Salt has been experimented with numberless times. It is cheap, but is a
comparatively weak antiseptic, its atomic weight being 58.8 in the
hydrogen scale, as against 135.5 for chloride of mercury.
Experiment No. 9 is included in order to notice the well-known and most
ancient process of charring the outside of timber. In this particular
case, the fence posts after charring were dipped for about three feet
into a hot mixture of raw linseed oil and pulverized charcoal, which
probably acted by closing the sap cells against the intrusion of
moisture, which, as is well known, much hastens decay. The posts, which
had been set butt-end upward, were mostly sound in 1879, after 24 years'
exposure.
Experiments Nos. 41, 42, 43, and 44 did not, however, result as well,
and numberless failures throughout the country attest that charring is
uncertain and disappointing in its results.
Much ingenuity has been wasted in devising and patenting machinery for
charring wood on a large scale to preserve it against decay. The
process, however, is so tedious in comparison with the benefits which it
confers, and the charred surface is so objectionable for many uses, that
nothing is to be expected from the process upon a large commercial
scale.
In 1857-58 Mr. H.K. Nichols tried sundry experiments (No.
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