Lignum vitae is wood, also called guayacan or guaiacum , and in some parts of Europe known as pockholz , from tree of the genus Guaiacum . The trees are native to the Caribbean and north coast of South America and have been an important export plant to Europe since the early 16th century. The wood was once very important for applications that require materials with a combination of strength, toughness, and extraordinary density. It is also a national tree of the Bahamas and the national flower of Jamaica. Claire Waight Keller includes a tree to represent Jamaica in the wedding veil of Meghan Markle, which includes the typical flora of each Commonwealth country.
The wood is mainly obtained from Guaiacum officinale and Guaiacum sanctum, both small, slow-growing trees. All species of the genus Guaiacum are now listed in Appendix II CITES (Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Wildlife Endangered Species) as potentially endangered species. The demand for wood has been reduced by the science of modern materials, which has led to polymers, alloys and composite materials that can take the place of lignum vitae.
Video Lignum vitae
Name
"Lignum vitae" is Latin for "wood of life", and derives its name from drug use; lignum vitae resins have been used to treat various medical conditions from cough to arthritis, and wood chips can also be used to brew tea.
Other names for lignum vitae include palo santo (Spanish for "sacred wood") and "bastard greenheart" (not to be confused with actual Greenheart Maps Lignum vitae
Description
Lignum vitae is hard and durable, and is also the most popular timber traded (density: 1.23 g/cm 3 ); it will easily sink in water. At Janka Violence Scale, which measures hardness of wood, lignum vitae ranks highest in timber trade, with hardness Janka 4500 lbf (compared to Olneya at 3260 lbf, African Blackwood at 2940 lbf, Hickory at 1820 lbf, red oak at 1290 lbf, Yellow Pine at 690 lbf, and Balsa at 100 lbf).
Various other hardwoods can also be called lignum vitae and should not be confused with it. The most famous are from Bulnesia arborea and Bulnesia sarmientoi (in the same subfamily as Guaiacum) and are known as Verawood or Argentine lignum vitae; they are somewhat similar in appearance and quality of work as the original lignum vitae. Some hardwoods from Australasia (eg, Vitex lignum-vitae and some species Acacia and Eucalyptus ) are also referred to as lignum vitae.
Usage
Due to wood density, cricket bails, particularly the "heavy bails" used in windy conditions, sometimes made of lignum vitae. Sometimes it is also used to make grass bowls, croquet hammers, and ball skittles. The wood has also seen extensive historical use in mortar and pestle and for hammers of woodcarvers.
It is a traditional wood used for British police batons to date, because its density (and strength), combined with wood tenderness compared to metal, tends to bruise or sting rather than just cut the skin.
Pin deferers and deadeyes above the USS Constitution and many other sailing ships are made of lignum vitae. Due to their natural density and oil, they rarely require replacement, despite the severity of typical sea weather conditions, and also withstand disruptions in their mortise holes. The beam sheets on the sailboat are made from lignum vitae to the introduction of modern synthetics.
Because of the toughness of lignum vitae, it can also be used as a lap in the process of cutting gems. The wood is covered with industrial diamond powder, attached to the spindle, and is used to smooth the rough surface of the gem.
The clock maker John Harrison used lignum vitae on the pendulum clock and gear and his first three marine chronometers (all of which are big clocks rather than watches), because the woods lubricate themselves. The use of lignum vitae eliminates the need for horological lubricating oils; The 18th-century horological oil will become viscous and reduce the timekeeping accuracy under unfavorable conditions (including those applicable at sea).
For the same reason it is widely used in water-lubricated axle bearings for ships and hydroelectric power plants, and in bearing the ship's stern-tube vessels until the 1960s saw the introduction of a closed white metal bearing. According to the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association website, the pivot bearings on the WorldSubs II submarine USS
The United Railroads of San Francisco began installing lignum vitae insulators to support heavy feeder cables for their trolley systems in 1904. The reason for applying lignum vitae is its ability to withstand high pressures at high temperatures, by heavy wires that spin at an angle heated by excessive currents. Many of these isolators survived the earthquake and fires of 1906, although the temperatures were high enough to soften the metal poles and melt copper wires. Much of this lasted until the 1970s with small amounts remaining in service into the first decade of the 2000s (most of which came when overhead 600 V DC feeders were replaced with new underground feeders systems, the rest out of service as crossarms aging in favor of the rest overhead feeder replaced).
It is also used extensively in the manufacture of the British Railway Mark 1 Rolling Stock, as a 'bump stop' in bogies ('frame' that carries the wheel).
Lore
Pioneering calypsonian/vaudevillian Sam Manning recorded a song titled "Lignum Vitae" in the 1920s. References multiply, referring to the contraceptive quality of skin tea and the symbol of the hardwood phalus.
According to T.H White's version of the story of King Arthur The Once and Future King , the lignum vitae, from which Merlin's wand is made, has supernatural powers.
Gabriel GarcÃÆ'Â ± Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera includes a wooden made bathtub in one of the main character houses. The novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold also refers to the use of this wood in making a stick for the blind Poncio Vicario.
The Americans, Pete Seeger formed a distinctive banjo neck from the lignum vitae.
In Charles Dickens's Bleak House novel, one of his characters, Matthew Bagnet is referred to as lignum vitae, "... in praise of extreme violence and his physiognomy toughness."
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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