at all parts, and to avoid the influence of the sun and hot dry air. The horizontal slice or block of the entire tree, is the most proper for the works of the lathe, as it is presented by nature the most nearly prepared to our hand, and its appearance, strength, grain, and shrinking, are the most uniform. The annual rings, if any be visible, are, as in fig. 13, nearly concentric Figs. 13. 14. 15. with the object, the fibres around the circumference are alike, and the contraction occurs without causing any sensible depar- ture from the circular form. Although thin transverse slices are necessarily weak from the inconsiderable length of the fibres of which they are composed, (equal only in length to the thick- ness of the plate,) they are strengthened in the generality of turned works by the margin, such as we find in the rim of a snuff-box, which supports the bottom like the hoop of a drum or tambarine. The entire circular section is therefore most appropriate for turning, next to it the quartering, fig. 14, should be chosen, but its appearance is less favourable; and a worse effect happens, as the shrinking causes a sensible departure from the circle, the contraction being invariably greater upon the circular arcs of fibres, than the radial lines or medullary rays. If such works 50 SHRINKING AND WARPING be turned before the materials are thoroughly prepared, they will become considerably oval ; so much so, that a manufacturer who is in the habit of working up large quantities of pear-tree, informs me that hollowed pieces rough turned to the circle, alter so much and so unequally in the drying, that works of three inches will sometimes shrink half an inch more on the one diameter than the other, and become quite oval ; it is therefore necessary to leave them half an inch larger than the intended size. Even in woods that were comparatively dry, a small differ- ence may in general be detected by the callipers, when they have been turned some time, from their unequal contraction. In pieces cut lengthways, such as fig. 15, circumstances are still less favourable; there being no perceptible contraction in the length of the fibres, the whole of the shrinking takes place laterally, at right angles to them, and the work becomes oval to the full extent of the contraction that occurs in the fibres. The plank- wood is almost solely employed for large discs which would be too weak if cut out transversely ; and in some cases for objects made of those ornamental woods which are best displayed in that section, as the tulip, rose, king, zebra, partridge, and satin woods. Specimens of oak from ancient buildings are sometimes thus worked, but in all such cases the wood should be exceedingly well dried beforehand ; otherwise in addition to the inconvenience arising from the greater departure from the circle, the pieces will warp and twist, an effect that more generally concerns the joiner's art, and to the consideration of which we will now proceed. When the green wood is cut up into planks, boards, and veneers, the splitting which occurs in the transverse section is less to be feared than distortion or warping, from the unequal contraction of the fibres. Thick planks are partially stayed from splitting and opening, by cleets nailed upon each end; boards are left unprotected, and veneers are protected from accidental violence by slips of cloth glued upon each end. One plank only in each tree can be exactly diametrical, the others are parallel therewith, and, as shown in fig. 12, the two sides of all the boards, but that from the center, are differently circumstanced as regards the arrangement of the fibres, and con- AS REGARDS JOINERY WORKS. 51 tract differently. It will be generally found that the boards ex- posed to similar conditions on both sides, become, from the simple effect of drying, convex on the side towards the center of the tree ; this will be explained by a reference to the diagram, fig. 16, Fig. 16. which shows that the longest continuous line of fibres is concen- tric with the axis of the tree. Thus let a, b, c, d, e,f, represent the section of a board, the line b, e, of which is supposed to contain five fibres, and the arc d, b, f, thirty : therefore supposing every fibre to shrink alike in general dimensions, the contraction on the arc, will be six times that upon the short radial line, and the new margin of the board will be the dotted line which proceeds from g to h, the departure of which from the original straight line will be five times as much at d as at e. This is not imaginary, as it is in all cases borne out by obser- vation, where the pieces are exposed to similar circumstances on both sides. When a true flat board is wanted, it is a com- mon practice to saw the wide plank in two or four pieces, to change sides with them alternately, and glue them together again, as in fig. 17, so that the pieces, 1, 3, 5, may present the sides Fig. 17. towards the axis of the tree, and 2, 4, 6, those towards its circumference ; the curvature from shrinking will then become a serpentine line consisting of six arcs, instead of one continuous circular sweep. "When the opposite sides of a board are exposed to unequal conditions, the moisture will swell the fibres on the one side and make that convex, and in the opposite manner that exposed to the dry air or heat will contract and become concave ; from these circumstances, when several pieces of wood are placed around the room or before the fire, " to air," the sides should be E 2 52 WARPING, TWISTING, AND continually changed, that both may have equal treatment, so as to lessen the tendency to curvature. To remedy the defect when it may have occurred, the joiner exposes the convex side to the fire, but it is obviously better to be sparing of these sudden changes. Any unequal treatment of the two sides is almost sure to curl the board ; if, for instance, we paste a sheet of paper upon one side of a board, it will in the first instance swell the surface and make it convex; as the paper dries it contracts, it forces the wood to accompany it, and the papered side becomes hollow ; when two equal papers are pasted on opposite sides, this change does not generally occur. A similar effect is often observed when a veneer is glued on a piece of wood ; hence it is