Abstract from report of Alfred P. Trautwein, dated New York, Nov. 20, 1884 :

"Test by compression on the Olsen Machine of the Stevens Institute, Hoboken, upon yellow pine.

"These were made upon samples of three different lengths cut out of the plank, as shown, and 3′′, 4′′, and 5" in length respectively; the ends were accurately squared, and the cross section of the sample was approximately one square inch."

MY DEAR SIR: :

[COPY.]

SCHOOL OF MINES, COLUMBIA COLLEGE,

49TH ST. AND 4TH AVE., NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 1890.

I have examined the sample of oak wood, preserved by your process, which you placed in my hands. I find that

it is entirely different from the original wood, of which I also examined a sample. The treatment to which the oak has been exposed has effected a radical chemical change in its character, and it now contains 11.91 per cent. of materials, most of which have resulted from the action of heat. These I have succeeded in separating into:

A very considerable portion of this 11.91 per cent. of material consists of antiseptic and preservative substances, which will act to protect the wood from decomposition and decay. They have also radically changed the appearance of the wood, producing what would have otherwise required a long lapse of time. The wood before treatment does not contain the above-mentioned substances, and would be liable to be attacked by microscopic fungi, and to undergo decay when exposed to air and moisture.

In conclusion, I would say that your process seems to be a remarkably simple and effective one for improving the appearance, and very greatly increasing the durability, of timber, and protecting it from the agencies which result in destroying, by decay, timber which has not been treated.

Very sincerely yours,

C. F. CHANDLER, PH.D.

To Mr. SAMUEL E. HASKIN,

40 Wall Street, New York City.

The PRESIDENT. I shall be glad to hear further from the members.

Mr. JOHN BIRKENHEAD. Mr. President, I would like to say a few words further in regard to this petroleum. I incidentally remarked that I had another piece of ground opposite my house that I fenced in. I put a wire fence around it, one of these twisted wires, and put down cedar posts in this case which were about four or five inches in diameter, with bark on them,

and tapering off on the top, and painted them red, which gave them a very rural appearance, and I liked it very much; but it appeared that the moisture would get in under the bark and separate it on the top; and make it disfigured after it had been down a few years. What makes this fresh in my memory is, that it was only last week I was stripping this bark off and painting it. I took this common black oil, and mixed it with a little linseed oil, and mixed the paint with the common black oil, and painted these posts over, and it seems to dry in very quickly. Of course it does not give a lustre, because it soaks into the wood, and that has a very preserving effect. Mr. FRANCIS. Mr. President, I have been very much interested in this paper of Mr. CRAFTS. I see that the samples which have been tested for strength were of yellow pine, and undoubtedly that kind of wood seems to be well adapted to this process; that is to say, it has considerable resin in it, and other substances which are considered antiseptical themselves after they are properly treated. Now, in regard to the method of treating that lumber, he has given us no particulars. I understand that it is done in an iron cylinder about six feet in diameter and perhaps one hundred feet long, something like that. The cylinder, I believe, is wound on the outside with coils of steam pipes, and a pressure of steam of about two hundred and fifty pounds is maintained. That gives a temperature — I am not quite sure as to what the temperature is, corresponding to that pressure, but at any rate they get somewhere between four and five hundred degrees. [The temperature of saturated steam corresponding to a pressure of two hundred and fifty pounds per square inch, above the atmosphere, is not far from four hundred degrees Fahrenheit; and it can be made much hotter by superheating.] Then they apply the pressure of two hundred pounds or so to the wood, in order to keep the sap inside.

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Now, I think it will be found that this treatment cannot be given by anybody or everybody. It must be done by experts;

by persons who understand how to do it; and they learn by experience. There is no formula they can follow; and this process, to be successful, I think, depends very much upon the care which is given to the details of treatment.

Mr. CRAFTS. Mr. President, I would like to ask Mr. FRANCIS, and I think he will agree with me, whether this does not apply to almost all processes for preserving timber, that it must be honestly done? I think that is the prime factor in all this work.

The PRESIDENT. Our next paper was to have been by Mr. FRANCIS P. SHELDON of Providence, but I have not seen him here this morning, and we will have to continue the discussion of the preservation of timber until he comes, or take up some other question.

The PRESIDENT. Mr. MESSENGER will Mr. MESSENGER will say a few words upon the oil fuel process which he has been using for some time past, and no doubt will entertain you with his experience.

Mr. F. M. MESSENGER. Mr. President, I will say that I did not come here to speak upon the oil fuel question, but I was a little disappointed, when I received notice of the meeting, to see the papers that were going to be read, because I understood that we were to have a paper on oil fuel; that is, I got that impression, and I was very desirous to hear one. I will say I did not expect to speak about it myself to-day. We have been using oil fuel a little over three years in our mills, but I have no data to give you of the results that we have attained. I hardly think that with our system of burning we attain as high an efficiency as they do with the Archer process, although I have not seen that process; but, from the paper we heard here last spring, I should judge they have a better system than we have. We use the Reed burner, which is a simple process, and requires little attention and care. Το vaporize, we use steam from the boiler. The Standard Oil Company's expert claimed to use but five per cent. of the steam

generated by the boiler, to vaporize the oil with; but in our experience, in some tests we have made, we think it takes a little more than that. And that led us to examine a little into the merits of the Aerated Fuel Company's process at Springfield; but in the test figures which they sent me it did not seem to me that they attained any higher efficiency than we had done; and, as I understood it, although I have not investigated very thoroughly the plan for using that process, it would be quite expensive. That is, I understand they use an air compressor, which takes considerable power to operate it; and the first cost of the plant is quite expensive. We put in our plant very thoroughly, so far as our piping of the tanks is concerned. We put in two large tanks ten feet in diameter and thirty feet long side by side. We excavated so that we set the tanks down pretty well into the ground; that is, we dug a cellar and laid cross walls with cement bottom - I think, four cross walls, equally divided - and through those we laid three stringers of railroad iron under the tanks, to prevent any settling. We discharge the cars directly into these storage tanks, as we call them. Then we laid a pipe to our mill yard, which is about six hundred feet distant. These tanks we housed in with a brick building, and laid our pipe line through to the mill yard, where we also built a small building for our immediate supply. Here we set a small tank above the feed tank to measure the oil accurately; so at any time in the day we are able to take our reading and know how many gallons of oil we burn. In that respect we can keep pretty close account of the fuel, and we do not have any heavy shortages to charge up as we used to have with coal. Our coal used to shrink for some reason or other in our coal shed. As I said, I have no data with me or figures to state just what results we are obtaining, but our impression is that, as regards the money that we pay for fuel, there is a very slight difference between the oil and the coal. Our coaldump being several hundred yards from the boiler-room, we were obliged to cart all our coal to the boilers, and take away