T the Arc, by which means large tracts of fertile land have been reclaimed. The population of the duchy of Savoy is 501,000, 129,000 of whom inhabit the province of Savoy Proper. A great part of the country is rocky and barren, and the male inhabitants are obliged to leave their homes in order to get a subsistence. Cattle and sheep constitute the chief wealth of the Alpine districts. Savoy does not produce corn enough for its consumption. Wine is made in most parts, and some of it is very good. Silkworms are reared in Savoy Proper, and fruit-trees are abundant. The people of Savoy have an old established reputation for honesty, loyalty, and bravery. Savoy has produced many distinguished men of learning, among others, St. Réal, Vaugelas, Gerdil, Berthollet, Ducis, Brogny, Berger, &c. The popular language of Savoy is a Romance dialect, like those of Western Switzerland, but the people of the towns speak good French. The statistics of the administration, education, &c. of Savoy are given under SARDINIAN STATES. SAVOY, HOUSE OF. [SARDINIAN STATES.] SAW, an instrument for cutting timber or other hard substances, usually formed of a plate of steel with a notched or serrated edge. The action of a saw is different from that of a knife or sharp-edged tool; the latter being used simply to separate the fibres, while the former is made, by a rapid motion in the direction of its length, to cut or tear away a portion of wood equal to the thickness of the blade. Saws were used by the antient Egyptians. The annexed cut represents a saw that was discovered, with several other carpenters' tools, in a private tomb at Thebes, and which is now preserved in the British Museum. presentations the timber is bound with ropes to a single post; and in one, also copied by Rosellini, the workman is engaged in tightening the rope, having left the saw sticking in the cut. In an engraving given in the third volume of Wilkinson's 'Manners and Customs of the Antient Egyp tians,' a saw is represented of much larger dimensions, its length being, by comparison with the man, not less than three or four feet. It does not appear that the Egyptians used saws worked by two men. The invention of saws was variously attributed by the Greeks to two or three individuals, who are supposed to have taken the idea from the jaw-bone of a snake or the back-bone of a fish. There is a very curious picture among the remains discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum, representing the interior of a carpenter's workshop, with two genii cutting a piece of wood with a frame-saw; and on an altar preserved in the Capitoline Museum at Rome there is a perfect representation of a bow-saw, exactly resembling, in the form of the frame, and the twisted cord for tightening it, those used by modern carpenters. (Mus. Capitolin.. vol. iv., plate 15.) From these remains it is evident that these forms of the instrument were known to the antients. Saws are of various forms and sizes, according to the purposes to which they are to be applied. Those used by carpenters and other artificers in wood are the most numerous. Among these are the following:-The cross-cut saw, for dividing logs transversely, two persons being employed to pull the saw alternately backwards and forwards, The division of wood by riving or splitting was pro-and the teeth being so formed as to cut equally in each dibably the most antient method of reducing it to pieces of rection. The pit-saw, a long blade of steel with large teeth, convenient size and shape; and, owing to the facility with and a transverse handle at each end. It is used for sawing which it is done, and the superior strength of the planks so logs into planks or scantlings, the piece of wood to be cut produced, this process is still occasionally resorted to. If being laid over a saw-pit, or excavation six or seven feet the grain of timber were straight, this plan would have the deep. One man stands on the log, and the other in the advantage of economy, but as it is not so in general, con- pit, and they pull the saw alternately up and down, in a siderable waste is occasioned by it when the pieces are re- nearly vertical direction; the saw cutting in its descent quired to be straight, much wood having to be removed only. The frame-saw is a blade from five to seven feet long. with an adze in order to make it so. The superior strength stretched tightly in a frame of timber, the plane of the saw of split timber arises from all its fibres being kept un- being at right angles with that of the frame. It is used in broken; while, in such as is divided by sawing, many are a similar manner to the pit-saw, but causes less waste, becut through, owing to their irregular direction. From this cause the blade, being stretched, may be made much thinner. circumstance split timber is preferred for the staves of bar- The ripping saw, half-ripper, hand-saw, and pannel-saw are rels, sieve-hoops, and a variety of other purposes for which saws for the use of one person, the blades tapering in width great strength and elasticity are required. For a notice of from the handle. They are of different lengths, the largest machines for cutting wood by means of knives or knife-like being about twenty-eight inches; and the teeth vary from instruments, see WOOD-CUTTING MACHINERY. rather more than one-third to one-sixth or one-eighth of an inch. Tenon-saws, sash saws, dovetail-saws, &c. are