usual to swell the surface on which the veneer is to be laid, by wetting it with a sponge dipped in thin size, so as to make it moderately round ; in this case, the wetted surface of the board, and the glued surface of the veneer, are expanded nearly alike by the moisture, and in drying they also contract alike, so that under favourable manage- ment the board recovers its true flat figure. The woods are much less disposed to become curved in the direction of their length, than crossways ; but another evil equally or more uiitractable is now met with, as the general figure of the board is more or less disposed to twist and warp, so that when it is laid upon a flat surface it touches only at the two diagonal corners, and is said to be " in winding" This error is the less experienced in the straight-grained pines and mahogany, which are therefore selected for works in which constancy of figure is a matter of primary importance, as in models for the foundry, and objects exposed to great vicissitudes of climate. The warping may arise from the curved direction of the fibres in respect to the length of the plank, and also from the spiral direction in which many trees grow ; in some, for example, the furrows of the bark are frequently twisted as much as fifteen or twenty degrees from the perpendicular, and sometimes even thirty and forty. The woods themselves when split through the center of the tree differ materially ; they sometimes present a tolerably flat surface, at others they are much in winding or twisted, a further corroboration of the " spiral growth " we cannot be therefore much surprised that the planks cut out from such woods, should in a degree pursue the paths thus early impressed upon them. MODES OF CORRECTING THE SAME. 53 Boxwood is often very much twisted in this manner. I have a block, the diameter of which is nine inches ; its surface is split at five parts, with spiral grooves, at an angle of nearly thirty degrees with the axis ; these make exactly one complete revolution, or one turn of a screw in the length of the piece, which is just three feet. On the other hand, the Alerce, a pine growing in the island of Chiloe in South America, to the diameter of about four feet, and whose wood resembles the cedar of Lebanon in colour, is so remarkably straight in the grain, that it is the custom of the country to split it into planks about eight feet long and seven inches wide, which are almost as true as if they were cut with the saw, although of course not quite so smooth. To correct the errors of winding and curvature in length, the joiner in working upon rigid pieces, first planes off the higher points so as to produce the true form by reduction. But when the objects are long and thin, they are corrected by the hands, just as we should straighten a cane, or a walking stick, except that the one angle of the board is rested upon the bench or floor, the other is held in the hand, and the pressure is applied between them. Broad thin pieces are sometimes warmed on both sides before the fire to lessen their rigidity ; they are then fixed between two stout flat boards by means of several hand-screws, and allowed .to remain until they are quite cold; this is just the reverse of the mode of bending timber for ship-building and other purposes, but applied in a less elaborate manner. In concluding this division of the subject, I may observe that the shrinking and contracting of the straight-grained woods, especially deal and mahogany, cause but little distortion of their general shape after they have been properly dried ; but the diversity of grain, a principal cause of beauty of figure in the ornamental woods, is at the same time a source of confusion in their shrinking, which being called on to pursue many paths, (which are parallel with the fibres, however tortuous,) gives rise to a greater disturbance from the original shape, or in extreme cases, even causes them to split where the contraction is restrained by the peculiarity of growth. In the handsome furniture woods the economy of manufacture corrects this evil, as from their great value they are cut into 54 PERMANENCE, IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS. very thin slices or veneers, and glued upon a stout fabric of straight-grained wood, commonly inferior mahogany, cedar, or deal, by which the opposite characters, of beauty of appearance and permanence of form, are combined at a moderate expense ; these processes will be explained. SECT. II. COMBINING DIFFERENT PIECES OF WOOD. IN combining several pieces of wood for works in carpentry and cabinet-making, the different circumstances of the plank as respects its length and width should be always borne in mind. Provision must be made that the shrinking and swelling are as little restrained as possible, otherwise the pieces may split and warp with an irresistible force : and the principal reliance for permanence or standing, should be placed on those pieces, (or lines of the work,) cut out the lengthway of the plank, which are, as before explained, much less disposed to break or become crooked, than the crossway sections : these particulars will be more distinctly shown by one or two illustrations. Fig. 18. Let a, b, c, d, represent the flat sur- face of a board : e,f, the edge of the same, and ff, h, the end ; no contraction will occur upon the line e,f, or the length, | and in the general way, that line will remain pretty straight and rigid; but the whole of the shrinking will take place on ff, h, the width, which is slender, flexi- ble, and disposed to become curved from any unequal exposure to the air; the d four marginal lines of a, b, c, d, are not k likely to alter materially in respect to each other, but they will remain toler- ably parallel and square, if originally so formed. A dove-tailed box consists of six such pieces, the four sides of which, A, B, C, D, fig. 19, are interlaced at the angles by the dove-tails, so that the flexible lines, as ff, h, on B, are con- nected with, and strengthened by, the strong lines, as c, d on A, and so on : the whole collectively form a very rigid frame, the more especially when the bottom piece is fixed to the sides by glue or screws, as it entirely removes from them the small power of racking upon the four angles, (by a motion