Experiments Nos. 5 and 8 were tried with sulphate of iron, sometimes
known as payenizing, and the particulars of the former have been
furnished by Mr. I. Hinckley, President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington,
and Baltimore Railroad, to whom your committee is much indebted for a
large mass of information on the subject of timber preservation.
Mr. Hinckley has had longer and more varied experience on this subject
than any other person in this country. Beginning with sulphate of copper
in 1846, following with chloride of mercury in 1847, and chloride of
zinc in 1852, going back to chloride of mercury, and again to chloride
of zinc, using the latter until 1865, then using creosote to protect the
piles against the _teredo_ at Taunton Great River (experiment No. 2.
creosoting), he has had millions of feet of timber and lumber prepared
by the various processes, and has kindly placed at our disposal many
original reports in manuscript and pamphlets which are now very rare.
Experiment No. 6 was made by Mr. Ashbel Welch, former President of this
Society, and consisted in boring hemlock track sills 6 x 12 with a 1-1/8
inch auger-hole 10 inches deep every 15 inches. These were filled with
common salt and plugged up, as is not infrequently done in
ship-building, but while the life of the timber was somewhat lengthened,
it was concluded that the process did not pay.
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