Part 2
in Pennsylvania are used in Howe truss bridges. The white oak is usually obtained in the locality where the bridge is con- structed ; can be cut at any season, although the best pine is cut in the winter season. Bridge lumber is in all sizes and lengths, from 6 inches square to 10 by 24 inches, and from 14 to 50 feet long. It is estimated that there are some sixty bridge-building companies or firms in the United States at the present time, employing a large num- ber of men, and with an invested capital of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. It is difficult to get at the average of prices for bridge lumber. As near as we can estimate, white oak ranges from $12 to $25 per M ac- cording to locality; white pine, varying according to length, ranges from $16 to $24. C.—CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY AND TELEGRAPH LINES. Railroad ties. These were not represented, save by one example of creosoted yellow-pine tie, | from Northrup & Cumming, Wilmington, N.C. Professor Sargent states that the railroads of the United States, old and new, consume every year not far from 60,000,000 ties, representing 11 a destruction of 30,000,000 vigorous, healthy young trees; that 1s, upon the supposition that two ties are cut from a tree. This shows a drain upon the forest wealth of the country “that should cause grave appre- hensions for the future, especially in view of the fact that in every part of the country there are now growing fewer seedling trees of species valuable for railway ties than when the trees now cut for this purpose first started.” | The value of railroad ties put down by completed roads in 1880, not counting some 10,000 miles of road, amounted to nearly $10,000,000. Ties are made chiefly from oak, hemlock, and red elm. Fence posts. (See following.) Telegraph poles. (Not represented. ) These are cut trom white cedar, red cedar, white ash, and oak, and sometimes from other woods. It is claimed that Chicago furnishes one- third of all the telegraph poles used in the United States, one-ninth of all the railroad ties, and 5 per cent. of the posts, supplying railroad and telegraph lines from New York State to Utah, southwest as far as Arizona, besides sending some poles to Mexico. Telegraph poles and posts are chiefly made from white cedar. No pine is used for poles. Beside railway uses, posts are used for fencing and street paving. Av- erage duration of white-cedar posts and poles, eight to ten years. Red cedar, white oak, and burr oak, last longest, in the order named ; the latter will probably last twelve years or more. Very little red cedar is used, and it is not stated how long it will last. Much of the white cedar comes from Wisconsin and Michigan, and the hemlock from ~ Canada. Poles are usually cut in winter, peeled in the spring, and finished at stump; posts and hewn ties also finished at the stump. A large Chicago dealer in these railroad timber supplies states that there is cedar enough in the country to last one hundred years, but it will be very expensive twenty-five years from now, and that all railroads building west of the Mississippi River should have been forced to set aside for tree culture two sections of land for each 10 miles of railroad built. They should have divided these sections into thirty-two 40-acre., pieces, and planted 40 acres of timber to each 10 miles of road each year, taking thirty-two years to get it allin. By the end of twenty-five to thirty years they would have plenty of ties, and at less than half they have to pay for them now in Western Iowa and Minnesota, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, and Dakota. It could have been done then at $2.50 per acre. Now, of course, it would cost more; but even now it is the only way out for the railroads, and would also do more than any one thing to put forests in the tree- less States, which they want so much. 12 Cross-arms. Cross-arms for telegraph posts in white cedar or juniper, from the Dismal Swamp, Va. Presented by the New York Cedarware Company, 82 Wall street, New York. Telephone. Wood-work of fixture, signal buttons for the electric bells, &c. Western Elec- trical Company, Chicago, I]. II.