El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-07-12
Increasing the Durability of Timber.

the approval of Secretary Wilson, a
useful monograph on the subject OF In
creasing the durability OF timber. Inc
object is to teach the small consumers
how to handle their materia! to better
how to utilize forest pro-
ducts more "intelligently, and how to
make them last from two to three
are not observed. Large consumers OF
wood material may proftably resort to
more complicated and expensive meth
eds of wood preservation, but there are
a few simple rules in the handling OF
timber which are too often overlooked
and which should be observed by
everybody who uses wood In places
where it cannot be kept dry or wholly
submerged. There is much un1ntellig emit
use of paints and other coatlngs which
are applied in the hope OF preserving
The timber. when it should have been
we'll known that the decay of green or
badly seasoned timber is haste ned
rather than prevented by painting.
Mr.. FernOw sums up his recommends
tions by saying:
Never apply paint or any other coat
ing to green or unseasOned timber. II
the wood is not we'll dried or seasoned
the coat will hasten the decay. Oil
paints are used to increase the dura-
Ulllby ny PEOuOSUldE oAS "OO0 es6~AAoo
moisture. An exposed unpalnted
board becomes gray and fuzzy, warps
and checks, the nails rust out, and
even if it is not exposed to rain, damp
air, steam, ETC., occasion similar mis-
chief.
For coating, coal tar, with or with
out sand or plaster, and pitch, es-
peciaily If mixed with oil of turpen-
tine and applied hot thus penetrating
more deeply, answers best. A mix
ture of three parts coal tar and one
part clean unsalted grease, to prevent
the tar from drying until it has had
time to fill the minute pores, is recon-
mende0. One barrel of coal tar (S3 to
81 per barely will cover 300 posts.
Both tar and oil paint have the dis
advantage that they act as mere covers.
If the wood has had any chance to get
moist before painting they are harmful
instead of useful.
Heavy tar oils. freed from their vol
atile as we'll as their thick tarry con-
stituents, such as are now offered In
the market under the name of Carboli-
neum, are preferable to paints and
tars.
These oils penetrate and act as anti
septics, actually killing the fungi or at
least retarding the action and develop
ment. These are applied with brush
or else at baths, usually and preferably
hot. They cannot replace paints where
the looks of the material are to be i'm
proved.
Charring assists merely as an lnsul-
ator, separating the wood from the
ground, and as fungi cannot eat their
way through charcoal they are pre-
vented from entering. Generally,
however, the process develops large
cracks and thus exposes the interior to
the attacks of fungi.
Lastly, in communities where dura-
BILE timber is scarce, and where, as in
railroad building, large amounts of
wood are used in situations which fav-
or decay, it will pay TO establish q
plant for impregnsting timber with an
tiseptics by the more costly processes.
1t appears from all the evidence
gathered by this expert authority tina
wood lasts better in cold countries and
cold places, is safe either under water
or deeply buried in the ground, or if
constantly saturated, as in conduit,
and that it resists decay if kept dry or
hot. A thin fence rail seasons and
lasts: a thick one of the same wood
rots before it seasons. A thin picket
lasts longer than q log, and picket
without paint lasts better than one
which has been painted before it was
really dry. Fence posts, railway ties,
bridge and trestle timbers, which are
alternately dry and wet and never sea-
son, especially at the points of contact,
like the stills of houses and timbers of
badly ventilated cellars, Easements,
wells and mines, are especially subject
to decay.
Nearly all our knowledge concern
ing durability of woods is based on OBJ
servatiOns of wood as posts, stills and
ties. Boards are apt to be better see-
soned before US, and beams also have q
better opportunity for drying out be-
fore decay commences. Where boards
of timbers in houses are covered with
paint before becoming dry, as mop
boards and wainscot often are, they
decay in a manner usually spoken Of as
dry rot. "tThey MAJ never be wet, but
they were never really dry.
If wood Is used in contact with the
ground, decay proceeds the more rap
idly beginning at the point of contact
with the soiU the looser, moister and
warmer the soil, especially the greater
the liability of change from dry to wet:
heavy, always moist clay than in loose,
alternately moist and dry sand or
gravel, or in warm, comparatively dry
lime soils.
Most of the publications of the de-
partment of agriculture relate to SUBJ
jects that are of interest only to farm
ers and gardeners. but this circular on
increasing the durability of wood is of
equal Importance to carpenters and
builders and the owners of city pro-
perty.-Albany Argus.
Roard IF EouaIization.