Correspondence on the Preservation of Timber. 175 



tudes of the seasons ; and being alternately wet and dry, every twenty-four 

 hours. 



" The fact of the mineral water being a preservative of timber has been long 

 known to many persons in this neighbourhood, though I never knew of any 

 advantage being taken of it, farther than what chance threw in the way. My 

 attention was more particularly attracted to it by the following circumstance: — 

 A brig, called the Amlwch, more than thirty years old, to which I am ship- 

 husband, required considerable repairs about three years ago ; amongst other 

 things, she wanted a keel and some floorings. Her ceilings were in consequence 

 stripped, and, to my great astonishment, the floorings and the timbers in her 

 bottom, wherever mineral water had reached, were found as perfect as the first 

 day they were put in. This vessel had always been a regular trader out of 

 Amlwch port to Liverpool, and loaded with copper ore ; and formerly, when 

 the ore was kept in uncovered bins, it often contained a considerable quantity 

 of wet, which, when shipped, passed through the ceilings, and being worked 

 backwards and forwards by the motion of the vessel at sea, it effectually washed 

 the timber below. In some instances pieces were found which had been par- 

 tially acted upon by the mineral water ; the part washed being perfectly sound, 

 and that beyond its reach quite decayed. 



" Since then we have opened three other vessels, that had been employed in 

 the same trade for above twenty-five years; and the result has been, in every 

 instance, the same. This led me to take every opportunity of examining the 

 effects of the mineral water upon wood in general, and I have found its effects 

 the same upon every species of timber : it makes it harder, more elastic, and 

 so durable, that it might be said, with propriety, that it renders it imperish- 

 able ; and, what is very extraordinary, it makes the outer part, or sap-wood, 

 which otherwise so soon decays, as lasting as the inner part, or heart-wood : 

 for instance, the land-ties in Amlwch port, which are pieces of oak timber 

 roughly squared, to support the quay, have been fixed there for nearly sixty 

 years, and yet they do not exhibit the least symptom of decay. 



" The specific gravity of mineral water being less than that of sea water, it 

 floats upon the surface of the docks, and acts as effectually upon the land-ties 

 through the gradual rise and fall of the tides, as if they had been immersed in 

 mineral water alone. I could mention innumerable other instances, if it were 

 necessary, to illustrate the preservative quality which the mineral water pos- 

 sesses, but I fear I have already trespassed too much on your time, 



" I understand that government is now making different experiments for dis- 

 covering some preservative from the dry rot, which has, of late years in par- 

 ticular, been so destructive to ships of the navy ; and that sanguine hopes are 

 entertained that the application of sea water to timber will answer that pur- 

 pose. Perhaps the marine acid which sea water contains may have a similar 

 effect, in the same proportion it bears to the quantity of vitriolic acid with which 

 our mineral waters are so strongly impregnated. Jos. Jones." 



The above letter, with the pieces of timber to which it alludes, were taken 

 by Mr. Sanderson to the Admiralty Office, and delivered to Mr. Croker ; 

 when it was understood that enquiry would be made into the fact of the state- 

 ment. For more than two years there was nothing heard about it, when a 

 pamphlet, " by a Lieutenant in the Navy," On the Preservation of Timber from 

 Dry Ret, made its appearance, recommending the mineral waters of Parys 

 Mountains for the purpose, in words so much like the letter which had been 

 delivered at the Admiralty, that it naturally led to a suspicion that the author 

 had, by some means, seen or heard of it, which induced Mr. Sanderson to 

 write a letter to the Admiralty, to which he received the following answer 

 from Mr. Barrow : — 



" Sir, — Having laid before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty your 

 letter of the 20th instant, on the subject of a work lately published by " an 

 Officer of the Royal Navy," On the Preservation of Ship Timber, which you 

 have understood to contain some information drawn from a communication 



