sappointing in its results.

Much ingenuity has been wasted in devising and patenting machinery for
charring wood on a large scale to preserve it against decay. The
process, however, is so tedious in comparison with the benefits which it
confers, and the charred surface is so objectionable for many uses, that
nothing is to be expected from the process upon a large commercial
scale.

In 1857-58 Mr. H.K. Nichols tried sundry experiments (No. 10), at
Pottsville, Pa., upon timber which he endeavored to impregnate with
pyrolignite of iron by means of capillary action. Similar experiments
had previously been thoroughly tried in France by Dr. Boucherie, but the
result has not been found satisfactory.

In 1858 the Erie Railway purchased the right of using the Nichols
patent, and erected machinery at its Owego Bridge shop for boring a 2
inch hole longitudinally through the center of bridge timbers. This
continued till 1870, when the works were burned, and in rebuilding them
the boring machinery was not replaced. The longitudinal hole allowed a
portion of the sap to evaporate without checking the outside of the
timber, and undoubtedly lengthened its life. It is believed there are
yet (1885) some sticks of timber in the bridges of the road that were so
prepared in 1868 or 1869.

In 1867 Mr. W.H. Smith patented a method of preserving timber, by
incasing it in vitrified earthenware pipes, and filling the space
between the timber and the pipe with a grouting of hydraulic cement.
This was applied to the railroad bridge connecting the mainland with
Galveston Island (experiment No. 12), and so well did it seem to succeed
at first that it was proposed to extend the process to railroad
trestlework, to fencing, to supports for houses, and to telegraph poles.
But after a while the earthenware pipes were displaced and broken, the
process was given up, and Galveston bridge is now creosoted.

In 1868 Mr. S. Beer patented a process for preserving wood by simply
washing out the sap from its cells. Having ascertained that borax is a
solvent for sap, he prepared a number of specimens by boiling them in a
solution of borax. For small specimens, this answered well, and a
signboard treated in that way (experiment No. 13) was preserved a long
time; but when applied to large timber, the process was found very
tedious and slow, and no headway has been made in introducing it.

Experiment No. 14 was brought about by accident. Some years age it was