B06 On Preventing the Decay of Wood . 
market. In this case it was used hot, mixed with Spanish 
brown, and hardened by sand sifted over it with a sieve ; 
notwithstanding which it seems to have left the wood like 
the unmixed pitch, and, though frequently renewed, has 
not prevented the necessity of various repairs within 
these last five years. The original boards are now every 
where more or less in a state of decay. 
The bituminous substance melted by heat out of coal, 
and commonly called coal tar, has been strongly recom- 
mended for this purpose by that ingenious philosopher 
Lord Bundonald. I have tried it largely and unsuccess- 
fully, though perhaps not fairly ; for the workmen whom 
I employed, in order to make it work more easily, added 
to it oil of turpentine, which certainly diminished its du- 
inability by rendering it more miscible with water. I am 
however inclined to believe, that no substance of this kind, 
used by itself, will become sufficiently dry and hard to 
resist the influence of the weather. 
As animal oils are considerably cheaper than those 
expressed from vegetables, attempts have been made to 
communicate to them a drying quality. This has been 
effected by dissolving in them while hot various sub- 
stances capable of being melted, in such a portion that 
the whole mass would become dry and hard when cold. 
Bees’ wax, resin, and brimstone are found to have this 
property. Some of them, when united with drying oil, 
have long been employed for making boots and shoes 
water-proof, or impervious to moisture-.* But they will 
* For this purpose there is the following- receipt by Mr. Barker, in sir John 
Hawkins’s edition of that entertaining work, Isaac Walton’s Complete Angler : 
fourth edition, page 223. “ Take a pint of linseed oil, with half a pound of mut- 
ton suet, sixer eight ounces of bees’ wax, and half a pennyworth of resin. Boil 
all this in a pipkin together; so let it cool till it be milk-warm. Then take a 
little hair-brush, and lay it on your new boots; but it is best that this stuff be 
laid on before the boot-maker makes the boots ; then brush them once over with 
it after they come from him. As for old boots, you must lay it on when your 
boots be dry.” 
