Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

:For the town in Côte-d'Or, see Buffon, Côte-d'Or.

Wood tests

Buffon performed one of the most comprehensive series of tests that had been undertaken at his time on the mechanical properties of wood. Included were a series of tests to compare the properties of small clear specimens with those of large members. After carefully testing more than 1,000 small specimens and being extremely careful to ensure that the specimens contained no knots or other defects, Buffon concluded that it was not possible to predict the properties of full-size timbers containing defects from tests of small specimens, and he began a series of tests on full-size structural members. His conclusion that tests of small specimens (without further adjustment) cannot be used to predict the properties of full-size members raised a question that was to continue into the 20th century.

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