The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-20
WHAT KIND Of W00D2
Further Discussion Of the Important
Question Of Paving Main
Street.
DR.. q. q Swallows Opinion of the
Best Wood That Gould
Be Used.
The western Larch the Best oftFou Hun
dred Woods-Grows yeryiAbun-
liant In Montana

since 1872 have removed all tho valid OBJ
iections ever made to the use of wood; and
that the good p~avements used in European
cities have restored wood to the.favor lost
when poor pavements were used. But
wood has not SO generally regained its lost
character in this country, beoause'thoee i'm
proyements have not been 50 generally
adopted in our cities. Blu whereNthese inn
provements have been adopted in part only,
wood ia fast becoming the favorite material,
rs shown by Mr. Palmer in the journal.
These Improvements were:
First. A solid foundation of concrete or
macadam.
Second. The use Of wood having the
needed properties of q pavement.
1t is the opinion Of engineers, who have
had the largest experience with these inn
proved wood ~pavements, that they are on
the whole the best yet invented.
We shall certainly have no difficulty in
securing a good foundation on Main street.
for without it we can have M good pave
ment of any kind.
It has been my object for some time to
find out the best wood for a pavement on
Main street. am prepared to give an an
SW6I, VIC Adto lAO4C AftA ToS oPSSACo Va
trees in the United States whose wood has
been used more or less in the practical pur-
suits of life. For more than a hundred
years we have been learning the properties
of these woods by both practical uses and
by scientific examinations. Europeans
have also aided US in this great work.
Nearly every tree in our forests are cltiu-
waited in England. France and Germany,
and many of them have been for moro than
q century. Some Of the best sources of in
formation on American forest trees and
timber are published in Europe. During
the last twenty years a vast emount
of work has been done to determine with
absolute accuracy the properties of our 400
kinds of wood by the Smithsonian institute,
the department of agriculture and by the
departments of forestry in our colleges.
From these sources and from my own
knowledge Of the trees and TIMBER of our
country, I have made a careful re-e1amina-
ton Of the properties of our woods, such as
are necessary in street pavements, In order
to find the best wood for Main street. And
singular as it may appear, the very best
wood and the one to be chosen of all our 400
native trees, ia more abundant than any
where else in OUT own state. The western
larch Clark occidentalis) is the wood.
London having determined that wood
makes the best pavement known, has Sc
looted az the best Of all the thousand kinds
grown on the five continents one of our
woods, the hois dare, not because
its native forests and tho wood is very e1-
pensive. While the bois dare is the best
wood to sustain the immense traffic of the
London Strand, thew western larch is the
best for the Nam street of Helena. While
%h> forpoo > Ia h nd ar and will anrrOrk moro
crushing weight, the latter is hard enough
for our traffic and will easily support the
weight of a wagon loaded with $4,000
pounds or 1900 pounds on each wheel.
The larch is the stronger, the more elastic,
not so noisy, less slippery. and does not de-
cav so quick as the bois dare.
First. The power to support a great
weight without yielding is a very important
property of a paving wood. The white pine
and cedar so much used in some cities are
defective in this property. A block of our
larch, n inch square,. will, standing on
end, support without yielding, L, 600 pounds.
There are only two woods in much use as
lumber in the United States, which will sus-
tain a greater weight. The black locust
will sustain 1928 pounds per square inch,
and thel bois dare will support 1856
pounds. Our larch will support more
crushing weight than any of our oaks,
hickories, naples or birches. 1t will even
support a weight which would crush many
of our GRANTEES. A pavement Of larch will
support without injury q wagon carrying a
load of a freight car, or twenty-four tons.
Second. Elasticity is another important
property of paving material. 1t is the elias
ITCHY which makes the rubber and asphalt
pavements go pleasant for horses and car
riages and so noiseless. Our larch is the
most elastic of all American woods. The
Indians called tho Usage orange bow
wood' on account of it's great elasticity, and
the engineers selected it to pave the Lon
don strand for this quality in part; and
your larch is more elastic that the bois
dare. While 94 represents the elasticity
of tho bois dare. 1868 represents that Of
the western larch. Cedar, ash, hickory
elm, birch, oak and willow are noted fol-
elasticity; but our larch excels them all il
this useful property.
resistance it makes to fracture, is also al
important property for paving material
Our larch stand high in the ranks of strons
woods. There are but four of our Ameri
can woods stronger than it. Only n o
eight American hickories, n of our 81:
birches and one of our thirty-six oaks hav
a wood stronger than our western larch
There is a little tree, little known in Flor
ida as 'torchwood," which is u trif
stronger. Our Montana larch is stronge
than the hickory, pecan and other WOO
shipped to Helena for tool-handles an
CdrTidBb work..
Fourth. The resistance to indentatioI
or penetration, or the power exerted to pre-
vent pebbles from indenting or penetratin
it, is important for a paving wood to pos
sess in a medium degree. This is the prop
erty which distinguishes the hard from tn
soft woods. The larch stands anon
the hardest of the soft and i
harder than some of the har
woods. Experience has shown that whit
pine and cedar are too soft. They are easil
ndented and bruised and furnish retreat
for pestlferous gases and organisms. o
the other extreme locust and Usage oranQ
are so hard as to be slippery and noisy. tn
larch has a happy medium, hard enough fo
our traffic without being slippery and nois,
Fifth. T%oughness or resistance to spill
ting and spllntering is a valuable propert
in paving wood; since it is conducive I
cleanliness and durability. If the fbers {
the wood separate by The wear and tear {
traffic, filthy fluids will be absorbed, indu,
ing decay and dangerous exhalations. b,
in our larch the ibers are SO tough aud il
terlaced. it takes the greatest force to spl
or separate them, and the pores are 80 file
with pitch the dust and liquids cannot pc,
citrate the wood.
When war ships were made of limb
more men were killed in naval battles /
splinters knocked off by cannon shot tn,
by the balls themselves. Larch timbe
were then in great demand for naval arch
lecture; because cannon balls would pa
through them without splitting or splinte
ing them n the wood by its elasticity al
tough tibres would partially close up aft
the ball.
Great Britain had no native larch, and
hacarna On poravcor, fnr har .rapS ~ ~ 4 h