y a
useful lesson.

In 1865 Mr. B.S. Foreman patented the application of a dry powder for
preserving wood, which was composed of certain proportions of salt,
arsenic, and corrosive sublimate. This action was based upon an
experience which he had had when, as a working mechanic of Ellisburg,
Jefferson County, N.Y., in 1838, he had preserved a water-wheel shaft by
inserting such a compound in powder in the body of the wood, and
ascertained that it was still sound some 14 years later.

His theory of the action of his compound upon timber was briefly this:

"That all wood before it can decay must ferment; that fermentation
cannot exist without heat and moisture; that the chemical property or
nature of his compound, when inserted dry into wood, is to attract
moisture, and this moisture, aided by fermentation, liquefies the
compound; that capillary attraction must inevitably convey it through
the sap ducts and medullary rays to every fiber of the stick.... Were
these crystallizations salt alone, they would soon dissolve, but the
arsenic and corrosive sublimate have rendered them insoluble; hence they
remain intact while any fiber of the wood is left."

"The antiseptic qualities of arsenic are also well known, and have been
known for centuries. Chemical analysis of the _mummies of Egypt_ to-day
shows the presence of arsenic in large quantities in every portion of
their substance. Whatever other ingredients may have entered into the
compound that has been so potent in preserving from decay the bodies of
the old kings of Egypt, and even the linen vestments of their tombs,
arsenic was most certainly one."

The mode of application used by Mr. Foreman was to bore holes two inches
in diameter three-fourths of the way through sticks of square timber,
four feet apart, to fill them with the dry powder, and to plug them up
with a bung. For railroad ties he bored two holes two inches in
diameter, six inches inside of the rails, and filled and plugged them.
Fresh cut lumber and shingles were prepared by piling layers upon each
other with the dry powder sprinkled between in the ratio of twenty
pounds to the thousand feet of lumber. This was allowed to remain at a
temperature of at least 458 deg. F. until fermentation took place, when the
lumber was considered fully "foremanized."

The process was first applied to the timber and lumber for a steamboat,
and in 1879 the result was reported to be favorable. It was then applied
to some t