Wood Preserving Department 



J'.v E. A. Sterling 

 Ex-P resident .liitcrican Wood Preservers Assoeiation 



FOR the past year preliminary reports have indi- 

 cated the successful development of improved 

 methods of creosoting Douglas fir timber. Air. O. 

 P. M. Goss, engineer of the Association of Creosoting 

 Companies of the Pacific Coast, who has been directing 

 the investigations, i)resented a very interesting report at 

 the meeting of the American Wood Preservers Associa- 

 tion in January. The association he represents has now 

 published a bulletin on "Creosoting Douglas Fir Bridge 

 Stringers and Ties Without Loss of Strength." While 

 the details may not be of interest to the readers of 

 American Forestry, the general results are important 

 to any one in any way interested in the use of timber. 

 The practice of creosoting Douglas fir has been followed 

 on the Pacific Coast for apjjroximately twenty-fi\e years, 

 but the boiling process which has been used has been 

 rather severe, because of the resistence which fir oiTered 

 to penetration by creosoting. This resulted in consider- 

 able loss of strength, which was not a desirable factor in 

 structural timbers. The new method which has been de- 

 veloped consists in boiling innlcr xacuuni in order to re- 

 duce the high temperature pre\iouslv necessarv. Mr. 

 Goss's bulletin outlines the detailed procedure, including 

 strength and spike pulling tests. He summarized these 

 conclusions before the ^^'ood Preservers Association, as 

 follows : 



"The above results show conclusive proof that Doug- 

 las fir stringers can be effectively creosoted without in- 

 juring their strength, a fact which will be of interest par- 

 ticularly to railroads, and also to other consumers of 

 structural timber." 



ADDITIONAL data of great value on Dauglas fir 

 bridge stringers were presented bv H. B. MacFar- 

 land, engineer of tests of the Santa Fe Railroad, 

 in connection with the report of the committee on wood 

 preservation of the American Railway Engineering As- 

 sociation, at its meeting in Chicago on March SI-"?.'). Mr. 

 AlacFarland's tests are on the comparative strength of 

 treated and untreated Douglas fir stringers in order to 

 determine the effect of the treatment on the physical 

 properties of the wood. This report is very complete, 

 and fully illustrated by photographs of cross sections, 

 anfl by cur\es and diagrams of each piece tested. 



FL'RTHER evidence of the long life of creosoted 

 material is hardly necessary ; yet each year and 

 each meeting of railroad wood preserving and 

 engineering associations bring out new data. At the 

 recent meeting of the American Railway Engineering .As- 

 sociation, and at the January convention of the American 



238 



\\ ood Preservers Association, committees on service 

 tests presented many records, among which was men- 

 tioned creosoted piling and timbers in coal docks of the 

 Lehigh A'alley Railroad at Perth Amboy, N. ]., which 

 were still in good condition after thirty years. Other 

 complete records run back twenty-six years; while from 

 other sources are data on creosoted piling which have 

 resisted decay from marine bores for forty years in the 

 Gulf of Mexico. Some later experimental test tracks 

 are now giving results, cross ties from the Santa Fe 

 Railroad, for example, being shown at Chicago in March, 

 which were treated by the Reuping process with five 

 pounds of oil per cubic foot in 1904, and are still en- 

 tirelv sound. The deduction is that timber well treated 

 with a good grade of coal tar creosote will resist decay 

 ahnost indefinitely. The same evidence, however, shows 

 the necessity of proper protection from mechanical wear, 

 since there are nianv records of ties and timbers which 

 have failed because the protective treated portion was 

 worn through, exposing the untreated center. 



AT THE various lumber association meetings during 

 the past winter exhibits have been shown which 

 are of particular interest to the farmer and small 

 consumer of creosoted wood. These included results 

 from brush and open tank treatment of fence posts and 

 small timbers, and included a model of an inexpensive 

 open tank which anv one can liuild for a few dollars. It 

 was shown by actual specimens that posts of non-durable 

 wood, for example, would decay in two to five years; 

 where.is a brush and open tank treatment with creosote 

 viould preserve them for fifteen or twenty years, and in 

 some cases more. 



AXlvW feature was added to the exhibit of the 

 X.alional Railway Appliances Association in 

 Chicago in March, in connection with the annual 

 Railway Association meeting, by the increased space 

 taken by lumber manufacturers, and the very instructive 

 demonstration which thev arranged. In addition to many 

 sections, diagrams and models of untreated timber, the 

 results from proper treatment were also shown. There 

 were, for example, well preserved sections of creosoted 

 timbers taken from trestles of the New Orleans & North- 

 eastern Division of the Queen & Crescent, and from the 

 Louisville & Nashville, built in 1883. Samples of paving 

 blocks were also shown which were laid in Galveston in 

 1875; while another part of the exhibit illustrated 

 methods of preventing mechanical wear of cross ties by 

 the use of screw spikes, large tie plates, dowels, etc., the 

 possibilities of the dowels having been previously men- 

 tioned in this department. 



