CHEMISTRY IN THE TELEPHONE INDUSTRY 617 



distribution of creosote, not only in new poles, but also in those that 

 have been in service for varying periods of years. In order to deter- 

 mine how much creosote is present and also its present wood-preserva- 

 tive value, we have adopted a biological method of testing the toxicity 

 to pure fungus cultures of creosote extracts from such old wood. An 

 interesting story could be written about the specific resistance of 

 various species of wood-destroying fungi to the numerous toxic agents 

 that have been used and proposed. 



In passing upon the merits of a new preservative it is difficult to pre- 

 dict its permanence in the wood when exposed to the weather. A prom- 

 ising method, though one which does not offer the ultimate in economy 

 of time, is the use of small twigs or saplings which are impregnated with 

 the preservative in question and exposed in groups to the action of the 

 weather in a fast rotting climate. 



In this test we are depending for acceleration entirely upon the re- 

 duction of the dimensions of the wood, while preserving at least the 

 more salient features of wood structure by using natural twigs or stems 

 rather than artificially shaped pieces. In applying this principle of 

 reduction of dimensions for purposes of acceleration, we took a leaf 

 from our book of experiments on submarine insulation in which we had 

 found a strong case of parallelism between the absorption of water by 

 rubber and the saturation of a material by heat as epitomized in Pick's 

 law. The time required to reach a given degree of saturation is approx- 

 imately inversely proportional to the square of the thickness of the 

 specimen. The depletion of creosote from wood appears to be an in- 

 verse process, with of course some complications. Reasoning by anal- 

 ogy we hope by the use of small stems to shorten the time required for 

 depletion of creosote and other preservatives and the beginning of rot 

 in wood by ten to thirty years — a great economy in patience. 



Electrochemical Investigations 



Another large field of chemical investigation comes under the general 

 head of electrochemistry, which for convenience includes corrosion, 

 corrosion prevention, and finishes of both metallic and organic (paints, 

 etc.) types. This work as well as the analytical laboratories, is under 

 the supervision of R. M. Burns. 



Among the electroplating developments has been the successful de- 

 position of permalloy from a bath containing iron and nickel salts. The 

 composition of the alloy containing 79 per cent nickel and 21 per cent 

 iron can be maintained constant to less than 0.5 per cent. It is of 

 interest to find that the alloy is deposited from the bath as a solid solu- 

 tion and that it has desirable magnetic properties. 