like that of the CONSTRUCTION OF A BOX, ETC. 55 jointed parallel rule,) which might happen if the dove-tails, shown on a larger scale in fig. 20, were loosely fitted. Fig. 19. Fig. 20. When the grain of the four sides, A, B, C, D, runs in the same direction, or parallel with the edges of the box or drawer, as shown by the shade lines on A and B, and the pieces are equally wet or dry, they will contract or expand equally, and without any mischief or derangement happening to the work ; to ensure this condition, the four sides are usually cut out of the same plank. But if the pieces had the grain in different direc- tions, as C and D, and the two were nailed together, D would entirely prevent the contraction or expansion of C, and the latter would probably be split or cast, from being restrained. When admissible, it is therefore usual to . avoid fixing together those pieces, in which the grain runs respectively lengthways and crossways, especially where apprehension exists of the occurrence of swelling or shrinking. A wide board, fig. 21, composed of the slips, A, B, C, D, E, (reversed as in diagram, fig. 17, page 51,) is rendered still more permanent, and very much stronger, when its ends are confined by two clamps, such as G, H, (one only seen ;) the shade lines represent the direction of the grain. The group of pieces, A to E, contract in width upon the line A, E, and upon it they are also flexible, whereas the clamp G, H, is strong and incapable of contraction in that direction, and therefore unless the wood is thoroughly dry the two parts should be connected in a manner that will allow for the alteration of the one alone. This is effected by the tongue and groove fitting as represented ; the end piece, G, H, is sometimes only fastened by a little glue in the center of its length, but in cabinet-work, where the seasoning of the wood is generally better attended to, it is glued throughout. 56 MODES OF CLAMPING WIDE BOAEDS. If the clamp G, H, were fixed by tenons, (one of which i, j, is shown detached in fig. 22,) the contraction of the part of the Fig. 21. Fig. 22. B C D E board between the tenons might cause it to split, the distance between the mortises in G, H, being unalterable : or the swelling of the board might cause it to bulge, and become rounding ; or the entire frame would twist and warp, as the expansion of the center might be more powerful than the resistance to change in the two clamps, and force them to bend. It is therefore obvious that if any question exist as to the entire and complete dryness of the wood, the use of clamps is hazardous ; although in their absence, the shrinking might tear away the wood from the plain glue joint, even if it extended entirely across, without causing any further mischief, but more generally the shrinking would split the solid board. Another mode of clamping is represented at K ; it is there placed edgeways, and attached by an undercut or dove-tailed groove, slightly taper in its length, and is fixed by a little glue at the larger end, which holds the two in firm contact : each of these modes, and some others, are frequently employed for the large drawing boards required by architects and engineers for the drawings, made with squares and instruments. From a similar motive, the thin bottom of a drawer is grooved into the two sides and front, and only fixed to the back of the drawer by a few small screws or brads, so that it may swell or shrink without splitting, which might result were it confined all around its margin. It is more usual, however, to glue thin slips along the sides of large drawers, as in fig. 23, which strengthen the sides, and being grooved to receive the bottom, allow it to PANELS AND FRAMES. GLUE. 57 shrink without interfering either with the front or back of the drawer. In an ordinary door with two or more panels, all the marginal pieces run lengthways of the grain : the two sides, called the stiles, extend the whole height, and receive the transverse pieces or rails, now mortised through the stiles, and wedged tight, but without risk of splitting, on account of their small width ; every panel is fitted into a groove within four edges of the frame. The width of the panel should be a trifle less than the extreme width of the grooves, and even the mouldings, when they are not worked in the solid, are fixed to the frame alone, and not to the panel, that they may not interfere with its alterations; therefore in every direction we have the frame-work in its strongest and most permanent position as to grain, and the panel is unrestrained from alteration in width if so disposed. This system of combination is carried to a great extent in the tops of mahogany billiard tables, which consist of numerous panels about 8 inches square, the frames of which are 3^ in. wide and 1 in. thick; the panels are ploughed and tongued, so as to be level on the upper side, and from their small size the individual contraction of the separate pieces is insignificant, and conse- quently the general figure of the table is comparatively certain. Of late years, I am told *, that slate, a material uninfluenced by the atmosphere, has been almost exclusively used ; the top of a full sized table, of 12 by 6 feet, consists of four slabs one inch thick, ground on their lower, and planed by machinery on their upper surfaces : the iron tables are almost abandoned for several reasons. Large thin slates, from their permanence of form, are sometimes used by engineers and others for drawing upon, and also in carpentry for the panels of superior doors. SECT. III. ON GLUEING VARIOUS WORKS IN WOOD. GLUE is the cement used for joining different pieces of wood ; it is a common jelly, made from the scraps that are pared off the hides of animals before they are subjected to the tan-pit for con- version into leather. The inferior kinds of glue are often con- taminated with a considerable portion of the lime used for remov- ing the hair from the skins, but the better sorts are transparent, * By Mr. Thurston, of Catherine-street. 