INDIAN FOREST RECORD. 
Vol. III.] 
1912. 
[Part II. 
Note on the Antiseptic Treatment of Timber in India, with 
special reference to Railway Sleepers. 
By R. S. PEARSON, F.L.S., etc. 
Imperial Forest Service. 
Economist at the Forest Research Institute, Behra Bun, India. 
Chapter I. 
Preliminary Note on the Antiseptic Treatment 
of Timber. 
(i) THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE ANTISEPTIC 
TREATMENT OF TIMBER IN INDIA. 
Past History in India. 
A S long ago as 1854 it was considered necessary to discover a process 
-tA. by which the inferior species of timber, procurable from the forests 
of India, could be treated with a view to prolonging their life. To attain 
this object the East Indian Railway about that time erected a Creosoting 
plant at Bally near Howrah, which, however, appears not to have re¬ 
mained long in existence. 
From that time onwards much attention has been paid to the subject, 
notably by the erection at various times and in different parts of the 
country o£ such plants embodying the Burnettizing, Haskinizing ; 
Creosoting, and Powellizing processes, as also by the Boucherie system. 
In 1878, the Government of India deputed Dr. Warth, an official 
who had given much time to the study of this subject, to make a detailed 
enquiry into the possibility of treating the conifer woods of the 
Himalayas so as to render them suitable for sleepers. The result of this 
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