It is obvious that if this process does preserve timber from rot and decay or from the ravages of the ship-worm, it is of almost incalculable advantage to the Navy, as the lifetime of ships with unpreserved timber is of very short duration and the necessary expenses in removing the decayed timber in repairing the vessels is in a very considerable degree equal to the expense of reparation with new timber. The results of the process during the time it has been tested by the Navy Department appear to have been encouraging. And those results of the process, having been examined into by two several boards of Naval constructors appointed for that purpose since the contract, have been reported satisfactory. Those reports I also transmit herewith for the information of Congress. By an equitable construction of the contract, the necessary machinery which was put into the navy-yard at Boston for carrying on the process by the company was to be purchased by the department after the continuance of the experiment for a certain time, and that purchase has been recommended by the last board that examined into the matter; and under the orders of the department an appraisal of the fair value of the works has been made. The continuation of the preservation process has also been recommended by the present Chief of the Bureau of Construction of this department, as is shown by his letter, also herewith transmitted. If the preservation process does what it is claimed it will do, and during the time it has been subjected to experiment by the department there is no evidence that it does not do so, but, on the contrary, strong confirmatory evidence that the process is such preservation, in view of the great benefits to be obtained from it, it would seem desirable to continue the preservation of wood at any reasonable expense. Therefore, it seems to be proper that the necessary outlay for this purpose should be provided by Congress. I submit, therefore, to your consideration and judgment whether you will present this matter to Congress for its investigation and action. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, The PRESIDENT. No. 1.-REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR, CHIEF CONSTRUCTOR T. D. WILSON, NAVY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR, SIR: In reply to your letter of the 4th instant, relative to the claim of the American Wood Preserving Company, at the Boston navy-nard, together with the report upon the subject made by Commodore Sicard, U. S. N. Í have the honor to report that I have carefully read all the papers in connection with this claim, and, having in view the great necessity for having all the timber materials used in the construction or repair of our vessels of war put through a process that will insure greater durability, and believing that this process will effect the desired result, I have to recommend the purchase of the works at the price recommended in the report of the board under date of December 3, 1850, viz, $38,891.95. All the documents transmitted with your letter are herewith respectfully returned. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. W. H. HUNT, T. D. WILSON, Chief of Bureau. Secretary of the Navy. No. 2.-REPORT OF BOARD-NAVAL CONSTRUCTOR S. H. POOK AND OTHERS. Report of board to J. W. Easby, Chief of Bureau of Construction and Repair, recommending the purchase of American Wood Preserving Company's works for $38,891.95 and continuance of the process. Board.-Samuel H. Pook, naval constructor, U. S. N.; T. D. Wilson, naval constructor, U. S. N.; J. H. Kidder, surgeon, U. S. N.; Philip Hichborn, naval constructor, U. S. N.; Frank L, Fernald, naval constructor, U. S. N.; George R. Boush, naval constructor, U. S. N. UNITED STATES NAVY-YARD, BOSTON, Commandant's Office, November 29, 1880. GENTLEMEN: By order of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, you are hereby appointed a board, to meet on the 30th instant, for the purpose of examining the American wood-preserving apparatus, in this yard, and to report, in duplicate, its present value and original cost. You will also examine the process of impregnation and the timber impregnated, and report its condition as to strength and durability, and state whether in your judgment it would be to the interest of the government to purchase the works and continue this process of preserving timber. A copy of the contract for preserving timber, dated February 8, 1877, is herewith inclosed for your information. Very respectfully, GEO. M. RANSOM, Commandant. UNITED STATES NAVY-YARD, BOSTON, SIR: In obedience to the order of Commodore Geo. M. Ransom, U. S. N., of November 29, herewith appended, we convened as a board at the navy-yard, Boston, for the purpose of examining the American wood-preserving apparatus, and to report its present value and original cost; also to examine this process of impregnation, and the timber already impregnated, and report its condition as to strength and durability, and to state whether in our judgment it would be for the interest of the government to purchase the works and continue this process of preserving timber. In answer to the above, we have the honor to state that from numerous comparative tests made by the board on the strength of timber, no essential difference has been found between that impregnated and that unimpregnated. A sufficient time has not elaspsed to make an accurate statement of the durability of this timber. This in our opinion can be best ascertained upon the examination of the condition of the ships which this treated timber has been applied, when they shall have made one or more cruises. In order to obtain the original cost of these works, we called on Mr. James H. Young, the agent of the company, who furnished us the information required, with the origina! bills showing the actual cost of the works. A list of the same is appended to this report. It will appear from these statements and bills that the total cost of the works amounts to $38,891.95. From a personal inspection of the works, we would report that its present value would not reduce the above amount more than two per cent. of the original cost. With the information furnished the board by the answer to the question given to Surgeon Kidder, herewith appended, and the condition of the wood used in shipbuilding, the fastenings in the bottom being of copper, we are of the opinion that no bad effects to the fastenings would come where the sea-water or saline salt would injure them. Having in view the necessity of a preserving process for wood in all government work, until a better method has been discovered, we would recommend the continu ance of this process, and the purchase of these works, in order that the government may have the full control of them. 1st. Does the specimens submitted to you appear to be thoroughly impregnated? 