saws made of very thin blades of steel, of equa! width throughout their whole length, and stiffened with stout pieces of iron or brass fixed on their back edges. These are used for cutting across the grain, as in the shoulders of tenons, dovetail joints, &c., and for many other purposes for which a neat clean cut is required, but where it is not necessary for the whole width of the saw-blade to pass through the wood. Such saws vary in length from about six to twenty inches, the teeth being from one-eighth or one-tenth of an inch down to a very minute size; extremely small teeth being required for some of the most delicate operations of the ca binet-maker. Compass and key-hole saws are long narrow saws, tapering from about an inch to an eighth of an inch in width, used for making curved cuts. They are made considerably thicker at the edge than at the back, in order that they may move freely in a curved kerf, and the latter is mounted in a long handle, having a slit to receive the blade, and a screw to fix it in any required place, so that it may be made to project more or less as required. Small frame saws and bow-saws, in which very thin narrow blades are tightly stretched, are occasionally used for cutting both wood and metal. Saws are made for cutting bone, iron, brass, and many other hard substances, and there are several varieties used by the carpenter besides what have been enumerated; but it is unnecessary here to detail them. A minute account of the process of manufacturing saws, as practised at Sheffield, whence, it is observed, threefourths of the inhabitants of the globe are supplied' with these useful intruments, is given in Hebert's Engineer's and Mechanic's Encyclopædia,' to which we are indebted for the following particulars. The very commonest kni of saws are made of iron-plates, hammer-hardened, al planished upon an anvil, to give them some degree of stiffness and elasticity. Such instruments, though spurned by workmen, are sold in great quantities, their cost being very trifling. The more useful saws are made either of The blade, which appears to be of brass, is ten inches and a half long, and one inch and a quarter broad at the widest part. The teeth are irregular, and appear to have been formed by striking a blunt-edged instrument against the edge of the plate; the bur, or rough shoulder, thus produced, not being removed. The following cut, from a paintmg copied in Rosellini's work on Egyptian antiquities, represents a man using a similar saw; the piece of wood which he ta cutting being held between two upright posts. In other re shear or cast steel, of which the latter is preferred, on account of its greater uniformity of structure. The steel is cast in the form of a small slab, about an inch and a half thick. This slab is extended, by rolling, to the required degree of tenuity, and then cut, by shears, into pieces of suitable form and size. The edges are next perfected by filing, and holding the flat side of the plates against large grindstones, which process prepares them for the cutting of the teeth. This operation is usually performed by a diecutter in a fly-press, the motion of the saw-plate being duly regulated, so that the teeth shall be uniform; the larger teeth being cut one at a time; and the smaller, two, three, or more at a time, according to circumstances.' The wire edges left on the teeth by the cutting-out press are removed by filing, after which the plates undergo the processes of hardening and tempering. Various fatty compositions have been used for this purpose, being considered to possess peculiar efficacy in hardening. Mr. Gill (in the Technical Repository, vol. i., p. 212) recommends the following mixture as suitable not only for saw-plates, but for springs generally : Spermaceti oil. Beef-suet, rendered Neat's-foot oil Pitch Black resin. 1 gallon. 1 lb. 3 lbs. The pitch and resin are to be melted together, and then added to the other ingredients, the whole being heated in an iron vessel until the aqueous vapour is driven off, and the composition will take fire on the application of flame to its surface; the flame being extinguished by putting on the cover of the vessel. The liquid mixture thus prepared is put into a vessel of suitable form, and, when cold, the saw-plates, which are heated to a cherry-red, are precipitated edgewise into it. When sufficiently cooled therein to be handled, they are taken out, and are found to be extremely hard and brittle. The unctuous matter which adheres to them being then partially removed, they are taken up individually by a pair of tongs, and passed backwards and forwards over a clear charcoal fire, so as to cause the unctuous matter to inflame, or blaze off, as it is termed, which reduces the saws to the required temper; and, whilst the saw-plates remain hot, any warping they may have acquired in the process is removed by smart blows from a hammer, on an anvil strewed with sand to prevent their slipping about. The next operation is planishing by hammers, to make them more even and equally elastic; after which the saws are ground on large grindstones. The plate is held against the circular face of the stone by an interposing board, against which the grinder presses with all his force, in order to grind it as evenly as possible. He stands on tip-toes, stretching over the stone, which revolves with great rapidity; his hands, arms, breast, and knees being