ies on the Illinois Central Railroad, where it did not succeed,
and to some on the Chicago and Northwestern, where they seem to have
been lost sight of, being few in number, so that your committee has not
been able to learn the result.

Great expectations were, however, entertained, and a conditional sale
was made to various parties of the right of using the process, notably,
it is said, to the Memphis and Charleston Railroad for $50,000; and some
ten miles of ties were prepared on that road, when the poisonous nature
of the ingredients used brought about disaster.

Some shingles were prepared for a railroad freight house at East St.
Louis, but all the carpenters who put them on were taken very ill, and
one of them died.

The arsenic and corrosive sublimate effloresced from the ties along the
Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Cattle came and licked them for the
sake of the salt, and they died, so that the track for ten miles was
strewed with dead cattle. The farmers rose up in arms, and made the
railroad take up and burn the ties. The company promoting foremanizing
was sued and cast in heavy damages, and it went out of business.

In 1870 Mr. A.B. Tripler patented a mixture of arsenic and salt, and the
succeeding year a specimen of wood prepared under that patent was
submitted to the Board of Public Works of Washington, D.C., and examined
by its chemist, Mr. W.C. Tilden (experiment 19). He found the
impregnation uneven, and the absorptive power high, but he did not find
any arsenic, though its use was claimed.

The Samuel process (experiment 20) consisted in the injection, first, of
a solution of sulphate of iron, and afterward of common burnt lime. Mr.
Tilden reported the wood to be brittle, and the water used to test the
absorptive power to have been filled with threads of fungi in
forty-eight hours.

The Taylor process (experiment No. 21) used a solution of sulphide of
calcium in pyroligneous acid. It was condemned by Mr. Tilden.

The Waterbury process (experiment 22) consisted in forcing in a solution
of common salt, followed by dead oil or creosote. It was also condemned
by Mr. Tilden.

The examinations of Mr. Tilden extended to some fourteen different
processes, most of which have already been noticed in this report, and
their practical results given.

The Board of Public Works, however, laid down a considerable amount of
prepared wood pavement in Washington, all of which is understood to have
proved a di