2d. Are you of the opinion that it contains any substance which would be liable to injure any iron fastenings if used in the construction of vessels? 3d. What is your opinion as to the relative value, as a material to be used in the construction of ships, in this process, of the sulphate of copper and the sulphate of zinc ? 1st. Two specimens were submitted to me December 2 for examination, being transverse sections of timber, which had been subjected to the Thilmany process for preserving timber from dry rot, under the supervision of the board. The sections were sawed from about the middle of the timbers, one of which was yellow pine, the other white oak. The specimens would be thoroughly impregnated, as I understand the claim of the patentees, if both sulphate of barium and chloride of copper, the salts resulting from the process, should be found to be present in the most interior parts of the timber operated upon. Through the courtesy of Professor Ordway, of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech nology, I have been enabled to make to-day a preliminary examination of a fragment of wood taken from the center of each specimen, with the following results: A. The specimen of yellow pine contains copper, probably as sulphate, in sufficient quantity to give a decided reaction. B. The specimen of white oak also contains copper, but in quantity so minute as to give a barely perceptible reaction. Neither specimen contains any trace of barium, either by actual analysis in the wetway, by blow-pipe analysis, or by microscopic examination. A microscopic specimencut one and a quarter inches from the center of the white-oak log, is presented herewith. The test was as severe as could well be made, the specimens having been taken from those parts of the logs most distant from the exterior, and so far as the copper salt is concerned was successful; the barium salt, however, did not penetrate to the interior of the log. 2d. Chloride of copper, which is found at the same time and place as barium sulphate, is likely, in my opinion, to be injurious to any iron with which it may come in contact, if moistened with an acid liquid, or with one containing salts in solution, such as sea-water. The effect of such contact will be deposition of metallic copper upon the iron, and a loss of a proportionate quantity of iron, which will enter into a combination with the chlorine of the copper salt. Šlow corrosion will result in the same manner as corrosion of the iron plates would follow an attempt to sheath iron vessels with copper. 3d. It is my opinion that the sulphate of zinc offers some advantages over sulphate of copper, in such a process as that under consideration. A. Sulphate of zinc will produce precisely the same amount of barium sulphate as sulphate of copper. B. It is less expensive, C. It is not, so far as I know, likely to injure iron. D. The cost of plant would be reduced in so far that the very costly copper cylinder now rendered necessary by the corrosive action of copper salts upon iron might be replaced by an iron cylinder. 4th. The experiments upon which my answer to the first question is based have been necessarily only in the nature of a preliminary and qualitative examination, applied only to the central parts of the wood. Specimens have, therefore, been reserved with a view to an exact and extended analysis of all parts of the specimens, should the matter prove to be of sufficient importance to demand it, favored by the better opportunity of the laboratory attached to the Surgeon-General's Office at Washington. Respectfully submitted. BOSTON, MASS., December 3, 1880. J. H. KIDDER, Surgeon, U. S. N., and Member of the Board. No. 3.-REPORT OF JAMES F. BABCOCK. Report on American Wood Preserving Company's process, commencing January 25, and continuing until February 19, 1881, of James F. Babcock, analytical and consulting chemist, State assayer, late professor of chemistry, Boston University and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. Established 1863. James F. Babcock, analytical and consulting chemist, State assayer and inspector of liquors; late professor of chemistry in Boston University and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, 4 State street. ] BOSTON, February 22, 1881. GENTLEMEN: I have made a series of experiments and tests upon numerous samples of wood of different kinds, preserved by your process, at the company's works at the Charlestown navy-yard, commencing January 25, and continuing with some intermissions until February 19, and the results and conclusions at which I have arrived are embodied in the following report: I find that the process is adapted to the preservation of wood from rot and decay, in consequence of its impregnation with solution of sulphate of copper, followed by impregnation with chloride of barium in solution, the mutual action of these salts producing the chloride of copper and the sulphate of barium (an insoluble substance) in the pores of the wood. I have obtained most satisfactory tests of the presence both of copper and barium at the heart of the wood, both in the cases of yellow pine and oak, and I herewith submit several phials containing copper in the