all brought into action to produce the desired effect, while he becomes covered with the sludge formed by the operation. As the process of grinding impairs the flatness and elasticity of the saw-plates, they are submitted to a second hammering by the planishers, and their elasticity is restored by heating them over a coke fire until they attain a faint straw-colour. The marks of the hammer are removed by again passing the saws lightly over a grindstone, after which the final polish is given by a fine hard stone, a glazing-wheel covered with buff-leather and emery, or a wooden wheel, called the hard-head. Any defects acquired during these processes are removed by a few blows with a small polished hammer upon a post of hard wood. The saws are cleaned off' by women, by rubbing fine emery over them lengthwise with a piece of cork-wood; and then handed to the setter, who lays each alternate tooth over the edge of a small anvil, and strikes them so as to bend each uniformly into a slight deviation from the plane of the saw, and then, turning the saw-plate, sets the remaining teeth in like manner, but in the opposite direction. Owing to this set of the teeth, the kerf or cut made by the saw is rather wider than the thickness of the blade, which therefore passes through it with little resistance. The degree of deviation from the plane of the saw depends upon the kind of wood to be cut; the softest wood requiring the widest or rankest set. Sometimes an instrument with a notched edge, called a saw-wrest, is used for setting the teeth, each being separately bent to the required degree, or, in some cases, two or more at a time; and recently an ingenious contrivance resembling a pair of plyers, and having a stop-screw to regulate the degree of set, and a moveable plate to prevent too much of the tooth being bent, has been introduced. It may be observed that the mode of performing this operation with a hammer has been considered to have an advantageous effect in hardening the teeth. After being set, the saw is placed, between two plates of lead, in a vice, and the teeth are sharpened with a triangular file. The handles are then fixed on by nuts and screws, and the saws cleaned off, oiled, and packed in brown paper for sale. The common test of a good saw is bending it into a bow, and letting it spring back again into a straight line. It is a satisfactory test of perfect elasticity and uniformity of thickness in the blade, which are two of the essential properties of a good saw; but it is considered by some to be an unnecessary trial, and to spoil saws which possess, in other respects, the qualities of a good tool. The teeth of carpenters' saws are so formed as to contain an angle of 60°, and they are made to incline more or less forward according to the intended use of the saw. Rippingsaws have the front of the teeth perpendicular to a line ranging with their points; but those for cutting across the grain, or for hard wood, must have the front of the teeth more or less inclined towards that imaginary line. Very small thin saws are sometimes made with the teeth of such a form that they cut towards, instead of from, the person using them; an arrangement which counteracts the tendency to bending consequent on the thinness of the plate. For very delicate operations saws are frequently made of watch-spring. Circular saws, being used only in connection with machinery, are described under SAW-MILL. It has been recommended to file their teeth in such a manner that their surfaces may not be perpendicular to the face of the saw, but inclined in the direction that the teeth are set; so that the teeth, when cutting, first remove the wood from the sides of the kerf, leaving a little ridge in the centre, which tends to keep the saw steady in its course. In cutting a log into planks with a pit-saw, it is necessary to insert wedges in the kerf, in order to keep it open, and allow free passage for the saw. To save the trouble and inconvenience of shifting these as the saw proceeds, Mr. Griffiths invented an expanding wedge, for which he received a reward from the Society of Arts. It is repre b sented in the annexed cut, a being the handle, bb two springs, and c a cross-piece to prevent the wedge from falling into the pit when fully expanded. When the saw has cut two or three feet into the log, the springs are to be compressed by hand, and the wedge pushed into the cut up to the ends of the springs; the cross-piece resting on the top of the balk. The elasticity of the springs will cause the cut to open as it proceeds, without the wedge being moved; and the cross-bar will prevent its falling when it has attained its full expansion. For an account of the application of machinery to sawing timber, see SAW-MILL. Saws for cutting stone are without teeth, although they are sometimes slightly notched upon the cutting edge, that they may collect and retain the particles of sand that are conducted into the cut by a small current of water, and by the attrition of which the effect is mainly produced. The saw-plate is tightly stretched in a kind of rectangular frame, of which it forms the lower side; and the frame, being suspended by ropes, is moved backwards and forwards by one or two men. A board is laid sloping towards the cut, to conduct a constant supply of water from a reservoir, and a quantity of sand is laid on the board, so that the operator can, by means of a hooked