58 PREPARING THE GLUE, ETC. especially the thin cakes of the Salisbury glue, which are of a clear amber colour. In preparing the glue for use, it is most usually broken into small pieces, and soaked for about twelve hours in as much water as will cover it ; it is then melted in a glue-kettle, which is a double vessel or water bath, the inner one for the glue, the outer for the water, in order that the temperature applied may never exceed that of boiling water. The glue is allowed at first to simmer gently for one or two hours, and if needful it is thinned by the addition of hot water, until it runs from the brush in a fine stream ; it should be kept free from dust and dirt by a cover, in which a notch is made for the brush. Sometimes the glue is covered with water, and boiled without being soaked. Glue is considered to act in a two-fold manner, first by simple adhesion, and secondly by excluding the air, so as to bring into action the pressure of the atmosphere. The latter however alone, is an insufficient explanation, as the strength of a well-made glue joint is frequently greater than the known pressure of the atmosphere: indeed it often exceeds the strength of the solid wood, as the fracture does not at all times occur through the joint, and when it does, it almost invariably tears out some of the fibres of the wood : mahogany and deal are considered to hold the glue better than any other .woods. It is a great mistake to depend upon the quantity or thick- ness of the glue, as that joint holds the best in which the neigh- bouring pieces of wood are brought the most closely into contact ; they should first be well wetted with the glue, and then pressed together in various ways to exclude as much of it as possible, as will be explained. The works in turnery do not in general require much recourse to glue, as the parts are more usually connected by screws cut upon the edges of the materials themselves ; but when glue is used by the turner the mode of proceeding is so completely similar to that practised in joinery works, that no separate instructions appear to be called for, especially as those parts in which glue is required, as for example in Tunbridge ware, partake somewhat of the nature of joinery work. "When glue is applied to the end grain of the wood, it is rapidly absorbed in the pores ; it is therefore usual first to glue the end wood rather plentifully, and to allow it to soak in to fill the grain, GLUEING BOARDS, SLIPS, AND BOXES. 59 and then to repeat 'the process until the usual quantity will remain upon the face of the work ; but it never holds so well upon the endway as the lengthway of the fibres. In glueing the edges of two boards together, they are first planed very straight, true, and square; they are then carefully examined as to accuracy, and marked, to show which way they are intended to be placed. The one piece is fixed upright in the chaps of the bench, the other is laid obliquely against it, and the glue-brush is then run along the angle formed between their edges, which are then placed in contact, and rubbed hard together lengthways, to force out as much of the glue as possible. When the joint begins to feel stiff under the hand, the two parts are brought into their intended position and left to dry ; or as the bench cannot in general be spared so long, the work is cautiously removed from it, and rested in contact with a slip of wood placed against the wall, at a small inclination from the perpendicular. Two men are required in glueing the joints of long boards. In glueing a thin slip of wood on the edge of a board, as for a moulding, it is rubbed down very close and firm, and if it show any disposition to spring up at the ends, it is retained by placing thereon heavy weights, which should remain until the work is cold : but it is a better plan to glue on a wide piece, and then to saw off the part exceeding that which is required. Many works require screw-clamps and other contrivances, to retain the respective parts in contact whilst the glue is drying ; in others the fittings by which the pieces are attached together, supply the needful pressure. For instance, in glueing the dove- tails of a box, or a drawer, such as fig. 19, page 55, the dove- tails, if properly fitted, hold the sides together in the requisite manner, and the following is the order of proceeding. The dove -tail pins, on the end B, fig. 19, are first sparingly glued, that piece is then fixed in the chaps of the bench, glue upwards, and the side A, held horizontally, is driven down upon B \)y blows of a hammer, which are given upon a waste piece of wood, smooth upon its lower face, and placed over the dove- tail pins, which should a little exceed the thickness of the wood, so that when their superfluous length is finally planed off, they may make a good clean joint. When the pins of the dove-tails come flush with the face, the driving block is placed beside them. 60 GLUEING A BOX. A FRAME FOR A PANEL. to allow the pins to rise above the surface. The second end, D, is then glued the same as B, it is also fixed in the bench, and A is driven down upon it as before; this unites the three sides of the square. The other pins on the ends B and D are then glued, and the first side, A, is placed downwards on the bench, upon two slips of wood placed close under the dove-tails, that it may stand solid, and the remaining side, D, is driven down upon them to complete the connexion of the four sides. The box is then measured with a square, to ascertain if it have accidentally become rhomboidal, or out of square, which should be immediately corrected by pressure in the direction of the longer diagonal ; lastly, the superfluous glue is scraped off whilst it is still soft with a chisel, and a sponge dipped in the hot water of the glue-kettle is occasionally used, to remove the last portion of glue from the work. The general method pursued in glueing the angles of the frame for a panel, is somewhat similar, although modified, to meet the different structure of the joints. The tenons are made quite parallel both ways, but the mortises are a little bevelled or made longer outside, to admit the small wedges by which the tenons are fastened : and the stiles are made somewhat longer than when finished, to prevent the mortises from being broken out in driving the wedges, which are mostly cut out of the waste pieces sawn off from the tenons in forming their shoulders or haunches. These details are seen in fig. 22, p. 56. In glueing the frame for a single panel which is fitted into a groove, the whole of the frame is put together before com- mencing the glueing, and the stiles are knocked off one at a time, by which the misplacement of the pieces is avoided. The tenons are glued, and a little glue is thrust into the two mor- tises with a thin piece of wood ; when the stiles have been driven down close, the joint is completed by the insertion of a wedge on each side of the tenon ; their points are dipped in the glue, and they are driven in like nails, so as to fill out the mortises, after which the tenons cannot be withdrawn : sometimes the wedges are driven into saw-kerfs, previously made near the sides of the tenons ; the other stile is then knocked off, glued, and fixed in the same manner. Occasionally all four tenons are glued at the same time, and the two stiles are pressed SCKEW-CLAMPS, CAULS, VENEERING A TABLE. 