462 THE BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL, MARCH 1953 



greater for the lighter treatments, and that in effect the losses were 

 relatively greater for the empty cell than for the full cell treatments. 

 His conclusions appear to hold good through all the subsequent cited 

 data that admit of such comparisons. 



Bateman's early, 1912, work^ on oils extracted from two old piles that 

 had been in service about thirty years indicated some considerable loss 

 — in one case more than 35 per cent in the above water section — and 

 relatively lower losses for water line and below water line sections. This 

 confirmed a generally accepted common opinion. Losses below water line 

 were apparently confined to the fraction distilling below 225°C in the 

 case of the pile which he considers to have been treated with a pure 

 coal-tar creosote. He calls light oils those distilling below 205°C. With 

 the exception of the above water section of one pile all the samples of 

 treated wood still contained about 17 pounds per cubic foot. He states: 



^'The creosote in the pile which was perfectly preserved contained 

 originally at least 40 per cent of naphthalene fractions, a large portion 

 of which remained in the wood. The creosote in the pile which was less 

 perfectly preserved contained little or no naphthalene." 



Service records on such oils resemble records from the Washington- 

 Norfolk line and from the specimens examined by Alleman in that the 

 data have little if any bearing — other than historical — on the creosote 

 use problems of today. 



Schmitz et al^°^' ^°^ report a loss of 25.9 per cent after five years service 

 in track in red oak ties treated with a 60/40 creosote-coal tar solution, 

 compared to a loss of 17.3 per cent after three years service. The losses, 

 determined by extraction, varied inversely as the boiling range, as was 

 expected. There was very little loss in the 315-355°C fraction, and no 

 loss is indicated for the fraction boiling above 355°. 



Bateman in 1922,^ and again in 1936 (see Discussion and ^°^) in con- 

 nection with his explanation of the relation between the loss of the 

 creosote fraction below 270°C and a formula for estimating the perma- 

 nence or preservative life of creosote in treated wood, cites the earlier 

 work of von Schrenk, Fulks and Kammerer, and Rhodes and Hosford 

 on creosote losses from southern pine poles in the Washington-Norfolk 

 and Montgomery-New Orelans lines of the American Telephone and 

 Telegraph Company. Certain of the poles in question were installed in 

 1897 and removed in 1906 after about nine years service in line. The 

 creosote used to treat these poles is reported to have had a specific grav- 

 ity of 1.022-1.030 at 3°C above the melting point of the oil. The residue 

 above 315°C was about 16 per cent; and the per cent naphthalene was 

 "not less than 40 per cent." Using the pitch residue — the per cent 



