Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/139

xx.] manufacturing purposes. Malabar Teak is a few pounds heavier per cubic foot than Burmah.

I tested, when in Burmah, all the varieties of Teak that were then drawn from the Tenasserim forests, and found a very considerable difference in their transverse strength; this, however, may probably be attributed to the variations of soil, and to the length of fibre in the grain.

Thus the transverse strength of the Thoungyeen was proved to be 284 lbs., the Karanee 271 lbs., the Attaran 201 lbs., and the Laingbooe only 175 lbs. per square inch, the mean strength being 233 lbs. per square inch. The several specimens tried were each of them 2 × 2 × 84 inches, supported on props 6 feet apart, with the weight applied, as usual, in the middle; the result being that the Thoungyeen and the Attaran both broke with a long splintery fracture, while the others snapped off very short.

In some experiments more recently conducted in this country on twelve pieces of Moulmein Teak of the same dimensions as above, the results gave, as the mean breaking weight, 220 lbs. to the square inch, which is less than the average of the four varieties just mentioned, and 32 lbs. below the average of the three first named; the Laingbooe being struck out as not likely ever to be imported in sufficient quantities to affect the results when applying Teak to building purposes. The