metallic state, and barium as sulphate obtained from the heart of the sticks of timber which are referred to in this report, and the central portions of which are marked with my initials and placed in possession of Mr. J. H. Young. The specimens of copper and barium were extracted from the central portion (lengthwise) of the heart of an oak stick 52 feet 17 inches by 17 inches, and from a pine stick 19 feet by 16 inches by 15 inches. The analysis of the pine stick was made from a section of the stick 6 inches by 8 inches. From each and every one of the sections of these sticks marked by me, and accompanying this report, I have no doubt that barium and copper will be found, as I have been able to find it in the central portion of the logs from which these exhibits were taken. These tests and specimens show conclusively that by this process both barium and copper find their way to the central portions of timber, submitted to their action, and that the theoretical objection to this process, based upon the alleged formation of a wall of insoluble and impermeable sulphate of barium has no foundation whatever in the actual practice and carrying out of the process. The merits of a solution of copper as a preservative of wood have been long known, and need no citation of authorities. I may, however, allude to a report of the jury of the French Exposition of 1855, extremely favorable to the use of copper, and to the fact that, in 1868, Boucherie, jr., exhibited to the French Academy specimens of wood, in sound condition,'which had been preserved by his father's process and exposed since 1847. (See the Comptes Rendus, vol. lxvii, p. 713.) My attention has also been called to a railway tie now at the office of the company, said to have been taken from the Euclid avenue crossing of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railway, laid in March, 1870. The tie is of beech wood, and gives not the slightest evidence of decay after an exposure of eleven years. I have also observed a walk of spruce plank preserved by this process, about 1,000 feet in length, laid down in the navy-yard at Charlestown, near the rope-walk, and said to have been laid down in July, 1879. I am informed that portions of this walk, before the use of impregnated timber, required renewal at the end of two years, but in the present case there is no evidence of any decay or any tendency thereto. The iron spikes in this walk are in no case corroded, and furnish a very satisfactory practical answer to the theoretical objection, that wood preserved by this process would prove injurious to iron. In conclusion, I have no hesitancy in saying 1st. That this process is well adapted to the preservation of timber of all kinds from rot and decay. 2d. That those portions of timber most liable to decay are the most readily penetrated by the materials used. 3d. That I know of no practical or valid theoretical objection to this process for the preservation of timber for all purposes. 4th. And that I am not acquainted with any process for preserving wood which is superior to that employed by your company, namely, copper and barium. Respectfully, JAS. F. BABCOCK, Analytical and Consulting Chemist, and late Professor of Chemistry in the Boston University. THE AMERICAN WOOD PRESERVING COMPANY. No. 4.-REPORT OF BOARD-SURGEON J. M. FLINT AND OTHERS. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 8, 1881. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of the board convened under your order of the 23d June, 1881, for the examination of the process of preserving timber for naval purposes by the American Wood Preserving Company. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. HUNT, JAMES M. FLINT. Surgeon, U. S. N., President of the Board. Secretary of the Navy, Navy Department, Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 8, 1881. SIR: In accordance with your letter of instructions (a copy of which is herewith appended, marked A), we have carefully considered the several points of inquiry to which our attention was therein directed, and beg leave to report as follows: 1. It is manifestly impossible to determine the "practical" value of the process for the preservation of wood as practiced by the "American Wood Preserving Company" from theoretical considerations alone. Only by actual comparative tests of the durability of treated and untreated wood, both being subjected to the same conditions, can any positive conclusion be reached. Such evidence of this kind as has been brought before this board, consisting of wood impregnated by this process, and authenticated to have been in actual use, will be found in the fifth section of this report. This evidence, though limited, is favorable to the efficacy of the process. The board has also had before it the reports of numerous and prolonged experiments made in Europe with wood impregnated with sulphate of copper by a method similar to, if not identical with, that used by the American Wood Preserving Company. These reports prove satisfactorily that so much, at least, of this process as consists in impregnation with sulphate of copper, is of practical value for the preservation of wood against rot and decay. The testimony is equally conclusive that the sulphate of copper alone is only temporarily protective against the teredo (ship-worm). 2. Numerous sections of pine and oak timber which had been treated and cut in the presence of the board have been submitted to repeated and careful analyses. Copper has been found in all the specimens examined. It seems readily to have penetrated the sap wood, but with greater difficulty the heart of both oak and pine, being found in very small quantity in the sound heart wood of both species of timber, except in two specimens, which contained copper in considerable quantity. The barium salt penetrates less completely than the copper. Traces of barium were found in the greater number, but not all, of the sections. In the sound heart wood, when found, it was only in the minutest appreciable quantity. |