TESTING TIMBER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2981, 31 December 1925, Page 2

TESTING TIMBER.

FOR ELECTRIC POWER POLES

For some time past Mr. N. G. McLeod, engineer t" the Thames Valley Power Board has been conducting experiments with a view to testing the durability of certain timbers under varying conditions. Poles for electric power lines are at present obtained Com Australia, and the demand keeps on increasing, and with the diminishing supplies it is necessary for Power Boards to look well ahead. The Thames Valley Power Board carrying out its experiments is endeavouring to learn whether New Zea-land-grown timber is durable enough if treated properly for their purposes.

The poles were obtained front the State Forestry Department plantations, Rotorua, and are all Australian specimens of (eucalypti. The poles have been sunk sft in the ground and 9ft apart, and have been in the ground nine months. No perceptible change is expected for at least five years, and the tests will probably not be completed in 20 years. The first poles were of stringy bark. Before being placed in the ground they were charred and dipped in hot creosote. Six different specimens were treated in this manner. With the next line tests are being made with the object of determining the relative durability of I lie top, middle and lower portions of a tree. These poles base received no treatment at all. The third lot of poll's have been given one coat of hot preservative.

The varieties of eucalypti include mucllirana, oblique, onata, risdoni and ettgeiiiodes. The land on which the tests are being made has been placed at tin 1 disposal of the Thames Valley Bower Board by Mr. F. M. Strange, Mangaiti.