Timber may be dried by passing rapid currents of heated air through it under pressure. This plan was carried out with the timber used for the floorings of the Coal Exchange, London. The wood was taken in its natural state, and in less than ten days it was thoroughly seasoned. In some cases, from 10 to 48 per cent. of moisture was taken out of the wood, and although the floorings have now been down a great many years, it is stated that very little shrinkage has been found, except in the case of a few pieces which were put down in the latter portion of the work, and which had not been submitted to the seasoning process. The process of desiccation, patented by Messrs. Davison and Symington, in 1844, is of great practical value in reducing the time requisite for seasoning timber. It is peculiarly applicable to the seasoning of flooring boards and of the wood used in joiners’ work. Care must be exercised when removing the timber from the stove to the building in which it is to be used, that it be not exposed to the wet, nor even to a damp atmosphere for any lengthened period. The advantage of this process over the ordinary stoving consists in the temperature never being so high as to scorch the wood, by which the strength of the fibres would be injured; and in the facility for removing the vapour as fast as it is expelled from the wood, in consequence of the air being propelled through the stove at any required velocity and temperature. As compared with furnace and steam-stoving ordinarily employed to desiccate woods, the great superiority of this process is established by its seasoning the wood quite as rapidly, but much more thoroughly; and instead of wood being rendered brittle, as it is to some extent by stoving, this mode does not reduce the strength and tenacity of the wood. The principle of the invention is propelled currents of heated air; but the heat has to be regulated according to the texture of the various woods. Honduras mahogany might be exposed to a heat of 300°, and the whole of the moisture can be taken out in three days. Timber 9 inches square is considered by Mr. Davison a proper size for his invention. This process is described as “A method or methods of drying, seasoning, and hardening wood, and other articles, parts of which are also applicable to the desiccation of vegetable substances generally.” The first or principal part of the invention consists in drying, seasoning, and hardening wood and other articles--among which other articles are included generally all things made of wood, or chiefly of wood--by means, as has been stated, of rapid currents of heated air. The manner in which these currents of heated air are produced, is by an apparatus consisting of a furnace and a series of pipes withinside of a core of brickwork. On each side of the furnace, on a level with the fire-bars, is a horizontal tube; communicating and springing from these tubes are a series of eighteen