C.I'.O ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF TIMBER. 



has been done in this respect. Although creosote nmy not be 

 available for the purpose at a suthciently low cost, chloride of 

 zinc is extensively used in Germany and N. America for injecting 

 timber. Even if the soft coniferous woods are not all suitable 

 fur railway-sleepers, yet the injection would protect them from 

 white ants and other insects, and render them suitable for 

 l)uilding purposes; thus an immense supply of cheap wood, which 

 i.s now allowed to rot in the forests, would become available for the 

 dense poi)ulation of the north of India. This is the more necessary, 

 as much Indian wood is too heavy for cheap transport, whereas these 

 light woods can be easily floated down the rivers to places on the 

 railways, where the injecting works might be established, and the 

 timber converted into suitable assortments and transported furtlier 

 l.y rail.— Tr.] 



The different establishments where the injection of timber is 

 (fleeted are chiefly intended for the preservation of railway 

 sleepers, but a commencement has been made in utilizing injected 

 timber for other purposes, viz., for mining- props, shingles, house 

 furniture, vine-stakes, telegraph-posts, wooden street-pavement, &ic. 



The subject of the present chapter is the artificial injection of 

 timber with antiseptic solutions. The nature of the eflects of 

 these solutions on wood tissues is not j^et fully understood. It 

 is intended to fill the air-spaces in wood with substances which 

 impede the decomposition of nutritive material which cannot be 

 entirely removed from the tissues, so that the growth of fungi 

 may not be nourished by them nor by the woody substance. 

 [Insect-attacks are similarly prevented. — Tn.] 



The action of injection is therefore two-fold, protecting timber 

 from decay and from destruction by insects. Methods of inject- 

 ing timber differ according to the nature of the substance 

 injected, the method of injecting, and the natural suitability of 

 the wood in question. It should also be noted that many inject- 

 ing substances are soluble in water, and may therefore, sooner 

 or later, be washed out of the wood and their etticacy thus lost, 

 [whilst others act injuriously on iron bolts which may come into 

 contact with the injected wood. — Th.] 



