

1^' Meeting of the Wood Preservers 



The tmclfth annunl convfntiiMi m im- .»,im ,. ,., 



AMOcUUon WM hold January 18. ID and 20 at Hotel Sherman, 

 Chicago. '<f "<"■•' "'°"K *•'" 



line of tl.. ■'"" "'"' <'o'><'li"l<'<l 



by a Unqiict on ii ■ H' "• il'i" >-<"'>" ^^'^ ^o""' 



of Hotel Sherman. r at the Imnqiii-t waa F. H. 



Noncll who ia nt the head of the department of civil cnginoorinp, 

 tJnivoraity of IllinoLi. Mr. Newell was formerly chief engineer of 

 tlio United States Beclamation Sorvico, and he also served one term 

 as fv oan Forestry Association. 



Ti , hice for next year's meeting led to a short 



Nine cities were placod in nomination and one 

 thout result, no city receiving n majority of all 

 the votes cast. The candidates and the first vote stood ns follows: 

 Chicago, 34 votes; New York. 25; Philadelphia, 4; St. Louis, 2; Co- 

 lumbus, Ohio, 1; Baltimore, 1; Boston, 1; Buffalo, 0; Charleston, 

 S. C, 0. The three cities receiving the highest votes remained ns 

 candidates, and the others were dropped. The second ballot re- 

 sulted in the choice of New York by 54 votes to Cliicago's .34. 

 Officers and Committees 

 The selection of officers and committees for the ensuing year was 

 the order of business for Thursday afternoon, and the result is shown 

 below. 



Pi;. r.irl G. Crawford, gcnrrai manager American Crcosotlog 



Con.' vlllc. Ky. 



Kik?-i \f, \- ■ .Tohn Foley, forester of the Pennsylvania Rail- 

 road Company, i n. Pa. 



Second Vici. i .— M. K. Trumbull, vice-president of the Na- 



tional Lumber and CreosotlnR Company. Teiarkans. Tex. 



SECBETARV-Tttr.ASinr.u— F. J. .\ngler. superintendent of timber preser- 

 vation of the Baltimore & Ohio Rnllrond. Baltimore. Md. 



EXECCTIVE CoMMiTTEr. — A. R. Joyce (three years), Joycc-Watklns Com- 

 pany. Chlcnso; F. S. Pooler (three years), tie agent for Chicago, Mil- 

 waukee & St. Paul Railway, Chicago: George K. Rex (two years), manager 

 treating plants Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, Topokn. Kan. : 

 George M. Dnvldson (two years), chemist and engineer of tests, Chicago 

 & North Western Railway, Chicago: J. B. Card (one year), manager 

 Chicago Creosoting Company. Chicago: V. K. Hendricks (one year), as- 

 sistant chief engineer. St. Louis & San Francisco Railway. St. Louis. 

 Mo.: J. H. Waterman (one year), superintendent of timber preservation 

 of the Chicago, Burlington & Qulncy Railroad. Gnlesburg. 111. 



NoMiSATixo Committee — E. E. Fulks. vice-president and general man- 

 ager American Tar Products Company. Chicago : Lowry Smith, superin- 

 tendent lie plant Northern Pacinc Railroad. Bralnerd. Minn. : Frank 

 McArdle. superintendent tic plant Indiana Zinc Creosoting Company. 

 Terrc Haute. Ind. : C. W. Lane, supervisor timber preserving plant Balti- 

 more & Ohio Railroad. Green Spring. W. Va. : Walter Buehler. vice- 

 president Butler-Coons Contracting Company. South Minneapolis. Minn. : 

 N. C. Brown, professor forest utilization New York State College of For- 

 estry, Syracuse, N. Y.. and .T. H. Waterman. G. E. Rex and A. E. I.arkln. 

 former presidents of the association. 



Addresses and Reports 

 The formal address of welcome at the opening of the convention 

 was given by J. W. Kendrick, consulting engineer of the Atchison. 

 Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, who reminded the convention that of 

 the twelve annual meetings of the association, eight were held in 

 Chicago. 



President J. H. Waterman's annual address reviewed past work and 

 anticipated work for the future. That was followed by the report 

 of the secretary-treasurer, F. J. Angier, superintendent of timber 

 preservation of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. 



The afternoon of the first day's session brought technical reports 

 and addresses, the first being that of the standing committee No. 4 

 on plant operation. This report was in charge of A. L. Kuehn, 

 chairman of the committee. 