61 together by screw-clamps, stretching across the frame just within the tenons ; the wedges are lastly driven in, before the removal of the clamps, and the door if square and true is left to dry. In many other cases also, the respective pieces are pressed together by screws variously contrived ; the boards employed to save the work from being disfigured by the screws are planed flat, and are warmed before the fire, to supply heat to keep the glue fluid until the work is screwed up, and the warmth after- wards assists in drying the glue : such heated boards are named cauls, and they are particularly needed in laying down large veneers, which process is thus accomplished. The surfaces of the table or panel, and both sides of the veneer, are scratched over with a tool called a toothing-plane, which has a perpendicular iron full of small grooves, so that it always retains a notched or serrated edge ; this makes the roughness on the respective pieces, called the tooth or key, for the hold of the glue. A caul of the size of the table is made ready; and several pairs of clamps, each consisting of two strong wooden bars, placed edgeways and planed a little convex or rounding on their inner edges, and connected at their extremities with iron screw-bolts and nuts, are adjusted to the proper opening; the table is warmed on its face, and the veneer and caul are both made very hot.* All being ready, the table is brushed over quickly with thin glue or size, the veneer is glued and laid on the table, then the hot caul, and lastly the clamping bars, which are screwed down as quickly as possible, at distances of three or four inches asunder, until they lie exactly flat. The slender veneer is thereby made to touch the table at every point, and almost the whole of the glue is squeezed out, as the heat of the caul is readily com- municated through the thin veneer to the glue and retains it in a state of fluidity for the short space of time required for screw- ing down, when several active men are engaged in the process. The table is kept under restraint until entirely cold, generally * If the clamps were straight, their pressure would be only exerted at the sides of the table, but being curved to the extent of one inch in three or four feet, their pressure is first exerted in the center, and gradually extends over their entire length, when they are so far strained as to make the rounded edge bear flat upon the table and caul respectively. 62 CURVILINEAR MOULDS OR CAULS, ETC. for the whole night at least, and the drying is not considered complete under two or three days.* When the objects to be glued are curved, the cauls, or moulds, must be made of the counterpart curve, so as to fit them ; for example, in glueing the sounding board upon the body of a harp, which may be compared to the half of a cone, a trough or caul is used of a corresponding curvature, and furnished all along the edge with a series of screws to bring the work into the closest possible contact. In glueing the veneers of maple, oak, and other woods upon curved mouldings, such as those for picture frames, the cauls or counterpart moulds, are made to fit the work exactly. The moulding is usually made in long pieces and polished, previously to being mitred or joined together to the sizes required. In works that are curved in their length, as the circular fronts of drawers, and many of the foundry patterns that are worked to a long sweep, the pieces that receive the pressure of the screws used in fixing the work together " whilst it is under glue," are made in narrow slips, and pierced with a small hole at each end; they are then strung together like a necklace, but with two strings. This flexible caul can be used for all curves ; the strings prevent the derangement of the pieces whilst they are being fixed, or their loss when they are not in use. I have mentioned these cases to explain the general methods, and to urge the necessity of thin glue, of a proper degree of warmth to prevent it from being chilled, and of a pressure that may cause the greatest possible exclusion of glue from the joint. But for the comparatively small purposes of the amateur, four or six hand-screws, or ordinary clamps, or the screw-chaps of the bench, aided by a string to bind around many of the curvilinear and other works, will generally suffice. As however the amateur may occasionally require to glue down a piece of veneer, I will, in conclusion, describe the method of "laying it with the hammer," which requires none of the * In some of the large manufactories for cabinet-work, the premises are heated by steam-pipes, in which case they have frequently a close stove in every workshop heated many degrees beyond the general temperature, for giving the final seasoning to the wood, for heating the cauls, and for warming the glue, which is then done by opening a small steam-pipe into the outer vessel of the glue-pot. The arrange- ment is extremely clean, safe from fire, and the degree of the heat is very much under control. VENEERING A TABLE "WITH THE HAMMER. 