stick, draw a little into the stream of water when necessary. Coarse sharp sand is used for cutting soft stones, and fine sand for those of harder quality; the sand being in all cases carefully cleaned and sifted. Sawing stone is a very slow and labori ous operation; a good workman not being able to cut more than twenty-five or thirty square feet of Portland stone in a day; and, as commonly practised, it involves considerable waste of material, owing to the tendency of the saw to swerve from the right direction when the stone is not uniform in hardness. The defects of the common process have been partially avoided, of late years, by the use of stonesawing machinery, worked by steam or water power, in which the effect is so much increased by greater pressure upon the saws, that, according to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana,' one saw performs as much work in seventy hours as a man in six weeks, and with such accuracy that the surface scarcely requires any dressing. As in sawmills for wood, any number of saws may be worked together, so adjusted as to cut a block of stone into slabs of any required thickness. Curved forms may be cut in stone by means of straight saws; but a patent was obtained in 1810, by Mr. Murdock, for cutting columns, stone pipes, &c. by means of a cylindrical saw, so mounted as to receive rotatory motion alternately in each direction; such a motion being found more suitable for cutting stone than a continued rotation in one direction. SAW-FISH, a fish belonging to the fixed-gilled Chondropterygians, nearly related on the one hand to the Sharks (Squalide), and on the other to the Rays. [SQUALIDE.] SAW-MILL. In this article will be embraced not only such points in the mechanism of saw-mills, strictly so called, as appear to require notice, but also some other contrivances in which saws are used in connection with machinery, and not simply as tools impelled and guided by the hand. Saws, considered merely as tools, have been described under SAW, where an account of their manufacture will also be found. Although saw-mills have not been very generally introduced till within a few years, they are by no means of recent origin. Saws worked by machinery were known on the Continent at least as early as the fifteenth century, though the improvement of having several saws in the same frame, so as to cut a log into many planks by one operation, is supposed not to have been tried prior to the sixteenth century. Notwithstanding their successful use in Germany, Holland, Norway, and other places, the introduction of saw-mills in England was much opposed. One was erected near London in 1663, by a Dutchman; but it was soon abandoned. In No. 419 of Houghton's Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade,' published August 2, 1700, the adoption of saw-mills in this country is strongly recommended, although some opposition from the populace is mentioned as not improbable. About the year 1767 or 1768 a saw-mill was established at Limehouse, under the sanction of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. It was driven by wind, and superintended by a person who had become acquainted with the use of saw-mills on the Continent. This mill was destroyed by a riotous mob; but the ringleaders being severely punished, and the damage made good by the county, it was again set up, and soon followed by others, particularly after the improvement of the steam-engine made it available as a moving power. A similar mill is said to have existed a few years previously at Leith. Many of the earlier saw-mills were driven by water, and those of North America are still generally worked by that power. The earliest kind of sawing-machinery was, in its essential features, the same as that still used for sawing logs of timber into planks. In this machine the saws are stretched in a frame which slides up and down on vertical guides; the reciprocating motion being imparted to the frame by a crank upon an axle turned by a connection with the waterwheel or other prime mover. The log is supported on a carriage resting upon rollers, and is made to advance a little at each stroke of the saws, which cut during their descent only. Figs. 1 and 2 represent the common reciprocating saw-mill, the same letters in both referring to corresponding parts. The machinery, in the form here represented, occupies two stories; the cast-iron framing being securely bolted down to the basement floor, and rising through the upper floor, which is shown in section at k k. An horizontal axle, revolving in bearings attached to the lower part of the framing, is turned by means of a strap from the axle immediately impelled by the steam-engine, water-wheel, or other moving power. Two drums or riggers are used, that marked a being fixed on the axle, while the other, b, revolves freely; the driving strap being shifted to this loose rigger when it is desired to stop the machine without stopping the engine that propels it. In some of the earlier saw-mills the motion was communicated by a train of cogged wheels; but straps are preferable, as they occasion less friction, and, in case of any accidental obstruction to the machinery, will give way without injury, while cog-wheels would be broken to pieces. It may be observed here, that important advantages have been derived from the recent introduction of straps or bands formed partly of caoutchouc, for