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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 Excerpt:...which in the early ages of Greece was rare, and consequently expensive. In order to understand the mode in which the Greeks set about constructing this, it is only necessary to assume that at an early age they had learned to form timber into planks of varying thicknesses. Whether this was done with saws or other tools can hardly now be determined. My own impression is that saws were used at a very early age. The Greeks themselves ascribed their invention to Daedalus, which merely means that they had no certain knowledge on the subject; but the Egyptians used them at a very early period, as we know from their paintings, but how early it is impossible to say. Besides, it is very unlikely that so civilized a people as the Pelasgi certainly were, and using timber to such an extent as they certainly did in their houses and ships, should not eagerly have adopted, and perhaps perfected, so useful an invention. Certain it is that the ships in which the Pelasgic warriors sailed to the conquest of Troy were not mere "dug-outs." They were formed of planks, and most probably fastened to ribs by wooden trenails, as has been the universal practice in wooden shipbuilding down to the present day. But the real proof, in so far as the present argument is concerned, is that all the stone roofs we now know were copied from wooden prototypes which were built up of planks of various thicknesses, however formed. It is therefore a "question oisive" for our present purpose to try and ascertain how this was done. There is no instance of simulated log construction anywhere, or anything that would lead us to suppose that mere squared timbers were used, in any parts of their primitive temples. That the Greeks had unlimited supplies of timber eminently suited for the...