—USES OF WOODS IN: TRANSPORTATION. While this is not so large a division of industries as the preceding, it nevertheless forms a most important group, consuming millions of feet annually of the choicest hard-wood timber that can be obtained, and much of it timber which cannot be replaced. It may be stated in illus- tration of the importance of the three industries, ship, car, and carriage and wagon building, that the invested capital in 1880 amounted to nearly eighty millions of dollars, and that the annual product, in round num- bers, amounted to almost double these figures. The different uses of woods in the construction of, or in connection with, vessels or vehicles for moving mankind or the property of man from place to place are grouped as follows: ‘A.—SHIP AND BOAT BUILDING: I]lustrated by a three-masted ship, as constructed in a New England ship-yard. Hull: Keel, white oak, though rock maple, yellow birch, or southern black gum are also employed; keelson, yellow pine, sometimes hard woods; ribs or frame, oak, chestnut, or hackmatack; stem and stern post, white oak; apron (inside of stem), live oak; planking (exterior of frame), white oak or yellow pine; ceiling (interior of frame), yellow pine; transoms and knees, hackmatack and white or red oak—formerly live oak; deck frame, yellow pine; upper deck, white pine; lower deck, yellow pine; rails and all finishing timber, white oak; treenails, with which timbers are doweled together, yellow locust; house or cabin, white pine, whitewood, or fancy hard woods (interiors) according to taste. Above deck: Bowsprit and masts, white pine; spars, spruce; steering apparatus—wheel, various hard woods; rudder, oak; rigging parts in wood—tackle blocks, white ash or gum; mast-hoops, oak; dead-eyes, &c., lig- num-vite; belaying pins, oak or hickory; tids, hickory. In a “ hard-wood frame,” as built on the Maine coast, hackmatack is used at the top, on account of its durability, maple, birch, beech, and oak being used below. Smaller vessels are sometimes built throughout of spruce, with some oak, though they remain prime only about four years. In small boats and canoes, with their necessary oars, paddles, masts, &¢., white and red oak, red elm, pine, white cedar, brown ash, spruce, cherry, walnut, and bass-wood are used. | B.—CAR BUILDING, in which is included railway and street cars, elevator cars, and hoists. Illustrated by a passenger coach as constructed by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company. Bottom: Side sills, intermediate sills cr stringers in soutbern or yellow pine; end sills of white oak. Frame: Door and corner posts, ash, sometimes whitewood; side posts, ash, that of second growth preferred; plates, ash or pine; window sills, ash; car lines or rafters, white oak and ash; dome plate and dome posts, ash. Exterior: Paneling, letter- 13 board, and moldings, whitewood (as this wood takes paint better, and gives a nicer finish). Interior: Doors, mahogany ; window frames, cherry ; blinds (when used), slats, bass; frame, cherry; seat frames, wood parts, oak; floors in ash, &c.; interior paneling, various fancy native and foreign woods, according to taste; ceilings, usually oak or maple. Trucks: Wheel piece and end piece of truck frame, truck bolster, spring beam, spring plank, safety beam, brake beam, brake block, &c., of white oak. There are many other lesser beams and parts connected with platform, or used in frame, or that occur in freight or other cars, but the same woods, relatively, are used, and to name them is unnecessary. C.—CARRIAGE AND WAGON BUILDING: Includes the building of omnibuses, wagons, coaches, carriages, carts, barrows, and trucks. Illustrated by a carriage as built in New Haven. Gear: Axle-bed, head block, perch, side bars, futchells, pun- cheon, draw bar, &c., light or perch work of hickory, heavy parts of ash. Draught: Shafts, pole, and swingletrees, hickory. Wheels: Hubs, elm (generally), black birch, locust, oak, and black gum (the latter Middle and Southern States) ; spokes, hickory or oak ;- rims, hickory oak or ash. Body: Rocker, pillars, bars, top rails, and rafters, ash; paneling, whitewood ; bows, usually ash. D.—HARNESS, WOOD-WORK, &C.: Saddle-trees, oak, poplar, ash, beech, gum, elm, hickory ; hames, oak, chiefly, also white ash, white or soft maple, rock elm, and hickory ; wood stirrups, white ash, black ash, and hackberry; martingale rings, rock maple; whip-stocks, hickory, holly, and Osage orange. A.