driving machinery; as their elasticity renders them much more effective and durable than those of leather, and obviates the inconvenience of slipping over the pulleys, to which the common bands are liable when stretched with use. The axle, being cranked, imparts a reciprocating motion to the saw-frame d, by means of the connecting-rod c. The vertical motion of the saw-frame is ensured by its sliding up and down upon smooth pillars or guide rods attached to the frame-work of the machine; these being usually made square, that the parts sliding upon them may be screwed up so as to fit accurately when reduced by wear. In some machines friction-rollers are used instead of mere slides for guiding the saw-frame. The saws (of which ht are represented in Fig. 2, although a smaller number may be used) are stretched tightly in the frame, commonly by means of wedges driven through mortise-holes in their upper end. In the saw-mills erected at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, by Mr. (now Sir M. I.) Brunel, an ingenious ap paratus is used to stretch the saws equally. At each end of every saw is a piece of iron terminating in a hook. The hook at the lower end of the saw catches upon the lower cross-bar of the saw-frame, and that at the upper end is connected with a shackle hanging on the upper cross-bar, and capable of being tightened by wedges. When it is desired to fix or tighten the saws, the saw-frame is raised to the highest point that the crank will allow, and held securely in that position while a steelyard, loaded to the degree necessary to produce the required tension, is connected with the shackle of each saw successively; and, while they are thus stretched, the wedges are pushed in by hand. The saws are kept parallel, and at the required distance apart, by placing between them, at top and bottom, pieces of wood of the thickness of the intended planks, with similar pieces outside, and then screwing the whole firmly together. As the saws cut only in their descent, and the resistance to be overcome is therefore very unequal, it is necessary to add a fly-wheel, e, to the machine, and to load its periphery in such a manner as to produce as equable a motion as possible. Attempts have been made to introduce sawing-machines with two sets of saws, one of which should cut upwards; but they do not appear to have succeeded. A similar effect is sometimes produced by connecting two machines with one axle; the cranks being so adjusted that one sawframe descends while the other rises. As some inconvenience may be occasioned by the common arrangement of a saw-mill, in which several machines are impelled by one engine, when the different quality of the wood to be cut, or other circumstances, may render various rates of speed desirable, it is proposed, in a patent obtained by Mr. M'Dowall, in 1836, to work each saw-frame by a separate steam-engine, the velocity of which might be regulated without interfering with the rest. In the saw-mills erected at Woolwich by Brunel, to which allusion has been made before, a contrivance is added to allow the saw-frame to retreat backwards a little in its ascent, that the teeth may not touch the wood when not cutting. An American inventor, in a patent obtained about 1836, proposes to sharpen the back of about every third tooth of the saws to a knife-edge; the cutting-edges being alternately towards each side of the saw. By this means the saws, during their ascent, shave or as it were plane the cut surfaces, and leave them much smoother than when of the ordinary kind. As in all reciprocating machinery, much power is lost in the apparatus just described, in consequence of the alternating motion. This circumstance also limits the speed of the saws, while the rapidity with which the work is performed is further retarded by the saws cutting in one direction only, one-half of the time being occupied in the ascent of the saw-frame to bring it into the position for making an effective stroke. These circumstances have led to the use of circular saws, which, by revolving constantly in one direction, require less power, and may be driven with far greater speed than reciprocating saws; while their continuous action not only expedites the operation of sawing, but also makes the motion of the machinery more uniform. Circular saws have therefore been very extensively applied to the more delicate kinds of sawing within the last thirty or forty years, although it does not appear to be known by whom they were first applied to the cutting of wood. It is said that circular saws were used for cutting the teeth of watch and clock wheels long before they were used for other purposes. Perhaps the most interesting kind of circular saw is that used for cutting logs of hard wood into veneers Brunel, to whom England is indebted for many valuable improvements in this class of machinery, took out a patent in 1806 for a method of constructing very large circular saws by attaching several pieces of steel plate to a flanch of iron turned perfectly true. In this way saws have been made of as much as eighteen feet diameter; but such large saws can only be used for cutting veneers or very thin boards, which will easily bend so as to pass the flanch of the saw, which is necessarily of considerable thickness. Figs. 3 and 4 present side and end elevations of a circular veneering-saw, as used at the City Saw-Mills, to the pro a Fig. 4. h Fig. 