326 TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [ CHAP. 
The decay and waste between July, 1869, and April, 
1871, was very rapid, but the condition of the carbonised 
and non-carbonised specimens was much the same; it 
leaves, therefore, little to say in favour of the charring 
process, and I should not myself be inclined to use it on 
timber for works of construction, except as a possible 
means of preventing the generation of moisture or 
fungus where two unseasoned pieces of wood are placed 
in juxtaposition. 
An experiment in carbonising was tried on a piece of 
plank 5 feet in length, one-half the breadth being charred, 
the other not ; this was set in the ground under the drip 
of a roof. In another case a piece of plank was charred 
over half its length, the other not. Plates of iron were 
then secured to each end, and the whole immersed in 
water to ascertain whether the carbonising of the surface 
would prevent oxidation. When, however, each of these 
were examined, some six months later, it could not be 
seen on which side to give the preference. 
The wood backing to the armour plates on the star- 
board side of H.MLS. “ Caledonia” was charred by M. 
de Lapparent’s process, with the view to test its efficacy 
thoroughly, and when this ship comes under repair it 
will be ascertained by comparison with the other side 
how far it is useful in preventing decay. The Admiralty 
also ordered the faying surfaces of the frame timber and 
planking of the “ Tenedos” and “Spartan,” the former 
building at Devonport, and the latter at Deptford 
Dockyard in 1868, to be carbonised by this process, in 
the hope that it will retard the formation of fungus on 
the surfaces, on which it frequently forms with rapidity ;. 
but, as neither of these ships have yet been opened for 
repairs (1875), it is uncertain whether any good results 
have come of the experiment. 
