4 
Indian Forest Records. 
[VOL. HI. 
Chapters II and III a more detailed description is given of each process, 
together with any available data of past records as to its value and a note 
on the suitability of the process in India. 
Cause of the Extension of the Antiseptic Treatment of Timber. 
The position of affairs in the Indian timber market is very similar to 
that in many other countries of the world. Owing to the ever increasing 
population and to the corresponding increase in trade and therefore to the 
greater demand for timber, both for private, industrial and railway 
purposes, the possible supply of suitable sleeper timbers has been 
seriously challenged, and the prices have steadily risen, until purchasers 
have been forced to consider possible substitutes or even to take to mate¬ 
rials other than timber to meet their requirements. Though this was the 
condition of affairs in many countries as long ago as the middle of the 
last century, the position has by no means improved ; in fact it has 
become more and more acute. 
To overcome the difficulties which might be caused by a possible 
timber famine, the idea has been to prolong the life of timber by treating 
it with some antiseptic solution and so to render it immune to the rav¬ 
ages of insects and fungi. With this object in view various antiseptic 
solutions have from time to time appeared on the market, and either the 
method of treatment or the solution used, or both, have been protected by 
the Patent Acts of various countries. 
Various Methods of Treating Timber. 
The various processes invented for the antiseptic treatment of timbers 
fall naturally under two main heads, (i) those in which an extensive plant 
is required to effect the hydrostatic or pneumatic injection of the solu¬ 
tion, and (ii) the open tank or immersion process. 
Into the first category came such well-known processes as Creosot- 
ing, Haskinizing or Vulcanizing, Burnettizing, Gardnerizing as also 
the Boucherie and Buping processes, or the more simple method of 
immersing the timber in an antiseptic solution either at a normal or a 
high temperature. Under the latter head the number of patent solu¬ 
tions which have from time to time been brought on the market and 
which are used in the open tank process, is very large. The first preser¬ 
vatives which appeared are probably Avenarius Garbolineum and Cor¬ 
rosive sublimate or the Kyanizing process ; among others may be men- 
(’ 77 ) 