3. b c The balks of timber to be divided into planks, of which two are generally operated upon simultaneously, are represented in section in Fig. 2, and one of them in profile at ff, Fig. 1. They are supported by rollers, h h, and secured at the ends by suitable fastenings to a long iron carriage capable of passing through the saw-frame, and having a toothed rack along its under side. g is a ratchet-wheel, which by the intervention of a pall, connected with an eccentric on the main axle of the machine, is turned a little on its axis during each descent of the saw-frame. The axle of this wheel extends completely across the machine, and has a toothed pinion working into the rack on the under side of the timber-carriage, which is thereby moved a little in the direction indicated by the arrows in Fig. 1, at every downward stroke of the saws. Thus the carriage and balks of timber are propelled forward as fast as the wood is cut; and when the planks are completely divided, they are removed from the carriage, which is returned to its original situation, ready for the next operation, by turning a winchhandle on the end of the axis bearing the ratchet-wheel g, (the palls or detents of which are turned back to allow it to return); or, in some machines, by connecting the axle with the engine in such a manner as to obtain a reversed motion. In order to keep the balks of timber steady dur-prietors of which, Messrs Esdaile and Margrave, the writer ing the cut, their inner sides slide against polished steel plates fixed to the frame-work of the machine, against which tney are pressed by rollers held in contact with their outer sides by weighted levers, one of which is shown at i, Fig. 1. is indebted for the facilities so liberally accorded to him in the inspection of their interesting works. As in the former illustrations, the same letters refer to corresponding parts in each view of the machine. a is the saw, consisting of a number of plates about twenty inches long, and from six to ten inches wide, secured by screws to another set of plates that are firmly attached to the flanch or foundation, which is of cast-iron, very thick in the centre, and tapering to a thin edge. The outer side of the flanch, or that along which the log to be cut has to pass, is made either quite flat or slightly concave. When the saw is very large, the lower part, as shown in the diagrams, passes through the floor of the room. The saw is mounted on one end of an axle, revolving in firmly secured bearings. b is a rigger fixed on the axle, to receive motion, by means of a broad strap, from the engine; and c a loose rigger, to which the strap is shifted when it is necessary to stop the saw. As the mere cessation of the moving power would not stop the machine as quickly as is desirable, a wooden wheel fis added, to the periphery of which an iron strap may be pressed by a lever so as to arrest its revolution, and bring the machine to a stand. The log to be cut, which is marked h, is fixed to a carriage g, which slides on a kind of railway elevated on a substantial framework. The under side of the carriage is supplied with a rack, working into a pinion at k, to which motion is imparted by a train of wheels, partly under the floor, and turned by a strap from the rigger d, on the axis of the saw; e is a wheel with several grooves of different diameters, by a band from which an apparatus (not shown in the cuts) is moved for regulating the velocity with which the carriage is propelled. By means of screws turned by a handle attached to the carriage, the log is made to project beyond the plane of the saw in a trifling degree; and then the attendant throwing the pinion k into gear, the carriage with the log upon it is steadily moved along its railway, while the thin and flexible veneer separated by the saw slides along the convex side of the saw-flanch at i. When the carriage has traversed the whole length of the log, the detached veneer is carefully removed, and the carriage brought rapidly back to its original situation by reversing the motion of the pinion; a process readily effected by means of a clutch-box beneath the floor, with a handle brought to a convenient situation for the attendant. The apparatus which imparts a transverse motion to the log is then again moved, so as to project the log sufficiently beyond the plane of the saw to allow another veneer to be cut off, and the same process is again gone through. A stationary shield of thin brass is used to cover the saw on the convex side, at the point where the veneer turns out of the straight course to pass the flanch; and, when the wood is very brittle, another shield is used, pressing the outer side of the veneer, both to diminish the risk of its breaking, and to prevent bits that may be detached from it flying off against the face of the person attending the machine. Several minor contrivances, which it is unnecessary here to detail, are added for various purposes of convenience and safety. The axle, with its riggers, &c., are enclosed by boarding, and a boarded channel is usually made to receive the veneer. In some machines the veneer passes beneath the axle, and in others in a curved channel by its side, in which case it is not necessary to place the log either above or below the level of the axle. When large logs are to be operated on, they are secured to the carriage by iron clamps, or dogs; but when they are