Timbrel

“ My father used to say that the cry of Timber!' was ringing in the country's ears, that the loggers had given the warning, that the last of our trees were commencing to fall—but we haven't heard! Our ears are shut to the cry, our backs are turned and unless we look sharp we'll be caught! ”

“ Oh, there's little room for weaklings where the timber ranges rise.
When above the welcome shingles lazy smoke, all curling blue,
With the forest hazes mingles, and the long day's toil is through;
When across the little clearing children race with greeting cries—
No man asks for further cheering where the timber ranges rise? ”

“ In the older sections, the timber has been fantastically turned, much of its splendid grain being lost in convolutions of pillar and balustrade; but modern architects have utilized the timber in all its beauty of rich gold, mahogany-red, maple-tints, and darker shades, with sympathetic display of its traceries that sometimes take the form of ships at sea, heads of animals, or landscapes. ”

“ Timber was so plentiful with us that poles and planks lay piled up at the back of the house, and after a number of these had been hunted up, from where they had floated among the trees, and laid in the full sunshine, a platform was built up high above the muddy earth, and then another upon which pine boughs were laid, and good, dry resting-places contrived for our weary bones. ”

“ If we could investigate the properties of timber with the same care which has been bestowed on the metals, we should find that there is an even greater variation in the properties of different kinds of wood. This arises, in part, from the fact that timber is much affected by a number of external and internal conditions, during its growth and seasoning, and in its subsequent treatment, which gradually modify and change its properties. ”

“ The timber retains its aromatic fragrance to a great age. On a transverse section the wood is marked by large pores, which are more numerous and larger in the spring wood, or the inner belt of each annual ring, while they are less numerous and smaller in the autumn wood or outer belt. ”

“ There is indeed among the higher orders—of course with a few exceptions—a prejudice against felling Timber, older than the oldest Timber Tree in existence; and as strong as the most enthusiastic admirer of the beauties of landscape scenery can desire it to be: and so far is this feeling carried, that, by many, Timber of the most unsightly character, and in situations where it can be associated with no idea connected with the scenery, is religiously spared, and spared long after it has ceased to be either useful or ornamental where it stands. ”

“ We like the smell of this aromatic forest timber, and its clear flame. The birch is also a sweet wood for the hearth, with a sort of spiritual flame and an even temper,—no snappishness. Some prefer the elm, which holds fire so well; and I have a neighbor who uses nothing but apple-tree wood,—a solid, family sort of wood, fragrant also, and full of delightful suggestions. But few people can afford to burn up their fruit trees. ”

“ There is timber of all sizes, large trees and small—mostly beech, as it seems to me—branches and twigs, portions of trees, planks innumerable; and boys and girls, old men and women, young men and women, are busy along the shores fishing up the timber and the branches that are borne thither by the force of the waves. The young ones leap exultingly with their bare legs into the water; the old people drag the more precious waifs and strays towards them with rakes. ”

“ Every stick of timber was oak from the forest primeval, felled and hewed by the strong arms of the men who, with stout hearts, braved the perils and hardships of the wilderness for their altars and homes. ”

“ The wood of an old tree, on the other hand, Felling Timber. has lost a great part of its toughness, and is of bad colour, brittle and often predisposed to decay. In trees that have arrived at a mature age the heart-wood is in its largest proportion and the sap-wood is firm and elastic; and the timber from such trees is of the strongest, toughest and most durable character. The age at which the northern pine and Norway fir arrive at maturity is between seventy and one hundred years. The larch, elm and ash should be felled when the trees are between the ages of fifty and one hundred years. ”

“ Anthony loved his shining, polished slabs of wood. If a man must have a business, let it be timber. Timber was a clean and fine and noble thing. He had brought the working of his business to such a pitch of smooth perfection that his two elder sons, Michael and Nicholas, could catch up with it easily and take it in their stride. ”

“ The powerful impressions received at timber-line lead many visitors to return for a better acquaintance, and from each visit the visitor goes away more deeply impressed: for timber-line is not only novel and strange, it is touched with pathos and poetry and has a life-story that is heroic. ”

