Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/119

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

XVII.
SPANISH OAK.
99

The star-shake defect is common to it, and, taken altogether, it is of very inferior quality. The Spanish Oak did not meet with approval in either the royal or private ship-building yards, and consequently the shipments of it to this country have declined for some time past. It is remarkable that this Oak is of very slow growth (vide Table II, p. 17); and perhaps this in some measure accounts for its inferior quality, our theory being that the trees of the same species which mature their wood most rapidly are generally the best of their kind.


Table XXXVII.—Spanish Oak.
Transverse Experiments.
Number
of the
specimen.
Deflections Total
weight
required
to break
each
peice.
Specfic
gravity.
Weight
reduced
to
specfic
gravity
1000.
Weight
required
to break
1 square
inch.
  Inches. Inch. Inches. lbs.     lbs.
1 4.25.0 .25 6.000 626.00 1032 606.00 156.500
2 3.50.0 .20 6.150 616.00 1076 572.00 154.000
3 3.65.0 .25 5.650 544.00 1030 528.00 136.000
4 4.750 .35 7.750 509.00 1066 477.00 127.250
5 3.850 .25 8.000 578.00 1020 566.00 144.500
6 4.150 .20 6.150 497.00 1028 483.00 124.250
Total 24.150 1.50 39.700 3370.00 6252 3232.00 842.500
Average 4.025 .25 6.616 561.66 1042 538.66 140.416
E = 239190.S = 1474.

Remarks.—Each piece broke short; in no instance was there more than 3 to 4 inches of fracture.

There are, besides the Oaks already mentioned, several others which have not yet been brought sufficiently into use for their capabilities to be fairly tested; and among these are the Oaks of Turkey. In