63 apparatus just described, but the veneering hammer alone. This is either made of iron with a very wide and thin pane, or more generally of a piece of wood from three to four inches square* with a round handle projecting from the center ; the one edge of the hammer head is sawn down for the insertion of a piece of sheet iron or steel, that projects about one quarter of an inch, the edge of which is made very straight, smooth, and round ; and the opposite side of the square wooden head of the veneering hammer is rounded, to avoid its hurting the hand. The table and both sides of the veneer having been toothed, the surface of the table is warmed, and the outer face of the veneer and the surface of the table are wetted with very thin glue, or with a stiff size. The inner face of the veneer is next glued ; it is held for a few moments before a blazing fire of shav- ings to render the glue very fluid, it is turned quickly down upon the table, and if large is rubbed down by the outstretched hands of several men ; the principal part of the remainder of the glue is then forced out by the veneering hammer, the edge of which is placed in the center of the table, the workman- leans with his whole weight upon the hammer, by means of one hand, and with the other he wriggles the tool by its handle, and draws it towards the edge of the table, continuing to bear heavily upon it all the time. The pressure being applied upon so narrow an edge, and which is gradually traversed or scraped over the entire surface, squeezes out the glue before it, as in a wave, and forces it out at the edge ; having proceeded along one line, the workman returns to the center, and wriggles the tool along another part close by the side of the former ; and in fact as many men are generally engaged upon the surface of the table as the shop will supply, or that can cluster around it. The veneer is from time to time wetted with the hot size, which keeps up the warmth of the glue, and relieves the friction of the hammers, which might otherwise tear the face of the wood. The wet and warmth also render the veneer more pliable, and prevent it from cracking and curling up at the edges, as should the glue become chilled the veneer would break from the sudden bending to which it might be subjected, by the pressure of the hammer just behind the wave of glue, which latter would be then too stiff to work out freely, owing to its gradual loss of 64 VENEEEING A TABLE WITH THE HAMMER. fluidity; the operation must therefore be conducted with all possible expedition. The concluding process is to tap the surface all over with the back of the hammer, and the dull hollow sound will immediately indicate where the contact is incomplete, and here the applica- tion of the hammer must be repeated ; sometimes when the glue is too far set in these spots, the inner vessel of the glue-pot or heated irons, are laid on to restore the warmth. By some, the table is at the conclusion laid flat on the floor, veneer downwards and covered over with shavings, to prevent the too sudden access of air. Of course the difficulty of the process increases with the magnitude of the work ; the mode is more laborious and less certain than that previously described, although it is constantly resorted to for the smaller pieces and strips of veneer, even where the foregoing means are at hand.* * The former chapters were in type before the Author was aware of the existence of two excellent papers, by A. Aikin, Esq., F.G.S., &c., " On Timber," and "On Ornamental Woods," read before the Society of Arts in 1831 (see their Trans. Vol. L., Part ii. p. 140-170.) The Author is very happy to find, that so far as the present pages treat of parallel parts of this extensive subject, they are in general confirmed by Mr. Aikin, although the construction of the two papers is entirely different. Mr. Aikin adverts in a very interesting manner to circumstances relative to the growth of the tree in its native forest, and the process of seasoning, &c., in which M. Duhamel's great work, Sur V Exploitation des Bois, is referred to ; and also to the luxurious employment of ornamental woods amongst the Romans as derived from the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. (Plin. Hist. Nat. xiii. 29 xvi. 24-34.) " By far the most costly wood was procured from a tree called citrus, a native of that part of Mauritania which is adjacent to Mount Atlas. In leaf, odour, and trunk, it resembles the female wild cypress. The valuable part is a tuber or warty excrescence, which, when found on the root and under ground, is more esteemed than when growing on the trunk or branches. When cut and polished it presents various figures, of which the most esteemed are curling veins, or concentric spots like eyes, the former being called tiger-wood, the latter panther-wood." " Tables of this material appear to have been first brought into fashion by Cicero, who is said to have given for a single one a million of sesterces, i. e. 8072Z." Others of these solid tables were sold at greater prices, and one as high as 11,300Z. " In the time of Pliny the art of veneering was a recent invention ; and he descants in his usual antithetical way, on thus converting the cheaper into the most valuable woods, by plating them with these latter ; and of the ingenuity of cutting a tree into thin slices, and thus selling it several time.s over. The woods employed for this purpose were the citrus, the terebinth, various kinds of maple, box, palm, holly, ilex, the root of elder and popkr. The middle part of a tree, he observes, shows the largest and most curling veins, while the rings and spots are chiefly found near the root. The veneers, or plates, were secured, as at present, by strong glue." Pages 162-4. 