The Robbins Process for Rendering Wood Imperishable; An Preventing Both Swelling and Shrinking. an Invaluable Improvement, Susceptible of Universal Application - Tapa blanda

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This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1868. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION AT PARIS. The railroad sleepers on exhibition at Paris illustrate the vast importance of the products of coal tar as a means of preserving wood from decay. Imperfect as the European methods of treating wood obviously are, they have proved sufficient to preserve it unimpaired for a quarter of a century. But it is now conceded that the American patent granted to Louis A. Robbins covers the most simple and effectual process for the elimination of the antiseptic elements from the tar, and their application to the wood in the same process. It is further to be observed that the apparatus employed by the National Patent Wood Preserving Company of the United States can be constructed for one-fifth the cost of the machinery required under Sir. Bethell's English patent. Nor is this all: the American method is tenfold more rapid and complete. In the French section of the exhibition are shown railway sleepers which have been in use for several years. One of these sleepers, which was put down in March, 1859, and taken up in February, 1867, appeared as sound as when first cut. In the English collection is a sleeper from the Great Western Railway, which had been down for twenty-one years ; one from the Lancashire and Yorkshire line, which had been down for nineteen years ; and one from the London and North-western Railway, which had been in use for twenty years. These sleepers had been prepared by Mr. J. Bethell's process; they are all perfectly sound, showing that the preservative liquid had penetrated perfectly through each sleeper. Samples of timber are also shown which have been prepared with creosote, used in the construction of the chain pier at Edinburgh, and were perfectly sound, while timber which had not been so prepared was redu...