206 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Jl'NE, 



had penetrated to the centre of the timber, hydrosulphuret of ammonia was 

 used, and if the solution had penetrated sufficiently into the prepared timber, 

 ben)" touched with the test a black stain would soon become apparent, al- 

 though I must say I have not seen it act successfully when the timber was 

 split far from the surface. 



The preservation uf timber from the dry rot is at the present moment 

 attracting considerable attention, in consequence of Sir W. Burnett's process 

 having superseded Mr. Kyau's in the good opinion of the authorities of the 

 navy. The United Serrice Journal for April has an article on naval im- 

 provements in the 19th century ; from the fourth notice on dry rot, 

 is condensed the following account of Burnettizing. It appears that Sir W. 

 Burnett, Physician General of the Navy, knowing that the precipitate caused 

 by Kyanization was soluble in sea water, substituted water saturated with 

 the chloride of zinc, with decided and beneficial effect ; and " we trust," says 

 the editor of the Journal, " the day is not far distant when not a load of tim- 

 ber or a bolt of canvas will be used in Her Majesty's service without being 

 Burnettized." The principle of Burnettizing was reported upon by the 

 Master of Woolwich Dockyard and his assistant, 15th July, and by the Ad- 

 miralty, 26th July, 1841. Tanks are established at each of the dockyards, 

 at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham ; that at Portsmouth is 6 ft. diameter, 

 and 52 ft. long, and proved to a pressure of 2001b. on the inch. In conse- 

 quence of the successful results of all the experiments, Sir William was in- 

 duced to take out a patent. In the above named Journal, amongst the cor- 

 respondence, is a letter from the Liverpool Registry of Shipping stating that 

 rock salt filled between the timbers of the frame of a ship, is a preventive or 

 cure for dry rot, even after it has made its appearance. In the Mining Jour- 

 nal. March 18, 1843, from a letter by J. Murray we learn that he applied 

 sulphate of iron and a partial vacuum, caused by steam injection, to assist 

 the penetration of the solution, 10 years before Kyan's process ; through the 

 same channel, he also states that salts of copper will coagulate albumen as 

 well as chloride of mercury. The tanks of t lie Hull and Selby Railway, 

 previously noticed, are more fully described in Vol. 5, page 202 of the Jour- 

 nal, being an account of the meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 March 8, 1840, where it is stated that 50 out of 70 of the prepared sleepers, 

 used at the West India Dock warehouses, after being down for five years, 

 were rotten, they bad been prepared by simple immersion or saturation; and 

 it is also stated, that some tanks of the Anti-Dry-Rut Company, in which the 

 solution was kept, had decayed, and that the action of corrosive sublimate 

 would be prejudicial to the use of iron bolts in Kyanized sleepers. 



In the application of Kyanizing to railways, Mr. Giles was the first to 

 applv it on the Southampton Railway ; and of its application to building, 

 Sir Robert Smirke at the Temple in 1833, also at the Custom Douse, Bristol, 

 the Oxford and Cambridge I lab, and the British Museum; also by Mr. Wilkin?. 

 in the erection of the National Gallery, and by Mr. Barry, at the College of 

 Surgeons, in 1S34, and in the same year by Mr. Abraham, at the Westminster 

 Bridewell; and it has been also employed at Ramsgate Harbour by Andrew 

 Turnbull, C. E. The above enumeration of works, in addition to the atten- 

 tion bestowed at the meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, is, I 

 think, evidence enough to show that Kyanizing has not been superseded in 

 public estimation by Burnettizing without a fair trial of its merits. Both 

 processes, I think, will fall into desuetude, not from any defect in principle 

 or not answering the end in view, but from the first cost of the tanks, the 

 delay in time, the vessel not being capacious enough, and the extra delay 

 and expense in delivery and cartage of the materials from place to place, or 

 from the tanks to the works where the materials arc required. This, I 

 know, that the Kyanizing has signally failed in taking root in the provinces, 

 and I could specify at least ten places where it has been given up. With 

 respect to a railway with two lines of road where it is used, the cost per 

 mile will be as follows : where cross sleepers are employed, each sleeper con- 

 tains from 2 to 2^- cubic feet, and costs from I2d. to I3rf. each for Kyan- 

 izing, exclusive of cartage from the place of delivery to the Anti- Dry-Rot 

 station, and from thence to the works where they are required for use. The 

 cost of sleepers of Scotch fir is about 4s. each, and of larch 5s. ; price, of 

 course, is ruled by the locality, taking, however, the cost of Kyanizing and 

 cartage at Is. dd. per sleeper, and a double way, and placing the sleepers 

 3 feet apart, (although recently they are placed only 2 feet 3 inches apart,) 

 and there being 17G0 yards in a mile, the total cost of Kyanizing will be 

 £132 per mile, which on some of the long lines amount to the sum of 

 £20,000, an amount which ought not to be too rashly entered on without 



ue inquiry. 



