Woodworking has been one of the most important technologies from the earliest times. Carpentry was important for buildings and bridges and as an integral part of most construction processes. The history of this subject has been explored by a variety of scholars, from archaeologists to engineers. The different studies have explored the methods of carpentry, the behaviour of the structures that were built and even the economic and social histories behind the development of carpentry techniques. This book collects together a number of papers representing this full range of scholarship as well as providing a general review of work in the field.
Contents: Introduction; Medieval Timber Structures: The cruck-built barn of Leigh Court, Worcestershire, England, F. W. B. Charles and Walter Horn; The grammar of carpentry, Richard Harris; The timber roofs of York Minster, J. Quentin Hughes; Jettying and floor-framing in medieval Essex, Cecil A. Hewett; Where roof meets wall: structural innovations and hammer-beam antecedants, 1150-1250, Lynn T. Courtenay; The Westminster Hall roof: a historiographic and structural study, Lynn T. Courtenay and R. Mark; Westminster Hall roof, Jacques Heyman; The Early Modern period: Early carpenters’ manuals, 1592-1820, David T. Yeomans; The strength testing of timber during the 17th and 18th centuries, L. G. Booth; Sir Christopher Wren’s carpentry: a note on the library at Trinity College, Cambridge, Henry M. Fletcher; Structural design in the 18th century: James Essex and the roof of Lincoln Cathedral Chapter House, David T. Yeomans; In Delorme’s manner, Douglas Harnsberger; 19th-century Structures: Early wooden truss connections vs. wood shrinkage: from mortise-and-tenon joints to bolted connections, Lee H. Nelson; British and American solutions to a roofing problem, David T. Yeomans; The development of laminated timber arch structures in Bavaria, France and England in the early 19th century, L. G. Booth; Case study of Burr truss covered bridge, Emory L. Kemp and John Hall; The evolution of wooden bridge trusses to 1850, J. G. James; Index.
David T. Yeomans, University of Liverpool, UK F. W. B. Charles, Walter Horn, Richard Harris, J. Quentin Hughes, Cecil A. Hewett, Lynn T. Courtenay, R. Mark, Jacques Heyman, David T. Yeomans, L. G. Booth, Henry M. Fletcher, Douglas Harnsberger, Lee H. Nelson, Emory L. Kemp, John Hall, J. G. James.
Reviews for The Development of Timber as a Structural Material
'The aim of Ashgate's twelve volume series is to bring together collections of important papers on particular topics from scholarly journals, conference proceedings and other hard-to-access sources. This is a wholly laudable objective. Some of the papers in the volume under review [The Civil Engineering of Canals and Railways before 1850] cannot be found even in abundantly-resourced academic libraries. The series opens up, directly or indirectly, debates over the nature of historical evidence which arise from the profoundly different approaches to the past of historians of technology, whose works are principally represented in these volumes, industrial archaeologists and social and economic historians.' Industrial Archaeology Review, Vol. XXI, No. 1
