Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-11-24
FIRE-PRoOF WOOD.
Its Use and Objections to It's Use in
Building Warships.

From Casters Magazine.
"Apropos of non-infia mmable wood. one
variety of which is now being very strong
ly advocated for use in United States naval
vessels, 1t would seem pertinent to add to
what was recently said on the subject in
these pages, that. according to official re-
ports of such trials as have been made
of the material on American warships the
wood was liable to dampness and rot. and
the decks consisting of it wore down show
ing that it was soft and had no life 1t
was believed, also, that ii was friable, and
would splinter badly when under fire, and
this last mentioned defect, IL existent.
would alone constitute very serious draw
back to its use 1t would, indeed, empha-
size the desirability. not of fire-proof wood.
but of no wood at all. What would appear
to be more preferable in many respects is
asbestos, or some similar material either
as cardboard for lining metal surfaces. or
built up in a grooved cellular form for
bulkheads. Such material would, of course
be absolutely uninflanlmable. and a shot
through it would make a clean hole with
no splinters whatever.
With the later report that all wood to
De used In the new vessels of the United
States navy will be fire-proofed, comes also
daily newspaper interview with Chief
Constructor Philip Hichborn United States
naVy-the only one by the way, of the four
members of the United States boa I'd of
naval construction who advocates the use
OF such fire-proofed wood-according to
which he says that the process to be fol-
lowed of rendering wood non-inflammable
simply stated, consists of withdraw wing all
sap and moisture from the lumber in a
vacuum, and then filling the pores with
phosphate of ammonium. But this is sub
stantialiy the Pepper process. doubtless
with valuable improvements in detail while
adher1ng to the phosphate of ammonium
which was found, on the whole to give
the best results in making wood in
nammable. This particular virtue of phos-
phate OF ammonium has been known for
years to chemists, yet the British. French
and German navies have been able to make
little or no use of it, though all three have
spent considerable amounts of money in
trying to discover an efficient non-iniam-
mable wood for their warships 1t might
De urged that its practical rejection hither-
TO Tor WarshipS was due altogether to the
fact that these navies wanted a nom
spilnterlng, as well as a non-infiamma BILE
wood. But this contention falls to the
ground when it is remembered that the
BRITISH mercantile marine, which need have
no lear OF wood splinters from shell fire
has been equally ardent in its search for
satisfactory non-inf1a mmable wood, with
out, apparently, finding it. Moreover so
lar as Is Known, ali the salts of ammo
mum are soluble in water-most of them
extremely so-and if phosphate of ammo
mum Is an exception to the rule, Roscoe
torgets to mention 1t. Nothing could be
more calculated to Set the minds of a ships
ofhcers and men at rest during a battle
thah the consciousness that, happen what
might, their ship could not take fire: but
nothing could be more expressly planned
10 start panic among men engaged in
action than the sudden discovery that the
so-called non-infiammable wood was on Sire
owing 10 Its chemical constituents having
become leached out by washings and evan
Grafton"