—SHIP AND BOAT BUILDING. No examples of ship-building timber were shown in the collection of woods exhibited. Frame timbers. These are from the best quality, winter-cut oak, usually received in the log, and estimated by the ton of 480 cubic feet. In a vessel of 1,500 tons register, about 600 tons of oak are required in the construction, 400 M yellow pine, and 50 M white pine and decking. Chestnut, birch, maple, beech, and hackmatack frame timbers are also used, the latter coming next to oak in demand. Knees (chiefly hackmatack or juniper). They are dug from the roots of the trees, the trunk forming the stock of the knee and the root thearm. They are roughly hewn in the woods, then dressed for market on a rotary planer, the sides only being taken off. Two-thirds of the cost is labor and transportation. Of course one tree furnishes but a single knee, but it is claimed that hackmatack is of rapid growth, twelve years sufficing to make a tree large enough to produce a 6-inch knee. The New England ship-builders use Maine timber chiefly, cut on the Penobscot River and its tributaries, though some comes, from Canada. Une correspondent estimates that 40,000 knees are annually shipped at Bangor. Knees are rated by their size, a 4-inch knee costing 35 cents; 5-inch, 65 cents; 6-inch, 80 cents; 7-inch, $1.50; 8-inch, $2.50; 9-inch, $3.50; 10-inch, $5; 11-inch, $6; and 12-inch, $7. It is further stated that there has been a decrease of about 15 per cent. in cost in late years, owing to increasing use of iron-in ship-build- ing, and increased facilities for railroad transportation. 14 Masts and spars (pine and spruce). Spruce spars are generally cut from Maine timber, though large spruce sticks for heavy spars are imported from Canada. Mast timber for large vessels comes from the Middle States, Pennsylvania, and Maryland ; ' yellow-pine lumber from Georgia. While mast and spar timber is best when cut in the winter, replies show that it is cut at all seasons of the year. A Maine firm, dealing in masts and spars, says, ‘‘ We seldom send finished sticks out of the States, but frequently send deck-loads of rough or rough-dressed stock to South America upon orders.” Small boats. Fishing dories and pleasure boats are constructed from oak, pine, cedar, and various hard woods in combination, according to taste of buyers. A Newburyport builder of fishing dories uses second-growth. white pine and old-growth red or yellow oak. The very best quality is used, cut in the winter and allowed to season through the summer ‘“‘ Best cuts for the sides are employed, heart and sap alike; cuts for bot- toms, [3 to 20 feet long, of second growth, neitherold growth nor sapling.’ Whale-boats employ in construction white and yellow oak, spruce, white pine, white cedar, birch, and maple. Canoes. J.H. Rushton, Canton, N. Y., donates a canoe, the Sairy Gamp, together with parts of canoes and similar pleasure craft, in white and red oak, red elm, pine, white cedar, brown ash, spruce, cherry, black walnut, hackmatack, and bass-wood. Hunt & Morrison, Oldtown, Me., also contributed a birch-bark canoe, frame of cedar, covered with bark of silver birch. The labor is 50 per cent. of the cost of a sailing canoe. The oak em- ployed in its construction is got out of the plank by circular saw, fin- ished with planer. Hackmatack knees reduced to form with hand-saw, chisel, and mallet, to make sterns and keelson. Siding, barrel resaw- ing machine and planer, rest hand-work; braces and deck-timbers re- duced to shape by barrel-saw, finished by hand; deck-work in mahogany all hand-work, as the material is procured proper thickness. . All wood is air-seasoned only, from one to three years. The following description of the building of the birch-bark canoe is appended: With his materials at hand the canoe-maker first prepares a suitable place for the operation. This is usually a spot having a clayey bed, capable of being flattened into a hard, smooth bottom, sloping gradually from the center each way until, in a distance of half the required length of the canoe, it shows a fall of 4 inches. Some- times, however, boards are used instead of the clayey bed, sloping them from the cen-~ ter in the same manner. The builder pow rifts from a cedar log two rails, 14 inches square and 15 to 20 feet long, according to the desired length of the canoe. These are fastened securely at the ends and fitted with cross-pieces or thwarts, five in num- ber, which serve the double purpose of strengthening and supporting the canoe and supplying seats for the occupants. The frame is then placed on the ground previously prepared, the center touching the center of the bed and the extremities resting on pega driven into the ground and rising to a height of 4 inches. Stakes are then made 14 to 2 inches in diameter and 3} feet Jong, and driven into