Part IV.] R. S. Pearson: Antiseptic Treatment of Timber. 81 
circulated for remarks certain proposals for setting up installations for 
Haskinizing sleepers at a few centres. The replies of Railway officers 
varied considerably. While some welcomed the proposals, others 
anticipated that they would never lead to economy and therefore to 
success, and on the whole the general opinion was unfavourable to the 
introduction of Haskinizing installations in India. 
“ The Government of India’s enquiry in 1899 elicited the information 
that the Bombay, Baroda and Central India and the Burma Railways 
already had some experience with the Haskin process, the particulars 
■of which are given briefly below. 
“ The Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway reported that 
they had recently laid some 5,000 Haskinized sleepers on their road, 
■chiefly in the Bombay and Broach Divisions. The report on these 
sleepers was necessarily incomplete as they had only been laid 
a short time. It appeared, however, that after a period of about two 
years, the sleepers laid in the Broach Division were found to be much 
attacked by white-ants, and the opinion of the Engineers generally 
was that these Haskinized sleepers were inferior to creosoted ones. 
“ The Government of Burma reported in April 1901 that certain 
scantlings, vulcanized by the Haskin process, had been obtained and 
fixed on the ground at Rangoon for observation ; the results of the experi¬ 
ments were communicated in December 1901, and are shown in the state¬ 
ment attached as Appendix A. These results are not very conclusive, 
and nothing further seems to have been done with a view to enlarging 
the experiment. 
“ The question of the introduction of Haskinizing installations in 
India then appears to have been dropped.” 
2. Records of Experiments carried out in Pressure plants, 
subsequent to 1910. 
After the ‘laboratory and field experiments, carried out with various 
species of Indian timber treated in Open Tanks had proceeded up to a 
certain point, sufficient data were available and experience was gained 
to form a fair idea of the possibilities and limitations of this method of 
treating timber. It was found that though Indian Pines and certain 
softer timbers could be treated by a simple Open Tank process, the 
Dipterocarps and other harder species of timber, with possibly the excep¬ 
tion of Dipterocarpus pilosus , could probably be better dealt with under 
pressure. At that time no pressure plant was available in India with 
which to carry out such tests ; so, as a commencement, a batch of 
sleepers of Indian timbers were sent to England to be tested. Later, 
[ 2H ] 
H 