In conclusion, I beg to be allowed to state that I was engaged in the use 

 of the Kyanizing when Messrs. Grissell and Peto employed it ; also, in the 



erection of the tanks of the Great Western Railway Company, and in the 

 superintendence of the process, when performed by local establishments, o 

 the Anti-Dry-Rot Company. I state this, to show that my opinion is no* 

 rashly formed, when I say that Kyanizing is grown into disuse, and that 

 probably Burnettizing will also share the same fate, perhaps, without having 

 so long a trial. With the concluding remarks of the Lecturer on En- 

 gineering at King's College, as given in a late number of the Journal, I 

 cordially agree, viz., " 'tis use alone that sanctifies expense." Although this 

 paper may not possess the merit of being thoroughly original, yet I think it 

 may claim no lack of inquiry into the writings of previous inquirers as to the 

 merits of this question of preventives to decay in timber. To yourself 

 my thanks are especially due, for your liberality and condescension in no- 

 ticing my previous efforts, as a correspondent to your valuable periodical, 

 amongst the genera) notices, as being the results of labour, and as valuable 

 communications, but more especially for the particular notice in Vol. 5, 

 page 397, where my efforts are designated as " practical and of great utility." 

 Your kindness has given my study and reading an object, which is to employ 

 my leisure profitably in the advancement of knowledge, and becoming of 

 practical utility to my fellow men. 



St. Ann's, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 



O. T. 



NEW PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING LIME, &c. 



A Patent has been granted to William Edward Newton, of Chancery 

 Lane, for " improvements in manufacturing lime, cement, artificial stone, and 

 such other compositions, more particularly applicable to working under voter, 

 and in constructing buildings and other works, wh'ch are e.rposed to damp." 

 (A communication.) — Sealed the 3rd of April, 1841. 



This invention consists, Firstly — in the formation, by certain new pro- 

 cesses, of an hydraulic lime and cement, which has the property of becoming 

 hard and solid, when under water, or exposed in damp situations. Secondly — 

 in the application of the same principles to the hardening of soft stones, for 

 the purpose of making hard artificial stones. Thirdly — in the employment 

 of the same process for hardening wood, and preserving iron from the effects 

 of damp, Sec. 



The following is the principle upon which the invention is founded, and 

 the methods employed for carrying it into effect : The property which cer- 

 tain sorts of lime possess, of being hydraulic, or hardening under water, is 

 caused by a certain combination of the lime with silica, alumina, and some- 

 times also with oxide of manganese, and oxide of iron. The object then of 

 this invention, is to facilitate the combination of the lime with those oxides, 

 by means of agents not hitherto employed. Thus, in operating by the dry 

 method, as is generally the case, instead of calcining the lime-stone or lime 

 with sand and clay, the inventor, in order to facilitate the combination of 

 the silica and alumina with the lime, introduces a small quantity of potash 

 or soda, in the state of carbonate, sulphate, or chloride, or of any other salt 

 of these bases, susceptible of decomposition, or becoming a silicate, when 

 such calcination takes place. The salt of potash or soda, the quantity of 

 which varies from three to six per cent, to the quantity of lime, is employed 

 in the state of solution, so as to penetrate and mix better with the alkaline 

 salt in the chalk or slacked lime. Calcination effects the rest, in the ordi- 

 nary manner. 



In order to combine or incorporate more equally, by the dry method, the 

 alumina, and the oxides of manganese, and of iron, with the lime, the sul- 

 phates of these bases are first decomposed by the slacked lime, by making a 

 paste with a solution of the sulphates, mixed with the lime. This paste, 

 into which the sulphates in question enter, in the proportion of from six to 

 ten per cent, of the lime, is then calcined, in order to produce an hydraulic 

 lime. All sorts of lime are made hydraulic, by the humid method, by mixing 

 slacked lime with solutions of alum or sulphates of alumina; but the best 

 method consists in employing a solution of the silicates of potash, or of 

 soda, called liquor of flints or soluble glass. An hydraulic cement may also 

 be made, which will serve for the manufacture of architectural ornaments, by 

 making a paste of pulverized chalk, and a solution of the silicate of potash, 

 or of soda : in working with this plaster, it becomes much harder than or- 

 dinary plaster. 



These same silicates of potash or soda, dissolved in water, will also harden 

 chalk, or soft and porous stones, and transform them, artificially, into hard 

 stones. In order to do this, these soft stones, either rough, or cut into their 

 proper forms, must be soaked in a solution of the silicate, either warm or 

 cold, and allowed to remain there a longer or shorter time, according to the 

 degree of hardness which it maybe necessary to give them ; after which, 

 they must be taken out and left exposed to the air. At the end of a few 

 days, stones, tints prepared, will have acquired a hardness equal to that of 

 marble ; and this quality, in a little time, pervades the whole mass ; for if, 

 for the purpose of polishing, the outer coat or surface be removed, the inner 

 one, which at first is not so hard, will harden in its turn, by exposure to the 

 air. This takes place as far as the silicate has been able to penetrate. A 

 more superficial harduess is obtained, by applying the solution of the silicate 