“ Have you never seen a stick of timber, that has been long tossed about by the waves, and has got all overgrown with barnacles, and at last, drifting ashore, seems to have been thrown up from the very deepest bottom of the sea? ”

“ I do, sometimes. But I've kept on doing my best for it because you're right when you say it's your life. Anything that might harm this timber would be like somebody layin' hands on you and that's why I can stand it. ”

“ There's a lot of timber that there ain't much expected of—an' a lot of humans, too. They're the stuff that works up into rough boards, an' cull stuff, an' lath, an' pulp wood, an' cordwood an' the like of that—an' so it goes, folks an' timber runnin' about alike. ”

“ The adaptation by which a limb, originally destined to grow free and bear foliage, has been converted into a living stick of timber, is a strange one, and affords a new illustration of the power of nature to fit itself to circumstances. ”

“ They can contract and expand their Light as they fly, I am sure; and their light continues some days after they are dead: So that I am not of their mind, who affirm, that 'tis the flammula cordis in their tail.
24. The Wood-lice will eat Covers and Books, though printed, as I found to my cost. Of their eating of Timber, it is true they will eat some forts of Timber, but not all. ”

“ The structure and properties of wood should be thoroughly understood by every joiner. The man who has made the nature of timber his study has always a decided advantage over those who have neglected this. Timber shrinks considerably in the width, but not appreciably in the length. ”

“ Speaking generally, it is found that, other things being equal, the most resistant, closest, and toughest timber comes from isolated trees growing in the open: straight and long timber, less marked for the above qualities, comes, on the contrary, from trees grown in close, high forest. ”

“ Of or pertaining to the genus Timalus or family Timalidæ, which includes the babblers thrushes, and bulbuls.
Tim"bal (?) , n. A kettledrum. See Tymbal.
Tim"ber (?) , n. [Probably the same word as timber sort of wood; cf. Sw. timber, LG. timmer, MHG. zimber, G. zimmer, F. timbre, LL. timbrium. Cf. Timmer.] (Com.) A certain quantity of fur skins, as of martens, ermines, sables, etc., packed between boards; being in some cases forty skins, in others one hundred and twenty; — called also timmer. ”

“ The peculiar property of its timber is extremely remarkable, being declared proof against all putrefaction of human or other bodies, serving better than all other ingredients or compositions for embalming; thus, by a singular contradiction, giving life as it were to the dead, and destroying the worms which are living, as it does, where any goods are kept in chests and presses of the wood—except woollen cloths and furs, which, it is observed, they destroy. ”

“ One timber is composed of several pieces. (See Frame.) —Cant or square timbers, are those which are placed obliquely on the keel towards the extremities of a ship, forming the dead solid wood of the gripe, and of the after heel.—Filling timbers. Those which are put up between the frames. One mould serves for two timbers, the fore-side of the one being supposed to unite with the after-side of the one before it, and so make only one line.—Knuckle-timbers are the foremost cant-timbers on a ship's bow: the hindmost on the quarter are termed fashion-pieces. ”

“ Hewers discover a Sense in Timber-Trees, if we may believe them: For they say, that if you strike the Trunk of a Tree that you design to hew down, with the Palm of your Hand, as Wood-Mongers use to do, it will be harder to cut that Tree down because it has contracted itself with Fear. ”

“ Timber, as a building material, has, in modern times, been replaced to a great extent by iron in large structures, but timber is more capable than iron of being experimented upon in the lecture room. The elementary laws which we shall demonstrate with reference to the strength of timber, are also, substantially the same as the corresponding laws for the strength of iron or any other material. ”

“ The darkies, unconcerned, stretched out full length upon the timber, and their heavy snoring soon denoted that they had passed into the land of dreams, but their lively trombone music quickly became disgusting, forcing me to seek another pile of the timber for rest. ”

“ Crooked wooden crosses, or even a single upright{63} stake, were the landmarks of the dead; perhaps in a country where trees take more trouble to preserve than game, and are far more rare, a piece of timber is felt to be more honourable than the stone that lies profusely ready to the hand. ”

