First published in the year 1914, "This book was written primarily for students of forestry to whom a knowledge of the technical properties of wood is essential. The mechanics involved is reduced to the simplest terms and without reference to higher mathematics, with which the students rarely are familiar. The intention throughout has been to avoid all unnecessarily technical language and descriptions, thereby making the subject-matter readily available to every one interested in wood." -Preface

The Mechanical Properties of WoodBy Samuel J. RecordUnlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Tests to determine the mechanical properties of wood, such as bending tests, compression tests, shearing tests, etc., to be strictly comparable must be made on straight-grained pieces free from defects, such as knots, shakes, etc., and in the same condition of seasoning. It would manifestly be misleading to compare the strength of oak containing defects with clear hemlock or the strength of green ash with dry birch.