TO RENDER WOOD INCOMBUSTIBLE AND IMPERMEABLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 284, 8 October 1879, Page 2

TO RENDER WOOD INCOMBUSTIBLE AND IMPERMEABLE.

According' o the Timber Trade Journal M. M. H. lolbacci claims to give these properties to wood by means of the process described below. It thus becomes petrified, so to speak, without whatever undergoing any change of appearance. On being subjected to intense lieat it becomes charred on the surface, but very slowly and without any flame, and it is only necessary to scratch the surface to find the surface of the wood intact, Hence m case of fire, the firemen would have no occasion to fear that the materials on which they _ tread would give way beneath them, if this operation lias been undergone by the wood composing staircases, floors, etc. _ The following chemical compound is said to produce the result Sulphate of zinc, 551bs; American potash, ; American alum, 441bs, oxide of manganese, 221bs; sulphuric acid of 30 221bs; water, 551bs. All of the solids are to be put into an iron boiler containing the water at a temperature of 45' C. or 113 F. As soon as the substances are dissolved the sulphuric acid is to be. put in little by little, until all the substances are completely saturated. For the preparation of the pod, it would be placed in a suitable apparatus and arranged in various sizes (according to the purposes for which it is intended) on iron gratings I care being taken that there is a space < f about half an inch between every two pieces of wood. _ The chemical compound is then pumped into the apparatus, and as soon as the vacant spaces are filled up it is boiled for three hours. The wood is then taken out and laid on a wooden gratmg m the open air, to lie rendered solid, after which it is fit for use of all kinds, as ship-building, house-buildinp railway carnages and trucks, fence posts' wood paving, in short, for any kind of! work where there is any liability to destruction by fire.