Thread: It talks before it breaks

The first time I'd heard the term widowmaker was in Peter Carey's novel Bliss. One of the characters was walking in the woods, enjoying the environment, luxuriating in the beauty. There was nothing out of the ordinary, and he's dead, crushed under a branch.

Originally Posted by ErrolFlynn

The first time I'd heard the term widowmaker was in Peter Carey's novel Bliss. ...

The term has been around a lot longer than Peter Carey. I can remember my great uncles using it in the 1950's and none of them added to their vocabulary after about 1900.

Lot's of different species of eucalypts self-prune and shed quite large branches.

With reference to the idea that it ‘talks before it breaks.’
This is not just with reference to old timber constructions but rather anything where fibres are potentially torn apart due to stress, with the concept still being used in modern construction although under the "experimental" tag.

The company’s engineer responded by saying it was using an in-house developed acoustic monitoring system instead. This involves putting sensitive microphones on the hull – like a stethoscope – to listen for telltale signs of the carbon fibres tearing. This would provide “early warning detection for the pilot with enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to the surface,”

https://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...c414843af848b6

Originally Posted by droog

With reference to the idea that it ‘talks before it breaks.’
This is not just with reference to old timber constructions but rather anything where fibres are potentially torn apart due to stress, with the concept still being used in modern construction although under the "experimental" tag. ...

Yeah! It is so comforting to detect sequential failure of individual fibres a full 25 nanoseconds before catastrophic failure.

Originally Posted by Fergiz01

Hi Geoff, I've never heard of the Wandoo being called a widow maker, although there are a lot of them out your way. The wood grain is always very interlocked and tough as it gets, which doesn't seem to accord with letting a branch go without warning. I always love looking at the wandoo / white gums on the Great Southern Highway as you come into York. The white trunks always catch the light nicely.

The WA tree I have heard called a widow maker is the Karri. Tall forest trees that let the limbs go at a great height.

Cheers, Zac.

Zac,
Widowmaker was the name the local earthmoving contractor, who did our house pad when we moved down here, referred to them as. We've got a couple of young powder bark wandoos growing but no mature trees on our block. All the mature Wandoo and Jarrah was milled 60-80 years ago.
After the fires we've had out around Wooroloo and Wundowie in the last few years I've noticed a few Wandoo have come down from the fire getting into their roots. The few near us are beautiful in the late afternoon sun.

Cheers,
Geoff.

Most of these likely talked but nobody listened.
Top 10 DangerousTree Felling Fails Compilation & Idiots With Chainsaw ! Tree Falling in House - YouTube
Regards
John

I've had my own experiences with a chainsaw. Not all of them good.

This video followed yours. It's a long one and is in two parts. I skipped much of it because a lot of is repetitive but is quite enjoyable to see how tree felling is done by an expert with the right equipment.

Loved the bit about the guy having his lunch up the tree because it was too far to come down.

The BIGGEST Spruce Tree I've Ever Removed - YouTube