65 CHAPTER VI. CATALOGUE OF THE WOODS COMMONLY USED IN THIS COUNTRY. SOURCES FROM WHENCE IT WAS COLLECTED. IN presenting this descriptive catalogue of woods to the reader, it becomes the author's first and pleasing duty, to acknowledge the valuable assistance he has received from numerous kind friends, of various pursuits, acquirements, and occupations ; to most of whom he has submitted the manuscript and rough proofs of the catalogue, in their various stages through the press, for confirmation or correction, and which has led to the attainment of numerous valuable additions, or he may say, the major part of its contents. Amongst those to whom he is thus indebted, he has to men- tion, with gratitude, the following naturalists and travellers, &c. : namely, Arthur Aikin, Esq., late Secretary to the Society of Arts, London ; John Fincham, Esq., Principal Builder in Her Majesty's Dockyard, Chatham ; Colonel G. A. Lloyd, Her Majesty's Surveyor-General of the Mauritius ; G. Loddiges, Esq. ; John Macneil, Esq., Civil Engineer ; John Miers, Esq., long resident in the Brazils ; and also W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., Colonel Sir James Sutherland, and Colonel Sykes, all three of the East India Company's Service. The author is likewise indebted, in a similar manner, to the following wood-merchants, manufacturers, and others, Messrs. Bolter, Cox, Edwards, Faunt- leroy, Jaques, Russell, Saunders, Seddons, Shadbolt, &c., and in a less degree to numerous others. The extensive botanical notes interspersed (in a smaller type), throughout the list of woods, are from the pen of Dr. Royle, to whom he submitted the early proofs of the catalogue, with the request that he would examine the botanical names so far as he had been able to collect them. The unlooked-for and careful manner in which the professor has executed this request, both from his personal knowledge, and also by a very laborious com- parison of the scattered remarks in various works on botany and 66 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. natural history, contained in his select library, will be duly appreciated by those interested in the natural history of the subject, or in the search for the woods themselves in their various localities, whether for the purpose of science or commerce; and from the mode adopted, the one or the other part of the catalogue may be separately consulted. To attain the means of comparing the descriptions with the woods themselves, the author has procured a quantity of most of the woods, those employed in turning especially, from which he has cut his own specimens, (these have been kindly aug- mented by several of the friends before named), and he has been fortunate in having purchased a very fine cabinet of seven hundred specimens, collected by a German naturalist, and arranged with both the Linnean and German names; all of which specimens are open to the inspection of those who may feel interested therein. Still further to test the descriptions in the catalogue, he has also carefully examined a variety of museums and collections, from which scrutiny it would have been an easy task to have extended this list in a considerable degree, by the introduction of the names, localities, and descriptions of a variety of well- authenticated specimens of woods, apparently useful ; but he has purposely endeavoured to keep himself within the strict limits called for by this work, in noticing those woods only which are used in England, and that may in general be procured there. For the use of those who may desire to follow this interesting subject with other views, the names of the several museums that have been kindly laid open to his inspection, and a slight notice of their contents, are subjoined in a note. Many of the remarks on the Timber Woods are derived from that excellent work before named, " Tredgold's Elements of Car- pentry :" all the French books on turning, enumerated in the introduction, have been consulted, besides those referred to in the various notes, and some others ; and, in fact, the author has spared no pains to obtain the most authentic information within his reach, but upon a subject, pronounced by those who have paid attention to it, to be so boundless and confessedly difficult, it is necessary to ask a lenient judgment, and the kind notice and communication of any inaccuracies that may inadvertently exist, notwithstanding his efforts to the contrary. IMPORTANCE OP AUTHENTIC SPECIMENS, ETC. 67 It is indeed a matter of great and real regret, that upon a subject of general importance, there should in many respects be such a scarcity of exact and available information. The true names and localities of some of the most familiar woods, are either unknown or enveloped in considerable doubt ; in many cases we have only the commercial names of the woods, and a vague notion of their localities ; in others we have authenticity as to their locality and their native names ; and, lastly, we have also very extensive lists and descriptions of woods in botanical works, and in the writings of travellers, but these three nomen- clatures are often incompatible, and admit of surmise only, rather than strict and satisfactory comparison, which drawback was strongly experienced by Dr. Royle in collecting the notes attached to the catalogue. This deficiency arises from the little attention that has been given to the scientific part of the subject by naturalists and travellers, and from the arbitrary manner in which the commer- cial names are fixed, often from some faint and fancied resem- blance *, sometimes from the port whence the woods are shipped, or rather from that whence the vessel " cleared out," or ob- tained her official papers ; as it frequently happens, that the woods are picked up at different points along the coast, the names even of which places cannot be ascertained, much less those of the inland districts or territories in which the woods actually grew. Naturalists and travellers, and also merchants residing abroad, would therefore confer a great benefit, not only on science, but likewise on the arts, by correcting our knowledge on these points. This might be done by transmitting along with specimens col- lected on the spot, the exact particulars of their locality, and of the soil ; their relative abundance, native names, and uses f. In * The Romans had their tiger and panther woods, namely the pieces of citrus, marked with stripes or spots (see note, p. 64 ;) the moderns have partridge, snake, porcupine, zebra, and tulip woods, and others. See the Catalogue. f The specimens should be stamped with numbers, as a mode preferable to affixing labels, and it should be noted whether the tree from which it was cut were of superior, average, or inferior quality, and also its size. It would be still better to collect three or four samples from different trees, and the transverse sections especially those with the bark would be highly characteristic. The trouble of preparing the notes to accompany the specimens, would be greatly diminished by the employment of a tabular form, on the model of that adopted at Lloyd's Registry, described in the note, page 69. P 2 68 MUSEUMS CONSULTED. cases