NOTES AND QUERIES. 235 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



The RtPiNG Process of Creosoting Timber. 



The Controller of the Stores Department of the General Post 

 Office, London (Mr G. Morgan, I.S.O.), has been good enough 

 to inform the Editor that, for the purposes of experiment on a 

 fairly large scale, his Department has recently arranged that, in 

 those yards where the Post Office contractors have set up the 

 necessary plant, all telegraph poles of the light and medium 

 classes, together with those of the stout class which are 50 feet 

 or upwards in length, will be treated by the Riiping process; 

 but stout poles under 50 feet in length, which are used to 

 carry the main trunk lines, will, for the present, continue to 

 be treated by the old process. 



The Riipingising of timber has been widely practised both 

 on the European continent and in America. The process was 

 adopted in Germany some eight or nine years ago, and has 

 been largely extended there, year by year, with all present 

 appearance of efficacy. In the United Kingdom creosote oil 

 is relatively cheap, and the economy in its use resulting from 

 the newer process is therefore of less importance than it is in 

 continental Europe and America. 



Messrs Burt, Boulton & Haywood, Ltd., of Victoria Docks, 

 London ; Messrs Richard Wade, Sons & Company, of Hull ; 

 and Messrs Corry & Company, Belfast, are believed to be, at 

 present, the only firms who have installed Riipingising plant in 

 their yards. 



Messrs Wade have favoured the Editor with the following 

 brief description of the process : — 



" The Riiping process of creosoting consists in subjecting the 

 timber to be preserved to an air pressure of 50 or 60 lbs., 

 after it has been placed and sealed up in the impregnating 

 cylinder. Then, johilst maiti/aining the air pressure, the creosote, 

 at a temperature of about 100 to 140°, is admitted to the 

 cylinder from an overhead storage tank, and the pressure is 

 then increased to 70 or 80 or 100 lbs, (or whatever may be 



