66 



BEERIZING PROCESS. 



4,696 Mennonites, Baptists, and German Catho- 

 lics. The population of the principal towns 

 of the kingdom, in 1867, was as follows : 



Landshut 14,554 



Hof 14,397 



Passau 13,883 



Anspach 13,018 



Amberg 12,312 



Erlangcn 11,546 



Straubing 11,419 



Munich 170,688 



Nuremberg 77,895 



Augsburg 50,067 



Wurzburg 42,185 



Ratisbon 30,357 



Bamberg 25,972 



Furtb. 22,496 



BaireutU 19,464 



Ingolstadt 17,684 



Kaiserslautern.... 15,289 

 Spires 14,806 



Landau 11,081 



Kempten 10,998 



Aschaftenburg.... 10,288 

 Germersheim 10,181 



The public debt, in November, 1868, amount- 

 ed to 168,197,384 florins. The annual revenue 

 and expenditures during the ninth financial 

 period (1868 and 1869) is estimated at 87,144,- 

 006 florins. 



A new election of the Second Chamber took 

 place on May 12th. Three parties were in the 

 field, the k 'Fortschrittspartei" (party of prog- 

 ress), which in the German question sympa- 

 thized with the National Liberals in Northern 

 Germany, and desired the. speedy entrance of 

 Bavaria into the North-German Confederation ; 

 the " Mittelpartei " (middle party), which sup- 

 ported the ministry, and advocated intimate 

 alliance, but no political union with Northern 

 Germany ; and the " Patriotische Partei " 

 (patriotic party), which made the entire inde- 

 pendence of Bavaria its prominent principle 

 and fused with the Catholic party. The elec- 

 tion resulted in giving about one-half of the 

 new deputies to the patriotic party, most of 

 the other half to the party of progress, and 

 only a small number to the middle party. On 

 the meeting of the Second Chamber, the two 

 latter parties united in voting for the same 

 candidate for president of the Chamber, when 

 it was found that each candidate received 71 

 votes. As it was found impossible to arrive at 

 a compromise and thus at an election, the Gov- 

 ernment dissolved the Chamber and ordered a 

 new election, which took place in November. 

 Though the Government had so changed the 

 electoral districts as to improve the chances of 

 the liberal candidates, the result was a victory 

 of the patriotic party. Prince Hohenlohe, 

 therefore, tendered to the King his resignation, 

 which, however, was not accepted. 



BEERIZING PROCESS, THE. This recent- 

 ly-patented process consists simply in treating 

 wood with a boiling solution of borax in water, 

 which easily and effectually removes the sap, 

 or all perishable substances, without injuri- 

 ously affecting the woody fibre ; that, on the 

 contrary, becomes harder, impenetrable by 

 and impregnable to water, vermin-proof, in- 

 different to the moisture or dryness of the at- 

 mosphere, and almost incombustible. 



No wood is fit to be used for building, or in 

 the arts and trades, in the green state in which 

 it is felled. The tissues, being then distended 

 with sap, contract when the water in the sap 

 evaporates ; and, if green wood .is placed in a 

 confined situation, the sap rapidly decomposes, 



and induces the decomposition of the wood. 

 All wood, therefore, has to undergo some pro- 

 cess commonly called "seasoning" before 

 it can be worked up. The ordinary process of 

 seasoning consists in exposing the green lum- 

 ber to the action of the air, " to dry the sap 

 out.' 1 ' 1 Its well-known deficiencies are slow 

 and imperfect drying, and considerable loss on 

 shaky, split, and warped lumber. 



An excellent way of seasoning wood, which 

 was extensively used in former ages, when 

 lumber was cheap and time no object, con- 

 sisted in washing the sap out of the wood be- 

 fore it was dried, by placing it, while green, 

 under running water. For the French, and 

 partly for the English Navy, the timber is so 

 prepared. But the slow penetration of wood 

 by water renders this method impracticable 

 and too expensive for general use. 



Steaming of wood is another variation, tried 

 and still used, to remove sap by mere action 

 of water. But, while cold water dissolves- sap, 

 hot water or steam does not. It coagulates 

 albumen, fills up the pores, and impedes the 

 removal of the sap from inside. The uneven 

 action renders lumber very shaky, and natu- 

 rally the more so the thicker it is. Still more 

 destructive to the fibre is the fermentation 

 which takes place by steaming, which, being 

 uncontrollable, varies in effect, sometimes hon- 

 eycombing the lumber, and sometimes sinking 

 it in with concaved outsides. The loss on dam- 

 aged lumber by steaming varies, but is very 

 considerable. 



The method of Beerizing is as follows : In 

 square tanks 12 feet long x 6 high, and 7 wide, 

 or of other suitable size, with pierced steam- 

 pipes running along the inner side of the bot- 

 tom, 18 to 20 inches apart from each other, are 

 the boards to be prepared, put close to each 

 other without intermediate space; the wood 

 is then fastened on top to prevent it from float- 

 ing thereafter, but a space of one or two inches 

 is left to its expansion. 



A solution of borax in water, containing 

 about ten pounds of borax to each one thou- 

 sand feet of lumber to be treated, is then ad- 

 mitted till covering the wood, and the whole 

 heated to boiling. The boiling is continued 

 for about four hours and then the whole left 

 to cool, boiled again for about two hours and 

 the liquid then removed and clean water sub- 

 stituted, in which the lumber is boiled for 

 about two hours. This washing in water may 

 be repeated, according to the quality of lum- 

 ber and its exposure. If for mere seasoning 

 dark lumber, no washing is needed, while 

 white lumber must be repeatedly washed till 

 the water remains nearly colorless thereby, if 

 its light color is desirable. 



For preserving wood, the operation with the 

 borax solution may be repeated after the first 

 or second washing ; and even the washing in 

 water may be repeated, according to the expos- 

 ure and quality of the lumber. The borax 

 used in this process is not crystallized, but pre- 



