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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[September, 



those examined, that the prevention of smoke could be accomplished in all 

 steam-vessels. 



The use of anthracite coal and of coke, as the means of preventing 

 smoke, were not overlooked by your committee ; but, being well known, 

 need not be repeated here. 



In reference to the last and most important point under the consideration 

 of your committee, how far it would be expedient to frame some legislative 

 enactment to lessen the nuisance from smoke, your committee, after a careful 

 survey of the evidence before them, seeing that the evils arising from smoke 

 are severely felt in all populous places, and are likely to increase in propor- 

 tion as wealth and the use of machinery cause a greater extension of furnaces 

 and steam-engines, come, without hesitation, to the conclusion, that such a 

 legislative enactment should be introduced without delay; and they trust 

 that the perusal of this evidence will ensure cordial aid and co-operation, on 

 the part of the proprietors of factories, in accomplishing an object so essen- 

 tial to the comfort and well-being of the surrounding country and popula- 

 tion; an expectation which your committee feel justified in entertaining, by 

 the knowledge of the laudable exertions which have lately been made, with 

 much success, by the manufacturers and inhabitants of Leeds and Bradford, 

 in Yorkshire, for the prevention of smoke in those districts. 



Your committee have received the most gratifying assurances of the con- 

 fident hope entertained by several of the highest scientific authorities ex- 

 amined by them, that the same black smoke proceeding from fires in private 

 dwellings', and all other places, may eventually be entirely prevented, either 

 by the adoption of stoves and grates formed for a perfect combustion of the 

 common bituminous coal, or by the use of coke or of anthracite ; but they 

 are of opinion, that the present state of knowledge on that subject is not 

 such as to justify any legislative interference with these smaller fires. 



In conclusion, therefore, your committee beg leave to recommend that a 

 bill should be brought into parliament at an early period of the next session, 

 to prohibit the production of smoke from furnaces and steam-engines. 



They indulge a hope that the matter will be thought of sufficient national 

 importance to induce the government to bring in a bill : but, in the event of 

 their not doing so early next session, your committee recommend that 

 the chairman of this committee should frame such a measure, as being the 

 necessary result of the complete and strong conviction to which they have 

 come by the prosecution of the inquiry. 



1 7th August, 1813. 



KYANIZING OF TIMBER. 



Sir, — A letter having appeared in your Journal for August, from 

 Mr. Taswell Thompson, Secretary to the Anti-Dry-rot (Kyan's) Com- 

 pany, commenting oh my report am! letter on the preservation of timber 

 from decay, I trust you will allow me a comer in your valuable Journal in 

 answer thereto. 



Mr. Thompson says that I have made statements most injurious to the 

 interests of the Kyanizing Company. 



As secretary to that company, he is no doubt most anxious about its 

 interests ; but I have no interest whatsoever in any process or patent, and 

 have only been anxious to find out the best mode of preserving limber from 

 decav, and the attacks of worm. 



Mr. Thompson states that both my report and letter are very inaccurate. 

 Now, Sir, this charge of "inaccuracy" refers chiefly to my statements re- 

 specting the decay of sleepers at the West India Dock warehouses, and the 

 wooden tanks in the Kyan Company's yard. 



To justify the truth of my statements, I think you will agree with me, 

 that it is only necessary to refer to the published minutes of the discussion 

 at the Institution of Civil Engineers for session, 18-12, in which the follow- 

 ing appears : — 



" Mr. Samuel Seaward said he believed the present method of Kyanizing 

 to be very imperfect, and alluded to a number of sleepers so prepared for 

 the West India Dock warehouses having recently been discovered to decay. 



" Mr. Martin (Engineer to the East and West India Docks) confirmed this 

 account of the decay of sleepers, fifty out of seventy were destroyed. They 

 had been prepared by simple immersion, and had been down about five 

 years, lie bail understood that some of the wooden tanks in which the 

 solution was kept at the Anti-Dry-rot Company's yard were decayed. 



" Mr. Hull bad prepared considerable quantities of boards for the Calder 

 and Hebble navigation, by immersing them in the solution for two or three 

 days which wes about double the period allowed by the patentee. He had 

 some specimens of boards, and in almost all of them there was an appearance 

 of del aj in various stages. An oak board one inch thick, Kyanized in 1839, 

 had lain ever since upon the damp ground, exposed to the air ; the sap part 

 was entirely decayed, but the heart remained sound; fungus was, however, 

 growing upon it." Poplar boards, Kyanized in 1838, 39, and -40, were all 

 partially decayed. In preparing the timbers, he had always followed t lie 

 instructions of the patentee, and had tested the strength of the solution 

 with the hydrometer, but bad mixed up fresh solution even more frequently 

 than was supposed to be required. On dismantling one of the tanks for 

 holding the solution, be found the iron work partially destroyed, and entirely 

 covered with globules of mercury." 



