The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-20 00:00:00

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.

On Tuesday evening the usual meeting of this society
;ook place—Mr. James Meadows Bendel, president, in

the chair.

Mr. Burt read a paper "On the Preservation of Tim-
ber."

The theory of the various processes was carefully de-
scribed ; the action of the solutions in water of metallic
salts, such as chloride of ittercury (Kyan's), chloride of
zinc (Burnett's), or sulphate of copper (Margary's) was,
if the mixture was sufficiently strong, to coagulate the al-
bumen in the sap ; but the fibre was left unprotected,
and it being a property of albumen to render innocuous
the corrosive sublimate combined with it, the marine
worm, or the white ant, would immediately attack wood
so prepared. Creosote had the same effect of coagulat-
ing the albumen, whilst it gave .a waterproof covering to
the fibres, prevented the absorption of water, and was go
obnoxious to animal life that, hitherto, no instance had.
been adduced of well-creosoted tin_lber having been either
touched by decay, dry rot, or the m arine worm ; and the
trials made in India showed that i't was equally objec-
tionable to the white ant. The chem.ical products of the
distillation of coal tar were described,. and it was shown
that the napthaline was essential as an an .tiseptic ; that th
process should be carried on with heated i. Teosote, in orde
that this product should not crystallize i 'n the capillary
tubes of the wood, and that it would be a dvantageous to
dessicate the timber before it was submitted ' to the process,
for which purpose, it was proposed, to dr:., T the wood by
smoking it in an oven, whence it should be oonveyed,
on the same trucks, into the cylinders, exhausted to the
extent of 26 or 27 inches of mercury, and th, In saturated
with heated creosote, under a pressure of 1201bs. to
1501bs. per square inch. Wood thus saturated to the
extent of 71bs. or 101bs. per cube foot might be presumed
to be indestructible, as when even by a less perfect pro-
cess such an extent of saturation had been attained, no
authentic instance of decay or injury from wo rm had
ever been adduced. Numerous specimens of N% rood so
prepared, that had been under ground and in the sea for
from twelve to twenty years, were exhibited, a. ti.d all
were perfectly sound. The alburnam or sapwoc 'cl ab-
sorbed the creosote more readily than the heart o, ! the
timber, which could, however, be penetrated by the s to lo-
tion of chloride of zinc (Burnett's process), of which it Was
stated that careful analysis demonstrated its intimate coal-
bination with the timber • it was therefore suggested tl la t
in cases where the comple preservation of the timber w as
of vital importance, and expense was not a consideratioi 1,
he wood should be first subjected to Burnett's process,.
and then be creosoted, by which combined means it.
would become indestructible. It was shown that, dry
wood only should be subtjected to creosoting ; by that
process sapwood, otherwise almost useless, could be ren-
dered very serviceable ; and that for piles for marine
work whole round timber should be used, because the
outer portion, or the albiurnam, was so much more readily
saturated with the oil • and this prevented the worms
from making an inroad' into the heart. Timber shou'd
not be kept floating in ponds, as in London, but it shorild
be stacked in the docks, as in Liverpool and Gloucest(T l'
when the tubes were filled 'with moisture, no oil could
be forced into them, even by the heaviest pressure. By
returns from the Leith harbour works, it was shown that:
577 lbs. weighty
forced averagewaes7 quantity
gallons of bsoorrbe.d by the
.tihmt:
14
forced into 50 cubic feet of wood., Piles, inches
square, of unprepared timber, at Lowestoft harbour,. were
percres load,a
whilst cresoted piles, of the same dimensions, driven
years,
shown to have been eaten away to 4 inches square, in four
alongside them, were perfectly untouched ; specimens of
both were exhibited. Some specimens were shown of
curious coke, produced from the pitch) residue of the
distillation of. creosote ; it was quite free from sulphur
and earthy particles, and was found to be very valuable
for smelting iron, for which purpose it was beginning to
be largely used near Birmingham. It appeared to be
admitted that all the various processes somewhat re-
duced the transverse strength of the timber when dry ;
and the metallic salts affected at the iron bolts or fasten-
ings. The natural juices of some woods did this • and a
bolt was exhibited which had united beams of elm and
pitch pine, and was corroded entirely away at the junc-
tion. It was shown that on some railways in the
North, unprepared yellow pine had been down,. as
longitudinal sleepers, for sixteen years, and was
still perfectly free from decay, although its natural
term had expired, by being crushed under the loads coirk;
stantly travelling over it. The effect of " Green-heart'
timber in resisting the attacks of worms, was particularly'
noticed, and it was admitted, that but for its great cost,
it would be extensively used. Experiments were men-
tioned, that were made at the Royal Pier, Southampton,
on timber prepared by various processes ; and the result
was, that the creosoted wood • alone resisted the attack
of the " Terebrans" with which (that water was pecu-
liarly infested. The members were requested to aid Mr.
Burt, the author of the paper, in some further experi-
ments which he had undertaken on the subject, and to
_
communicate to the institution all information which
could elucidate the various points treated of in the paPe_r.l
or alluded to in the discussion. The following paper
was announced to be read at the meeting
on _
ings," by Mr. James Barrett, Assoc. Inst. C.E oDead-
--......--•
January 25, " On the Construction of Fire-ro_.f
p

THE LATE RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—The passengers who
were injured by the late dreadful railway accident, near
Oxford, are, with one exception, progressing favourably.
The report, at the Radcliffe Infirmary yesterday
afternoon, where *nine of them are still lying, was
that eight were going on well, but that the old, man,
Faulkner, was in a most dangerous state, so much so
that great fears are entertained for his recovery. The
poor man has not spoken since the accident, and lies in
a moat unconscious state. It will be remembered that
he received a most serious concussion of the brain. Thos.
Money., who had cheek, nose, and forehead cut, and his
thigh ranch injured, has so far recovered as to be able to
leave them for his own home in Berkshire. Ed-
wa7cl Jones, of Marlborough, who is staying at the An-
ch or Inn, near the scene of the accident, is also progress-
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