If we cannot obtain naturally seasoned timber, by all means let us have artificially seasoned wood. Tredgold, in his Report on Langton’s system,[42] nearly arrived at the secret. We will quote a few words from his Report: “Mr. Langton having discovered a new method of seasoning timber … by which the time necessary to season green timber, and render it fit for use, is only about twice as many weeks as the ordinary process requires years; … it is more economical, and locks up less capital than the common method.” We believe we may say that the number of our public buildings which have been erected during the present century with artificially prepared timber can be counted on our eight fingers (without troubling our thumbs) and not exceed that number;[43] and yet we hear of dry rot in the great dome of the Bank of England and other buildings without profiting by the events. We should like to know if the wooden dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral is safe from dry rot, (the domes at the Panthéon and the Halle-au-Blé at Paris were affected,) _and plumbers fires_. It is evident that a preservative process, thoroughly suitable for everyday use and applicable to buildings, has yet to be invented: it should be cheap, should render wood uninflammable, should preserve the wood from decay and dry rot, _should not harden the wood until some time after its application_, and should be colourless and invisible. The invention of such a process will require careful thought and experiments, for it appears to us that the whole theory of any successful plan for the prevention of the dry rot must resolve itself into the _solidifying or coagulation of albumen_: this means hardening the sap-wood, and causing increased difficulty in working the wood. We can easily illustrate our remarks, by quoting one of the latest patents for preserving timber, which has recently been made public. It is the invention of a gentleman living in England, who has discovered a means of making wood uninflammable, preventing dry rot and decay, and rendering white and yellow pine, both in hardness and appearance, like teak and oak. We have no objection to its rendering wood uninflammable, providing it does not “hurt” the wood; but can the reader believe that any architect, in erecting a moderate-sized villa, would specify that all the joiners’ work, staircases, window-frames and sashes, architraves, skirtings, doors, &c., must be formed of wood _as hard as teak_; or rather, can the reader imagine the architect’s client would be agreeable to pay the greatly increased cost for the extra labour involved. We do not think this invention will ever be used, at least to any extent, in buildings.