Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1915 — Interesting Test of Timber. [ARTICLE]

Interesting Test of Timber.

The strength of a nemlock stick a foot square that had been in water for almost forty years was recently tested in the 600,000-pound testing machine at Rensselaer .Polytechnic institute at Troy, N. Y. The timber, which was 16 feet 9 Inches long, Usd formed part of one of the piers of the Congress street bridge at Troy. When the pier broke down after the flood in the spring of 1913, the timber was turned over to one of the material-testing laboratories of the Institute. It was kept In the open air for three months, and then placed in a dry room for a little more than nine months. When placed in the testing machine, the column failed under a load of 384,000 pounds; that is, the long-submerged wood showed an ultimate strength of 3,670 pounds to the square inch. In the opinion of Prof. T. R. Lawson, who eon ducted the test, the remarkable strength of this piece of hemlock seems to show that being Immersed in water for a long time does not decrease the column strength of timber that is subsequently permitted to drv out.- ■