Proceedings of the Polytechnic Association. 783 



Mr. T. W. Heineman described his process. The wood is placed 

 in a tank at a pressure of 150 pounds ; resin is put in in a solid state ; 

 water is then introduced, and when the temperature reaches 212 

 , degrees, the water is converted into steam, which softens the wood 

 and opens the pores. When the heat reaches 275 degrees, the resin 

 gradually melts and falls to the bottom. The pressure is then kept 

 at 1-15 pounds. A piece of wood twenty-four feet long, requires 

 some sixty hours to become thoroughly impregnated. The price of 

 the resin is about one cent a pound. 



Mr. Dudley Blanchard said that some twenty-five years ago, he 

 saw some wood boiled in rosin for pump-tubes, and they were very 

 durable. 



William Swinton, Esq., author of " The Army of the Potomac," 

 and other works, read the following interesting paper on 



Earthquakes. 



The late earthquake which shook the western coast of South Ame- 

 rica, lacks no incident of calamity or touch of the terrible to render 

 complete the afflictive picture of utter horror and elemental wreck. 



!Nope of the more direful manifestations of nature's energies ; tem- 

 pest, whirl svind, thunder or flood, is so calculated to affright the 

 imagination as are these throes of the planet upon which we live; 

 and perhaps there is for this (apart from the appalling results that 

 ofttimes attend these phenomena), a reason in the very nature of the 

 human mind. It has often been noted that the unexpected is a main 

 element in the horrible. Now, there is no conviction more deep- 

 seated than that, instinctively entertained by mankind, of the firm- 

 based, solid structure of the earth. When, therefore, it comes to pass 

 that its stout-ribbed immobile fabric is seen to quake and shiver, and 

 the surface on which we mortals so securely tread, treacherously to 

 yield like the unstable sea, the sudden shock given to our firm faith 

 cannot but confound the reason and awaken a deep dismay. Even 

 when the tremor is harmless it is alarming, but the dread is immeasura- 

 bly increased when there occurs one of the greater convulsive travail- 

 ings of nature, such as that which last month overwhelmed the sea- 

 side cities of Peru, Ecuador and Chili. 



It is a tragic tale, commingled of all hoiTors, that comes up to us 

 from that unhappy land. We hear of scores of cities overturned, 

 burying tens of thousands of the inhabitants beneath tlieir ruins, and 

 then deluged by the swollen and angry sea ; we are told of the 