“ When you haue made sale of your Timber, you shall by no meanes let it be cut downe till the end of Aprill, at which time the sap ascending vpward, will loosen the bark, and make it come from the body of the Trée easily. You shall cut your Timber downe close by the earth, not digge it vp by the rootes, vnlesse you meane vtterly to destroy it, for from the spurnes of the roote will arise new Spiers, which in processe of time, will come to another Trée. ”

“ The timber-spruce, as it is commonly called, seems to drop its lower limbs a little more readily than its darker boughed brother, which goes by the name of cat-spruce among the local lumbermen, to thus prepare itself for the lumberman’s axe as yielding a timber in which at a given age are fewer knots. ”

“ We have reason, however, to believe, from their giving a similar account of the timber where we now are, that the timber of which they speak is similar to that which we have seen for a few days past, which consists of nothing more than a few straggling small pines and dwarf cedars on the summits of the hills, nine-tenths of the ground being totally destitute of wood, and covered with short grass, aromatic herbs, and an immense quantity of prickly-pear ”

“ In extreme cases, especially in the limbs, a ring is frequently conspicuous on one side, and almost or entirely lost to view on the other. Where the rings are extremely narrow, the dark portion of the ring is often wanting, the color being quite uniform and light. The greater regularity or irregularity of the annual rings has much to do with the technical qualities of the timber. ”

“ The timber varies very much both in size and quality, but large quantities of fine oak, ash, chestnut, walnut, elm and several other hard woods, exist in the vicinity of the river and its tributaries. The best timber is generally to be found in the narrow belts of wood that border the large stretches of prairie grass. ”

“ Other timber we have, as the Iron-wood, and another sort, which are excellent good to endure wet and drie; and of those we make Shingles, which being such a kinde of wood, as will not warpe nor rive, are the best coverings for a house that can be, full out as good as Tiles, and lie lighter upon the Rafters. ”

“ This timber also does well (if kept dry) for columns, tables, chests, chairs, stools, bedsteads; for tubs, and wine-casks, which it preserves with the least tincture of the wood of any whatsoever: If the timber be dipp’d in scalding oyl, and well pitch’d, it becomes extreamly durable; but otherwise I cannot celebrate the tree for its sincerity, it being found that (contrary to the oak) it will make a fair shew outwardly, when ’tis all decay’d, and rotten within ”

“ It is doubtless of all timber hitherto known, the most universally useful and strong; for though some trees be harder, as box, cornus, ebony, and divers of the Indian woods; yet we find them more fragil, and not so well qualify’d to support great incumbencies and weights, nor is there any timber more lasting, which way soever us’d. ”

“ In many cases when timber trees are cut down and converted for use, it is found that at the junction of some of the minor branches with the main stem, the roots, as it were, of the branches traverse the surface wood in the form of knots, and that they often assume a commencement of decay, which in the course of time will extend to the wood around them. ”

“ Plenty of timber is a favorable augury. Who can not recall some beautiful valley where the well-grown trees seem almost to meet their branches over green meadows and patches of grain and other crops? On the other hand, inclement and thin soils carry a stunted and forlorn timbering. ”

“ VII. Next we must endeavour to say in a general way, distinguishing the several uses, for which purposes each kind of timber is serviceable, which is of use for ship-building, which for house-building: for these uses extend far and are important. ”

“ The wood near the shore, and for several miles up the River, is worth but little, being short and crooked, and thus unfit for building; but the further you proceed up the country, so much the better is the timber in quality. ”

“ The first requisite of all education and discipline should be man-timber. Tough timber must come from well grown, sturdy trees. Such wood can be turned into a mast, can be fashioned into a piano or an exquisite carving. But it must become timber first. Time and patience develop the sapling into the tree. ”

“ Good timber should be uniform in substance, straight in fibre, and not twisted, warped, or waney. Diagonal knots are particularly objectionable in timber for piles. Good timber should smell sweet when fresh cut, and it has a firm, bright surface, and does not clog the saw. ”