of doubt as to their true botanical names (by which aloue their identity can be ensured for future years), then some of the leaves, fruits, flowers, &c., should, if possible, be preserved, by which their species might be afterwards exactly determined by those possessed of the requisite knowledge of the vegetable kingdom. This would also be important in a commercial point of view, as numerous woods, of which small quantities, perhaps one single importation, have been received, might be again procured, whereas they are now unattainable, from the absence of these particulars. Latitude exerts a general influence in the distribution of the woods, but it must be remembered that alone it is insufficient to limit the locality ; it must be viewed in connexion with the elevation of the land ; for even under the equator, as we ascend the mountains, the products of the temperate and even the frigid zones are met with, as Nature appears to set no bounds to her liberality and munificence. MUSEUMS, ETC., CONSULTED. THE ADMIRALTY MUSEUM, Somerset House, which is principally due to the super- intendence of Sir William Symonds, the Surveyor-General of the Navy, is very rich in specimens of woods. It contains the foundation of a fine collection with their foliage, acorns, cones, and other seed-vessels, &c. ; at present the oaks and firs are the most complete : there are also, from Brazil, 56 specimens ; from Australia, 13 ; and from New Zealand, 40 ; all with native names and foliage. And the following woods, with native names, from various contributors. N. America, 30, Capt. C. Perry, U.S.N. Cuba, 168, Tyrie, Esq. Jamaica, 100, Capt. T. M. C. Symonds, RN. Brazil, 140, S. Morney, Esq., Engineers. Brazil, 152, Mr. . Malabar, 25. Java, 83. Australia, 25, Sir Thomas Mitchell. Norfolk Island, 16, Leslet, Esq. This fine museum also includes, amongst others not specified, sets of specimens from the different Government dock-yards, of the timbers used respectively therein. Many of the specimens are worked into cubes and blocks of similar size, and their several weights are marked upon them. There are also 84 pieces from the " Gibraltar" of 80 guns, launched in 1751, and recently broken up : these are intended to show the durability of the woods. EAST INDIA HOUSE. Indian woods, 117 kinds, in the form of books, about half with their native names. Indian woods, from Dr. Roxburgh ; large pieces of the principal kinds. Indian and Himalayan woods, from Dr. Wallich ; 457 specimens. Java woods, 100 kinds, presented by Dr. Horsfield. ASIATIC SOCIETY. Ceylon woods, 255 specimens, with their native names, and alphabetical catalogue. MUSEUMS CONSULTED. 69 UNITED SERVICE MUSEUM. Travancore, 110, with native names, Lieut. -Col. J. M. Frith, Madras Artil., C.B. NewZealand and New South Wales, 30, R. Cunningham, Esq., Bot. Gard., Sydney. Ceylon, 31, names in the native character, from. Captain Chapman, R.A. Jamaica, 80, Names principally English, from Lieut. J. Grignon, 37th Regt. Jamaica, 31 large handsome polished specimens, Capt.Ethelred Hawkins,22ndRegt. SOCIETY OF ARTS. Indian woods, a duplicate set of Dr. Wallich's collection, namely, 457 specimens enumerated in the Trans, of the Society, Vol. 48, Part 2, pp. 439479. India, various parts, Cape of Good Hope, Pitcairn's Islands, &c., 452 specimens, Captain H. C. Baker, Bengal Art. &c. See Trans. Vol. 50, Part 2, pp. 173189. LLOYD'S REGISTRY OF SHIPPING. 160 specimens of ship-building woods, oaks the most numerous, next firs, pines, and elms. They are accompanied by a list which contains seven columns, respectively, headed " Stamped number on Specimen, Name of Wood, Place of Growth, Soil, Durable or otherwise, Purpose for which used, Remarks." PRIVATE COLLECTIONS OF SPECIMENS. Mr. Fincham's contains most of those woods in the subjoined list, generally in two sections, with their specific gravities and relative degrees of strength.* Also from Nova Scotia, 8; Rio Janeiro, 11; Isle of France, 34; Malabar, 19; Ceylon, 59 ; New South Wales, 14 ; Van Diemen's Land, 6 ; New Zealand, 17 ; all with native names, brought over direct by the captains of Government ships. G. Loddiges, Esq., F.L.S., F.H.S., F.Z.S., &c., has a fine cabinet. Of the woods of Europe, 100; Jamaica, 100; Brazils, 250; Chili, 45; Sierra Leone, 20; East Indies, 25 ; South Seas, 33 ; all with native names ; and 25 from China, marked in that character. Also about 100 commercial and dye woods, and not less than 1000 from all parts of the globe not yet prepared for his cabinet. J. Miers, Esq., F.L.S., &c., has 75 Brazilian specimens, collected by himself on the spot. W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., F.L.S., &c. : Brazilian, 70; Grecian, 17; British, 70 ; various localities, 65. Mexico. Dr. Coulter, M.D., M.R.I.A., Hon. FeL Col. Phys., Hon. Fel. Roy. Dub. Soc. &c., has collected 800 specimens in Mexico, 788 with the leaf, flower, and sometimes the fruit. They have been presented by him to Trinity College, Dublin. These I have not seen. Isthmus of Panama. See Colonel G. A. Lloyd's Notes and Catalogue of Woods, Trans. Royal Geog. Soc., Vol. L, p. 71. * Ship-building Woods used in our Government Yards. OAKS. English. Adriatic. Italian. Sussex. New Forest. Canada, white and red. Pollard. Istrian. Live-oak. African. And also Teak. PINES. Yellow. Red. Virginian Nil red. Pitch-pine. Riga. FIRS. Norway and American Spruce fir. Dantzic and Adriatic fir. LARCHES. Hackmetack. Polish. Scotch. Italian, 1. 2. 3. AthoL Cowdie, or New Zealand Larch. CEDARS. Cuba. Lebanus. New South Wales and Pencil cedar. ELMS. English and Wych elm. MISCELLANEOUS WOODS, used in small quantities. Rock Elm. English and American ash. Birch, black and white. Beech. Hornbeam. Hickory. Mahogany. Lime-tree. Poon-wood, and Lignum-vitse, &c. 70 TABULAE VIEW OF THE WOODS COMMONLY USED IN THIS COUNTRY. FOR BUILDING. FOR TURNERY. FOR FURNITURE. MISCELLANEOUS __ PROPERTIES. Ship-building. Cedars. Common woods for toys: softest. Common Furniture and inside works. Elasticity. Deals. Alder. Beech. Ash. Elms. Aps. Birch. Hazel. Firs. Cedars. Hickory. Larches. Birch J sma ^- Cherry-tree. Lancewood. Locust. Sallow. Deal. S. Chesnut, small. Oaks. Willow. Pines. Snakewood. Teak, &c. &c. Best woods for Best Furniture. Yew. Wet works, as piles, foundations,