163 



CHAPTER X 



CHEMICAL INVESTIGATIONS 



By W. 1). Ramac-.e and J. S. Burd 



The work of the Chemical Sub-Committee and the Committee cliemist has been 

 confined, except for certain minor diversions, to the problems connected with the 

 preservation of wood from marine borers. No attempt has been made to attack 

 problems raised by the disintegration of concrete in sea water, the corrosion of re- 

 inforcing steel or various other chemical problems encountered in the general study. 

 Within the field indicated, only those preservatives or preservative methods have 

 been considered which involve penetration of the preservative into the wood. This 

 has naturally resulted in centering much of tlie work upon coal tar creosote. The 

 principal preservatives studied have been coal tar creosote and possible inorganic 

 inhibitants. Furthermore, since experience has shown that properly creosoted piling 

 is very resistant to borer attack, no treatments ha\e been studied which might be 

 expected to cost much more than a good creosote treatment. Outside the field indi- 

 cated, some work was done in studying the effects of chlorine on marine borers. 



The Committee chemist also spent some time cooperating with its l)iologists in a 

 study of certain physicochemical factors in San Francisco Bay ha\ing a possible 

 bearing on the distribution and spread of marine borers. The results of this work are 

 presented in the Biological Section. 



Free use was made throughout the chemical work of the literature of the subject 

 (now listed in the bibliography on marine borers compiled by Dr. A. L. Barrows of the 

 National Research Council).' It is believed that those familiar with the field will 

 recognize readily how many of our data are new and how many only confirm the 

 previous findings of others, e\en though the confusion due to the large amount of 

 overlapping publications in this field ma\' ha\'e led to obscuring or omission of credit. 

 Particular reference should l)e made to the numerous studies of E. Bateman, of the 

 U. S. Forest Products Lalioratory, and of L. F. Shackell with the U. S. Bureau of 

 Fisheries, especially on the subject of toxicity (Proc. Amer. Wood Pres. Assn., 1915, 

 2M). The chemical in^•estigati^•e work of this Committee was concluded liefore the 

 publication of the work of an>' other of the organized attacks upon similar prolilems 

 pursued within the same period, and most unfortunately long before the present 

 pulilication. 



CREOSOTE STUDY 



Observations of Test Pieces Treated With 

 Various Creosote Fractions 



The test timbers used in these experiments were 2"x4"x48". Half of them were 

 Douglas fir and the remainder were redwood, as indicated in table 16. As far as 

 possible they were of sapwood and free from large knots and defects. These species 

 are both more or less refractory- to impregnation. All the test pieces were treated to 

 refusal, by the standard \'acuum-pressure method for impregnating marine piling 

 with creosote. 



'Marine Structures: Their Deterioration and Preservation. Report of Committee on Marine 

 Piling Investigations, National Research Council, 1924. 



