The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-14
THEoRY OF TIE TREATING.
Interesting Explanation Of Wood Pre-
serving in the Railway Review.

j
definite preservation of wood are
simple and well known. They are
that the albumfnous substances con-
tanned in it shall be either removed
or made inert, and that the material
shall be kept free from alterations of
fermentation is prevented, in the
other oxidation. This is the "a, b, c
of the subject, but it is the whole
alphabet of the difficulties to be over
come when wood is employed in con-
struction out of doors Keep it I'M
der stable and uniform conditions
where the irteractfon OF its internal
constituents upon each other, and the
effect of oxygen upon its surface,
cannot occur, and granite itself is no
more permanent than wood. Many
of you have seen the broad and deep
chestnut sleepers in the Tower of
London as sound and solid as when
they were first weather. hardened in
the days of William the Norman. The
wooden castings of Egyptian mummies
have endured through tens of cen
turtles They were kept continuously
dry and therefore free from internal
ferment and external corrosion. On
the other hand there are in the mu-
SeumS of Europe collins formed of
logs split lengthwise through their
cCnterS and with the two halves hol-
lowed out so that when placed to-
gether again they provided a space
within. They were heWn by the stone
hatchets of prehistoric times and
were buried in the soil Of Lacustrine
regions where, under unvarying con-
ditions, age after age, they were kept
saturated with water. But whether
continuously dry or continuously wet
wood must be thoroughly one or
thoroughly the other. There is no
compromise between the two. Ma
ture in her constructive moods is ac-
tive with perpetual change When she
wills to preserve she merely goes to
sleep. When the repose is disturbed
by opposing agencies she sets to work
to destroy. Unfortunately for mod
ern commercial needs repose forms
no part of the existence of railway
sleepers or telegraph poles.
The basic VeritieS to which I allude
are so well known and so common
place that it seems superf1uous to
mention them. But the necessity of
exact and careful consideration of
them Is proven by the fact that they
have been utterly ignored in very
many, of not most, of the various
m ethods which have been proposed or
experimental with This is illustrat-
ed by the earliest invention, or alleged
invention, in wood preservation Of
which I have as yet become aware
1t was proposed by-One Humphrey
Jackson about I5Ofyears ago 1t con-
sisted in boiling tin1bers for several
hours in strong solution of cal
careOus substances and then care
fully neutralizing the alkaline earth
with oil of Vitriol. This closed the
the more securely seal the pores of
the wood Jackson further saturated
the ends of the tim bers with oil di-
luted with spirits of turpentine OF
course this treatment could not expel
moisture from the interior of the
wood and decay was inevitable.
may say right here that a process
which made a good deal of noise il,
this country and Great Britain about
forty years ago was open to the same
objection, although propounded with
all the confidence of asserted science
II consisted in first moving the SIR
face moisture of the wood and then
saturating it with Oleaginous vapOrs
or compounds. 1t needs no argument
70 snow that while the outside of tim
pers SO treated might be fair to the
eye they would, unles previously sea
soned throughout soon be nothing but
decay or powderpost within.
For fifty odd years from the time
OF Humphrey Jackson's vain nroiect
nothing of a tangible sort in wood
preserving seems to have been Dro-
Jeeted. In 1925, however, an inventor
long since forgotten, except in the
muSty volumes of British patent req
ords, planned a process which was a
step, but only a step, forward in the
rlght direction His name was James.
F. Alice He called it "condensing''
wood by exDelling the moisture and
hardening the material. To accom-
pliSh this he sawed the wood into
pIanks and timbers and then passed
them through successive pairs of pres
sure rollers which squeezed most of
! the moisture out of them. He then
gave the finishing touch to the opera
ton by forcing these through dies to
still further compress the fibers and
give a smooth finish to the surface.
Something more than thirty years ago
there We're shown at the American In
sutute in this CITY, specimens of wood
which had been compressed by fore
ing through dies and the increased
soHdity of the wood was manifest at
a glance 1t wiz be noted that Atlee
| used no preservatiNe substance, de-
pending as he did upon the mechan-
ical expulsion of water from the wood
and such expulsion of the air as would
/ result from the increased density of
the mass. Thirteen years later came
| John Bethel, whose British patent
was issued in 1888. He appears to
have been the first to properly appre-
! ciate the utility of the sap vessels of
1 wood as a means for impregnating it
/ with preseryetive material. He placed
| the timber in a tank nearly full of
I the preservative liquid. with the top
! end of the timber projected above the
surface of the liquid, and then provid-
/ ed an approximate vacuum within the
/ tank. According to his statements the
{ air Travelled freely up through the
/ longitudinal pores of the wood while
/ the liquid, entering at the butt or low
/ er end of the timber followed the air
| as it was drawn out by the air pump.
Bethel enumerates among his preserv-
| atives the sulDhates of iron and of
! copper, chromate of potash, mineral
/ tar, bitumen, coal tar or dead oil, ami
NAL and vegetable oils, alum, borax,
| and many other substances In jack
son and Bethel we find the clear in
ception of two distinct systems, the
one mechanical, the other chemical.
1t was in the natural order of things
| that sooner or later some one would
! propose to combine these two radically
/ different methods. It came sooner rath-
er than later, for it was planned with
/ ,s-I, L.