- 333 ~ 



C. N. FORREST. Preservatives for wood paving blocks. 



Engin. Rec., 61, 1910, No. 16, pp. 531-532. 



The author presents data to show that tar is a better water- 

 proofing agent than creosote, and will remain in the blocks for a 

 long period of time. 



Tar is also being adopted in lieu of creosote oil for wood paving 

 blocks because it is a cheaper preservative. 



Euphorbia latex for preventing corrosion. Agricultural News- 

 paper ^ Vol. IX, No. 203, Febr. 5th, 1910. 



The latex of Euphorbia can be used for preserving iron and wood. 



Applied as a varnish it is a good protection against rust. Pieces 

 of wood steeped in latex and left in a termite's nest were not at- 

 tacked at all, and even the Teredo navalis does not touch piles 

 and timbers thus treated. 



Acetone, a product of Wood-distillation : increasing demand 

 in Great Britain. Monthly Consular and Trade Reports > 

 Washington, February 1909, n. 341, p. 151. 



U. S. Consul Maxwell Blake, of Dunfermline, writes that ap- 

 proximately i 500 tons of acetone, valued at about half a million 

 dollars (francs 2 590 ooo), are annually consumed in Great Britain, 

 practically all of which is imported from the United States. 



There seems to be but one company manufacturing this article 

 in Great Britain. By far the larger percentage of this import is 

 utilized as the solvent ingredient of smokeless powder, gun cotton, 

 and mine explosives; but it is also employed in the making of 

 chloroform, for the preparation of photographic sensitive plates, and 

 as a valuable constituent of certain dyes. 



Up to the present time all efforts on the part of the British 

 Government, as well as of various private chemical concerns in 

 Great Britain, have utterly failed to provide acetone in quantities 

 sufficient to supply the commercial demand for it. It is now stated, 

 however, that a simplified method of wood distillation lately disco- 

 vered and put in practice by a certain French chemist, has gone 

 far toward successfully cheapening its production, it being now suc- 

 cessfully manufactured as a by-product of charcoal. In consequence 