reduced to a thin slice, or flitch, they are glued to a wooden frame attached to the carriage, by which arrangement the saw will cut as long as there remains a sufficient thickness of wood to be divided; and, by softening the glue with hot water, the thin slice remaining on the frame may be detached. When the saw-plates are worn down by repeated sharpening, they are moved farther from the centre of the flanch, different rows of screw-holes being provided for that purpose. By a judicious arrangement of these holes, the plates may be used until one row is filed away, and they are reduced to about an inch and a half in width. In the principal room for cutting veneers at the City SawMills, there are eight saws, varying from eight to seventeen feet diameter, and revolving from seventy to ninety times in a minute. In erecting the mills the greatest possible care was taken to ensure solidity of base for the machinery; each saw having a separate foundation of brickwork. The necessity for such precaution may be readily conceived when the size of the saws is considered, and it is remembered that they are to cut from ten to fourteen veneers out of an inch of wood; and so completely has the desired solidity and steadiness been attained, that when the eye is brought into | the plane of the largest saw while it is revolving, its motion can scarcely be discerned. Logs of about five feet diameter have been cut by this apparatus. The writer was present during the conversion, or cutting up, of the largest log that had been placed on the carriage in one piece, a log of Honduras mahogany, eighteen feet long and three feet one inch square; from which unbroken sheets were taken off at the rate of about ten to an inch, and so beautifully smooth as to require scarcely any dressing. A patent was obtained by Mr. Craig, in 1831, for several contrivances for cutting veneers, in one of which a number of small circular saws are made to traverse the whole length of the log, which revolves slowly on its axis; so that, by the combined motion of the saws and the log, the whole pace of wood is converted into a continuous spiral veneer, resembling those produced by the celebrated veneer-cutting machinery used in Russia, in which a knife-edged instrument is used as a cutter. [WOOD-CUTTING MACHINERY.] As before explained, large circular saws are only adapted for cutting very thin slices or boards; they are never used for cutting off a greater thickness than half an inch, and rarely so much. When, therefore, the piece cut off is too thick to be diverted from the straight line to pass the flanch of the saw, a saw of much smaller size, and formed of a single plate of steel, is used. Such a saw is usually mounted in a bench or table, under which the axle passes, and having a slit or opening through which the upper part of the saw projects. The saw is kept steady by means of two thick plates or flanges of iron, about one-third its diameter, one of which is screwed tightly up to each side of the plate. The true motion of the saw is sometimes further provided for by means of adjusting screws inserted in the bench, in such a manner as to confine the saw-plate very near its periphery. The piece of wood to be cut is laid on the smooth surface of the table, and pushed towards the saw by hand; its motion being directed by a moveable guide or rule screwed to the table, and capable of adjustment to any distance from the saw, but always remaining parallel to it. By inclining the surface of the table, or the axle of the saw, the wood may be cut to any require bevel; and by fixing two or more saws on the same axle, several pieces may be cut off simultaneously. Small circular saws, so mounted, are often moved by means of a treadle and crank, and, by a variety of ingenious modifications, may be applied to many useful purposes. Circular bench-saws are occasionally used of three or four feet diameter, though they are generally much smaller; but, owing to the projection of their flanges, they will only cut through a piece of wood of about one-third their diameter. Among the suggestions made for applying the advantages of continuous motion without this inconvenience, is that of the late Mr. Smart, who did much in introducing and improving sawing-machinery. He proposed to use a long endless band of steel, stretched tightly between two rollers, and toothed on one edge; by which an effect would be produced similar to that of two straight saws, one always eutting downwards and the other upwards. A contrivance was patented in 1824, by Messrs. Sayner and Greenwood, by which timbers of large size may be cut by two circular saws, each cutting, as represented in Fig. 5, rather more Fig. 5. than half through the log. It was proposed in this patent to cut several planks at once, by fixing a number of saws on the same axle, separated by flanges of the thickness of the intended planks; and when the planks are to be subdivided into scantlings or laths, to employ a series of horr zontal saws fixed upon a vertical axis, to cut the planks as soon as they leave the first set of saws. In the beautiful and ingenious block-machinery erected at Portsmouth by Brunel, saws are extensively applied. For dividing large logs transversely into pieces of any required length, a large cross-cut saw moved backwards and forwards by machinery in a similar manner to the usual mode of working such by hand, is used; but for cut |