100 
tensely disagreeable to such life ; it thoroughly repels moisture, and its 
tar-acids possess the power of coagulating albuminous and other fer- 
mentable matter. When properly prepared for such use it has been 
found to be an excellent insecticide to be employed on trees and smaller 
plants, especially for the destruction of larvae attacking rose bushes, as 
also for destroying vermin on animals, in the cracks of floors, and in 
wooden buildings, and one of the best possible oils for preserving lum- 
ber and piling. 
Experience in England* and in the United States! is unanimous in 
agreeing that creosoting is the only reliable method, so far tried, for 
preserving timber when exposed to salt water (and the Teredo worm), 
or to alternations of wetting and drying by either fresh or salt water. 
This experience also shows that the preservation of the timber is due 
mainly to those creosote oils which require over 400° E. for their vol- 
atilization, and that the pure creosote (with less tar-acids and with less 
light-oils) gives the best results. 
TTood-creosote oil is much less expensive, and in many ways much 
more valuable, than the ordinary dead oil or coal-tar creosote oil here- 
tofore used for such purposes as the preservation of timber. Wood- 
creosote oil contains all the acids needed to properly coagulate the ah 
buinen and sap which may be left in the timber, and to thoroughly de- 
stroy and prevent all further animal and vegetable life : it is of such 
nature that it will penetrate the wood both deeply and thoroughly ; it 
contains a large proportion of insoluble matter, and especially of those 
oils which volatilize only under a heat of over'400° E. ; and being de- 
rived from wood, it is especially adapted to use with wood. 
In all these particulars, as well as in its less cost,t the resinous wood- 
creosote-oil is superior to the bituminous coal-tar creosote-oil (or dead 
oil), and, dollar for dollar, it will give far superior results in the preser- 
vation of timber from destruction and decay. 
Applied with an ordinary brush to wooden or metal surfaces of all 
kinds, two coats of this oil (with an interval of two months between the 
applications) will effectually preserve these surfaces frora^wet and dry- 
rot, from rust, and from the attacks of worms and insects. Forced into 
the wood by hydraulic pressure, this oil will fill all the pores of the wood 
and extend its coagulating and antiseptic effects entirely through the 
wood to its very center. The good results obtained by the use of this 
wood-creosote oil have been thoroughly tested by the experience of five 
years in Mr. Mark's ship-yard, at Charleston, S. C. and at Mr. W. H. 
Korthrop's bath-house, at Greenville Sound, near Wilmington, X. C, 
both places being such that untreated wood is badly damaged in a 
* See Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers for 1SS5. 
t See Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers for 1SS5. 
i It is to be regretted that the cost of treating wood with this wood-creosote oil has 
not been given, so as to admit of a comparison on a financial basis with the processes 
outlined by Colonel Flad. An effort to obtain the same has so far proved unsuccess- 
ful.— B. E. F. 
