Show white house timber W A paxton superintendent ot of the duchesne county se ho ol 01 district has as just obtained from atom the national lumber manufacturers association washington D C an interesting souvenir ot of historical interest in the form ot of a block of wood made from the timbers of the wood trus trusses sets which were wera removed from the root roof 0 of the whits house at the time it was remodeled two years ago the block will be preserved preserve and kept wa as it a permanent perro anent display mr gives us ua the following story etory ot of the history of these timbers and an interesting tion of events at the time they were In kalled in the executive mansion in a storehouse of the office ot of public buildings and public parks in washington Washing tonis Is an ancient an clent wooden root roof truss just old timber until you know its history but as as lt col grant III chief of the office can find a suitable place to house the truss it alu come forth proudly from the old lumber pile and be exhibited as one of the nations historic relics tho the truss Is one of those ed from the white house root roof in the renovation ol of the mansion now nearing completion after literally holding the roof over the heads of the presidents of the united states for the last years these trusses are in excellent condit condition lom as tar far as the wood Is concerned and halt half section of one will be preserved no only tor for its historical association but as an example of tn the remarkable durability ot of the wood awen ty six presidents have lived in the white house since the trusses were put ini in place in 1814 after the battle of tle the british soldiers with their flaming torches tor chea came thronging up pennsylvania avenue and burned the white house the tire fire destroying the interior and seriously dam damaging some of the masonry president madison and his famous I 1 wife dolly made a dramatic departure front from the executive mansion fleeing up Penn Perin sylvar ia avenue just ahead of the british reconstruction was begani shortly after the fire the mew root roof being in place by sturdy wood trusses today these trusses with their timbers in almost as good conditions condit ioni as when they were cut years ago are interesting as is examples of early workmanship the timbers all hand sawn bawn are held together not only by fortisi mortisi mortising mor ng but with dowels and heavy wrought iron straps pounded out by hano hand when the old root roof was removed it was fo found und that there was waa i leally no deterioration i of material in any vital place in thie the massive main root roof timber trusses and only the ends of the umbers timbers forming the trusses over 0 iner the north importico were damaged by powder post beetles builders of 0 a century ago wet were not familiar with the use of preservatives to lengthen leng thien the life of the exposed wood and did not inot treat the material as would the builders of today overloading an attic that was not inot designed for occupancy of rry elmi and certain defects of construction as well as subsequent tinkering rather than any deterioration of tle the wood are said by army arany engineers to have been beebi responsible lor for the unsafe condition of the root roof A report of the office of public buildings and public parks under whose supervision the renovation of the historic building la Is being carried out says in part although nearly all of the removed timbers with the exception ot of those over the north portico were in a good state of tion ilon most of the trusses had long since ceased to act as such at some time ln in the past the upper chord of one ona of the main trusses had been cut entirely through and a section removed to make room tor for a light wall that the truss did not collapse was evidence that it was no longer acting as a truss in partial explanation of the tallu irie of the trusses it may be said eald that they were apparently designed to carry only the roof loads on their upper tipper chords because of lack of space in the lower stories however the attic space was used for the storage of records and after 1902 for servants quarters and general storage bringing heavy toads loads on the lower chords az a result of this overloading many of the intermediate joints were pulled apart and theand joints where the end posts were mortised morti sed into the lower chords had in some borne cases completely railed failed by longitudinal shearing the had settled upon and abid were being supported by the interior anta lor partitions of masonry or wood and were carrying the root roof and attic loads ina do as beams bea ins they were seriously weakened by splices aind at several points by notches cut in the lower surface to accommodate thie the wooden troughs that formerly carried the root roof drainage tome some of the notches being so deop deep that hat only about four inches of solid wood remained nothing it appears could be done ion short of entire reconstruction to correct th the abuse of the trusses additions to the attic made in 1902 despite the tact fact that the weakening of the th trusses was noted as early as 1873 materially increased the direct load on the horizontal members and indications of their failure became more evident incidentally it was worth while to divert from the thread of the I 1 story etory long enough to mention the fact that president Pines ident grant who occupied the white house in 1873 aind to whom the condition of the root roof was first reported wai was the grandfather of lt col U S grant under whose direction the present aar renovation of the man mansion slon la Is being hairried can cair ried out in 1926 an all appropriation of o was made for reconstructs c r the roof attic and ceilings of the second story of the executive mansion manmon and actual construction construct lon was begun on march 14 1927 the first operation was the erection of a i t wooden root roof over the entire e building to protect the interior from damase damage until the new roof was in place forests of various sections of the country have contributed to tile lue renovation of the mansion northern white pine from minnesota and bouthern Bou fhern yellow plue pine are being asad tor for the millwork Loul klana pine tor for the sub flooring and hardwood hari wood from the middle west for the top flooring such new structural timber oz as was required in the th new permanent roof was treated with wood preservatives and 1 it la Is expected that it will last as long as the iron steel and slate with which it Is associated W F P luck construction te t on the ithe re renovating renova ting job speaks enthusiastically of the condition of the old lumber removed from the white house it took me about fifteen min through thi rough the top of a ten iten by ten that Is years old he sal sa 4 cut like oak is la condi tig it miscellaneous pieces 0 of the lumber have been told bold u tt a anctil and a number of 0 patriotic auction and socie les have bunai chis duro aas of this the ome larger pieces old oil b h wrought nails of ou our f or erath and time used in holding hol jibb the timber together today rusty 1 bent ent 3 showing signs ot of having yielded and an time are being eagerly sou sought abt souvenirs as a it Is apparent that ir if the true had not boon been abused the white louse roof might not ha hav VB required replacement tor for ages it was only recen recently ay after nina MILt urles that the timbers in the root roof ot of the west minister hall london had to le be rein reinforced forced be because cause of weevil in fe station same borne of the old stone chateaux of france hemlock tinie ers have withstood tim time 0 better than the walls it remains to be seen whether modern modera steel frame con st ruction will endure any better than heavy timber construct construction to certainly steel ships do not last iasi longer than their pre decea sors on the high seas s aaa incidentally it might be said bald that we ve may have to return to timber for iauch structural work in which it has been replaced by steel the diminishing irani we ore supplier of the world may require that steel shall never bo be used where renewal potentially in echaus table wood will do A member of the U S Geo geological logt survey says pays that the iron mines of tiie the lake l ake superior region reglo ini will be worked work id out in about thirty years and lion iron docs not grow again the improvement of and fire resistant treatments of 0 wood tm nay ay make it even nione more desirable th than an steel tor for some of the purposes in i which the latter atter has succeeded the former however that may be the halt bait petion of the white house truss that the government is to preserve will in bi a reminder to future ger orations erat ians ions of the incalculable service the primeval forests of america were to the formative days of the nation from settlers board abi shack ck oi ca log cabin to the stately mansion of the president the forests helter I 1 j aid a id protected the swarming mil t lions libi s without forests we would not be the mighty people we are it may well be that the new to ar ests the continuous forests foresta that hat will take their place though their times comes so slowly will play arn an equally important part in the future |