It appears that Mr. Thompson did himself take part in this discussion. Why 



did he not then contradict the statements, if untrue ? or after these minutes 

 had been printed and published in almost every journal in London, why did 

 he not explain them away at the time, instead of reserving his explanations 

 and answer for many months ? And even to this moment, in the absence of 

 such explanation, I was, and am now, of course, bound to believe the state- 

 ments of Mr. Seaward, Mr. Martin, &c. But you will observe, Sir, that he 

 does not, even now, deny the fact of the sleepers and tank having decayed; 

 he only says the sleepers were not in the West India Dock warehouses, but 

 were laid down in Kyan's own yard. In my opinion, this explanation makes 

 the matter worse, because, if the Kyan company's process will not preserve 

 the timber laid down in their own yard, how can they expect that the public 

 will believe that it will preserve timber elsewhere. 



Mr. Thompson must be well aware that 1 could have cited many other in- 

 stances of its failure; what says that eminent civil engineer, Robert Ste- 

 phenson, Esq., in his report respecting the sleepers of the London and Bir- 

 mingham Railway ? " They were all Kyanized, but the result has been un- 

 favourable and unsatisfactory, for after laying three years, great numbers 

 discovered symptoms of decay, indeed many have been removed absolutely 

 rotten, and he had abandoned the Kyan's process, and adopted Mr. Bethell's 

 oil of tar. 



Why has I. K. Brunei, Esq., C.E. (under whose directions such immense 

 quantities of timber were Kyanized) abandoned it and adopted the oil of 

 tar ? Will Mr. Thompson inform us what has become of his Kyanizing tanks 

 at Bristol, and how many loads of timber were Kyanized at Hastings during 

 the last two years; and also at Shoreham ? and why were the tanks at the 

 latter place offered at 10s. per load to be converted into oil of tar tanks. 



What savs Mr. Thompson to the experiments in the mushroom-house at 

 Welbeck, where good Baltic timber lasted longer than the best Kyanized 

 oak ? and will he tell me how many hundreds of Kyanized sleepers on the 

 London and Brighton Railway have decayed ? 



On the 31st of last month I visited the model-rooms (or museum) of the 

 Admiralty at Somerset House, and examined pieces of Kyanized oak and fir 

 now there, which were placed in the sea at Sheerness, and are perfectly 

 honey-combed and destroyed by the worm. 



Dr. Moore proved the same thing at Plymouth : and amongst the Trans- 

 actions of Civil Engineers, is a report from a gentleman at Dover, proving 

 that Kyanized timber shared the same fate there, and that the worms eat it 

 quite as much as they did the unprepared timber. I could bring a host of 

 other proofs if requisite. But I think 1 have said enough to dispose of Mr. 

 Secretary's first and second heads. 



As to the third head — that of the Kyanized timber at Shoreham Harbour 

 — I here most respectfully beg to deny, most positively, that there was a 

 Report and Survey by the Commissioners of Shoreham Harbour; and I say 

 positively, that every piece of Kyanized timber in the piers at Shoreham 

 Harbour — that is, placed at any time during the last five years under high 

 water mark, and exposed to the action of tidal water — is gone through 

 several stages of decay, and affected by the worm ; and that the oak timber 

 Kyanized is in a worse condition than the unprepared timber. 



I have, in my possession, certificates from eminent professors, civil engi- 

 neers, &c, and from the largest timber merchant and also builder in tiie 

 port of Shoreham ; also from all the carpenters, &c, workmen of Shoreham 

 Harbour, substantiating the above, which I am ready to publish at any time. 



As to Mr. Thompson's fourth head, if he had read my letter on Kyanizing 

 carefully, he would have seen that I grounded my opinion as to the injurious 

 efffct of the vapour of mercury, on the opinions given to the Admiraltv by 

 Sir Humphrey Davy. 



In conclusion, allow me to state that my opposition to corrosive sublimate 

 arises alone, which I have publicly announced) from a conviction that in 

 hydraulic works (and it was such works that my letter and report treated 

 upon) it is as useless as soft soap, as it does not prevent decay when exposed 

 to sea water, as hydraulic works generally are. 



The importance of the subject of preserving timber, I hope will be a suf- 

 ficient excuse for the space I have occupied in your Journal. 

 I am, Sir, 

 Y'our obedient servant, 



William B. Pbichard. 



Health of Liverpool. — On the occasion of Dr. Lyon Playfair pro- 

 ceeding to Liverpool to examine into the causes of the great nnhealthiness 

 of that northern metropolis, Mr. Henry Laxton, has addressed to him 

 a short pamphlet, in which he ably lays bare the prominent causes of the 

 evil, and suggests the requisite improvements. He attributes the unfavour- 

 able state of Liverpool, as regards health, principally to the following causes : 

 open cesspools; proximity of buildings; inefficient drainage; smoke from 

 factories and steam vessels; cellar occupation, and dirty state of buildings; 

 open spaces, where water and refuse are allowed to collect and decompose ; 

 inefficient supply of water, and deficiency of pleasure grounds for the school 

 children. 



