ailure |J.W. Putnam
| & Mobile | | | | | |
| R.R. | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
43| " |1872| " & | " | " |Temporary| "
| | | oiling | | | prot'n |
| | | | | | |
44|Galveston & |1870|Charring | " | " | " | "
| Houston |1874| | | | |
| R.R. | | | | | |
--+------------+----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------------

COMMENTS ON MISCELLANEOUS EXPERIMENTS.

Experiments Nos. 1, 2, and 3 relate to the Earle process, from which
great results were expected from 1839 to 1844. It consisted in immersing
timber, rope, canvas, etc., in a hot solution of one pound of sulphate
of copper and three pounds of sulphate of iron mixed in twenty gallons
of water. It was first tested on some hemlock paving blocks on Chestnut
Street, Philadelphia, and for a time seemed to promise good results.
Experiments with prepared rope, exposed in a fungus pit, by Mr. James
Archbald, Chief Engineer of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, seemed also
favorable.

The process was, therefore, thoroughly tried at the Watervliet Arsenal,
where it was applied to some 63,000 cubic ft. of timber, at a cost of
about seven cents per cubic foot. The timber was used for various
ordnance purposes, and while it was found to have its life extended, as
would naturally be expected from the known character of the antiseptics
used, its strength was so far impaired, and it checked and warped so
badly, that the process was abandoned in 1844.

The committee is indebted to General S.V. Benet, Chief of Ordnance, for
a full copy of the reports upon these experiments.

Experiments Nos. 4 and 7 represent the lime process, which has been
applied to a considerable extent in France. The fact that platforms and
boxes used for mixing lime mortar seem to resist decay has repeatedly
suggested the use of lime for preserving timber. In 1840 Mr. W.R.
Huffnagle, Engineer of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, laid a
portion of its track on white pine sills, which had been soaked for
three months in a vat of lime-water as strong as could be maintained.
Similar experiments were tried on the Baltimore and Ohio in 1850