Booklet No 39 — Introductions
The few only pages of the booklet shown here is courtesy of the Forestry Commission (where the full book may possibly still be obtained) was first published in 1975 with a metric version reprint in 1985. The book was written by a team led by Graham J Hamilton and he pays tribute in the acknowledgement section to J M Christie, A C Miller, R O Hendrie, M D Watts, Ms D Porchet, Mrs N M Johnson and E J Fletcher with additional information provided by A W Simpson of the Forestry Division of Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland.
In the introduction and section on General Aspects, Graham highlights the need for volume measurements and conventions with an emphasises on the fact, as in the Hoppus booklets, that these are estimates and that the description of method of measurement and the measurement conventions used should always be stated when quoting the volume estimates .
Prior to the advent of the sophisticated scanning systems in sawmills and the continually measuring processes and computerised volume calculation embedded in timber harvesters, much time, effort and cost could be directed in measuring the solid volumes of standing and felled timber with tape and book. Graham has shown several graphs highlighting the relationship of the measuring costs and error of estimate with the volumes and values of timber.
The last of the pages scanned highlights the measuring conventions that should be used and were the standard throughout the Forestry Commission and generally the national forest industry.
All the detail including that of the tables by Edward Hoppus (in earlier records on this site) may be of interest to historians looking at timber measuring conventions in UK from the 16th century. See the PDF for the scanned pages.
Note that the name A Martin name on this booklet refers to Andy Martin who was a harvesting forester based at Buchan Forest District from around 1991 - 2008 approx.