LXXXVIII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Drying of Wood 



Working with oven dried samples of the heart and sap wood of 

 black spruce, white spruce, red pine white pine, and heart wood of 

 Douglas fir, the rate of absorption of moisture of these woods in an 

 atmosphere saturated with water vapour was studied and a mathe- 

 matical expression derived from the data. This mathematical expres- 

 sion takes a rather unexpected form and publication of it is withheld 

 until it can be supported sufficiently by further work. If confirmed, 

 it will be of considerable scientific interest. 



Working with green and air dry white spruce, air dry Douglas fir, 

 natural and resin-free Southern pine and sulphite pulp, determinations 

 were made of the moisture content when in equilibrium with atmos- 

 pheres of various relative humidities from per cent to 100 per cent at 

 temperatures from 35°C to 75°C, and results obtained of practical 

 though not scientific accuracy. 



Waste Sulphite Liquor 



As planned last year, no experimental work was attempted on 

 waste sulphite liquor, but a great deal of work was done in collecting, 

 abstracting and classyifing the literature of the subject. The compil- 

 ation of this material was a very much more extensive undertaking 

 than was at first anticipated. The work is now complete and the 

 manuscript — about 400 pages, cap size — has been forwarded for 

 publication as a bulletin. To those interested in the manufacture of 

 pulp and paper, one of the greatest of our Canadian industries, this 

 should prove an extremely valuable book of reference, covering as it 

 does all the available literature of waste sulphite liquor, and the 

 attempts to utilize it. This literature has appeared mostly in the form 

 of short papers scattered throughout the technical literature of the 

 English, Scandinavian, German, and French languages, and it has 

 been all covered up to the end of 1917. It is hoped that this work 

 will prove of help to those working to stop this great waste of valuable 

 material, amounting as it does in Canada to some 2,000,000 gallons 

 per day containing 1,000 tons of organic matter originating from the 

 wood. 



Railway Ties 



Experimental work was continued on the investigation of the 

 possibilities of preservative treatment of jack pine and hemlock rail- 

 way ties. It was found possible to give a satisfactory creosote treat- 

 ment to jack pine by methods already in commercial use for other 

 woods, provided that the material is sufficiently dry. A study of the 

 rate of drying of ties under commercial conditions has been started so 



