Editorial Notes. 527 



Tlie inventor and patentee of the process is Mr. D. Gardner, of the 

 firm of Messrs. A. Gardner and Son, cabinet makers, 36, Jamaica 

 Street, Glasgow, who first directed his attention to the process about 

 three years ago, and after testing and experimenting with it for about 

 two years and a half, the results were so remarkably satisfactory and 

 encouraging that he was induced to bring them under the notice of 

 the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, in a paper read before it by 

 James Deas, Esq., C.E., on the 11th of last April, when the inventor 

 received the hearty commendation and thanks of the Society. 



Messrs. A. Gardner and Son have employed the process extensively, 

 and with every success, for the last three years, in connection with 

 their large cabinet manufactory. In their regular course of business, 

 table-tops made of mahogany treated by the process are jointed in 

 from two to three weeks after being cut from the log, and the joint- 

 ings of not even one of the many thousands of tops made per annum 

 have been known to give way. 



A three-feet square log of mahogany has been brought into their 

 factory in its natural state, direct from the Clyde Trustees' timber yard 

 at Yorkhill, been put through the seasoning process, been cut up into 

 boards which were made into a counter top, all within three weeks. 



In testing its preserving qualities, it was ascertained that pitwood 

 employed in supporting some of the air passages of Messrs. Dixon and 

 Co.'s ISTo. 3 pit, in the south-eastern suburb of Glasgow, gave way with 

 dry-rot, and had to be replaced within twelve months of being put in 

 quite fresh ; accordingly, several cartloads of Norway props, prepared 

 by the Gardner process, were, at the end of September, 1875, put into 

 the air passage where dry-rot most rapidly developed, alongside of un- 

 prepared ones from the same cargo, and on being examined in the 

 beginning of October, 1876, the prepared timber was found to be 

 as sound as the day it was put in, while the unprepared timber was 

 completely destroyed. 



An equally satisfactory result was obtained by the following test : — 



On 2nd December, 1875, four sleepers of Baltic red wood, treated, 

 two by dissolving the sap only, and the other two by adding the pre- 

 servative chemicals, were laid down under the rails at the south end 

 of the passenger shed, Queen Street station, North British Eailway, 

 Glasgow, where dry-rot has for years been extraordinarily active, com- 

 pletely destroying unpreserved sleepers in less than twelve months. 

 On examining the four sleepers on the 2nd December, 1876, it was 

 found that the red wood of the two which had only the sap dissolved 

 was quite sound, but the surface of the blue wood showed signs of 

 decay ; while as regards the two which were chemically treated, both 

 red and blue wood were equally and thoroughly preserved. 



The process also strengthens and solidifies the timber. This has 



