TEXTBOOK OF WOOD TECHNOLOGY VOLUME II

The Physical, Mechanical,and Chemical Properties of the CommercialWoods of the United States. By H. P. Brown,A. J. Panshin, and C. C. Forsaith '13. McGraw-Hill Book Cos. 1952. 78 pp. $10.00.

Carl C. Forsaith '13 is one of the authors of this outstanding work in wood technology now completed with the publication of Volume II. The first volume, issued in 1949, covered the structure, identification, defects and uses of our commercial woods, and the second the remainder of the field.

The first portion of the later volume is devoted to the physical properties of wood. Here its density and specific gravity, its relation to heat, moisture, sound, light, electricity, and bonding and finishing are considered in detail. Well over half the book is utilized in a consideration of the mechanical properties of wood. Testing procedures are described and the mechanics of short columns, and both solid and laminated beams, are discussed at length. Other chapter headings in this section are:—Stresses in Framed Structures, The Holding Power of Timber Fasteners, Working Stresses for Wood, Strength Properties and Fire Resistance of Wood-Steel Construction, Strength Properties of Plywood. Essential formulae are given and their aplication carefully explained. In the last three chapters the chemical properties of wood are treated in broad outline, for the benefit of the general student.

This two volume work is designed for use as a text and for this purpose it is unsurpassed by any English text in the field. The use of somewhat complicated mathematics, particularly in the province of mechanics, is obviously necessary, but clear explanations of the principles involved are given and these are supplemented by the use of numerous, completely solved, practical problems. The latter should be very helpful to the student.