W. H. Grady of Louisville, Ky., general superintendent of the 

 American Creosoting Company, presented a paper on the selection 

 and purchase of fuel. He said that this important matter is fre- 

 quently left to the purchasing agent who may or may not be com- 

 petent to make wise purchases; l?ut some companies place this im- 

 portant matter in the hands of a purchasing engineer. 



The kind of fuel best suited to the needs of a plant must be 



determiiit .. ■Icpcnding upon loeal con- 



ditions. The fuel may bo gns, oil, coal, or wood. Tho speaker 

 discussed tho merits of different fuels in heat production. It la 

 usually counted that in heat development a ton of coal equals 1,000 

 cubic fwt of gas, or a barrel of oil, or a cord of wood. Knst of 

 Pittsburgh u ton of coal is 2.1.'lii pounds, but west of Uint city, it is 

 2,00(1 pound)!. A cord of won.l in presumed to weigh 2,S,')0 pounds. 

 A barrel of oil contains i'2 gaUcmB. The speaker dii>cus.sed the meth- 

 ods of calculating heat values of fuels so that one fuel might lie 

 intelligently compared with another, and tlio relative costs i.nul.l 1m> 

 figured out. 



Creosotino Timber 



Two pa|>ers on creosoting timlicr were offered, the first, "Methods 

 of Treating Douglas Fir TimU'rs," by O. P. M. Goss, of Seattle, 

 Wash., and the other "Creosoting Piling and Poles," by Frank W. 

 Cliorrington. Mr. Goss directed his remarks chiefly to the problem 

 of treating timbers without lessening their strength sufliciently to 

 invito failure. Treated timbers fall into two classes, considered from 

 the standpoint of demand on strength. Some are used for purposes 

 where strength is not of prime importance, as posts and paving 

 block ; while others, as bridge timbers, must not bo weakened to 

 the danger point. The treating of wood by jirocesses involving boil- 

 ing and steaming has a tendency to lessen the timber's strength. 



Tho problem which the treating engineer must solve is to so handle 

 the material that strength is not sacrificed. In the case of Douglas 

 fir this is possible. Mr. Goss submitted a set of figures, derived from 

 actual experiments made, by which he showed that some treated 

 Douglas fir is actually stronger than untreated, but in other instances 

 that result was not shown. His conclusion w.is that "Douglas fir 

 bridge stringers can be effectively crcosoted without in.juring their 

 strength, a fact which should be of interest particularly to railroads, 

 and also to other consumers of structural timbers." 



Mr. <I!herrington 's paper dealt witli timbers that were not re- 

 quired to sustain heavj- loads, consequently any moderate lessening 

 in strength is not important. Such timbers include telegraph and 

 telephone poles and the piling employed in bridges and harbors. 

 Preservation against decay is the chief end in view. Decay is usually 

 worst at the ground or the water line, and heretofore one of the 

 chief drawbacks has been the impracticability of treating that part of 

 the pole or pile without treating the rest of it. To treat the whole 

 timber involves unnecessary expense. The speaker announced that 

 an apparatus has been perfected by which one part of a timber may 

 be treated without treating the whole stick. He said that such treat- 

 ment will produce the following results: 



1. It would place the butt treatment upon a strictly reliable and sci- 

 entific basis. 



2. It would permit more than a mere treatment of the sapwood. 



.3. It would place under control the amount of creosote Injected per 

 cubic foot of timber. 



4. It would allow any desired proress of preservative treatment to be 

 utilized at the butt only, of a pole or pile. 



,1. It would reduce cost of pressure treatment without reducing elB- 

 clcncy of preservation, ns tho same penetration of preservative Is secured 

 at the vulnerable air and water line, or air and ground line portion, ns it 

 the entire timber is treated under pressure. 



Preservatives and Specifications 



A number of papers, reports and addresses were presented by indi- 

 viduals and committees on the subject of preservatives and specifi- 

 cations. 



The report on preservatives was presented by Louis C. Drefahl, 

 chairman of the committee. 



The foreign creosote oil situation was described in a report by 

 G. A. Lembcke. The effect of the war upon supplies of creosote from 

 Germany and England was discussed. None comes from Germany, 

 but supplies continue to arrive from England. About 30,000,000 or 

 35,000,000 gallons from that source reached the United States in 

 1915. Larger quantities of foreign oils were imported into this coun- 

 try before the war. 



E. A. Sterling, chairman of the committee on specifications for pur- 



