In 1805 Mr. Maconochie proposed to saturate with resinous and oily matters inferior woods, and thus render them more lasting. This proposal was practically carried out in 1811 by Mr. Lukin, who constructed a peculiar stove for the purpose of thus impregnating wood under the influence of an increased temperature. The scheme, however, had but very partial success, for either the heat was too low and the wood was not thoroughly aired and seasoned, or it was too high and the wood was more or less scorched and burnt. Mr. Lukin buried wood in _pulverized charcoal_ in a heated oven, but the fibres were afterwards discovered to have started from each other. He next erected a large kiln in Woolwich dockyard, capable of containing 250 loads of timber, but an explosion took place on the first trial, before the process was complete, which proved fatal to six of the workmen, and wounded fourteen, two of whom shortly afterwards died. The explosion was like the shock of an earthquake. It demolished the wall of the dockyard, part of which was thrown to the distance of 250 feet; an iron door weighing 280 lb. was driven to the distance of 230 feet; and other parts of the building were borne in the air upwards of 300 feet. The experiment was not repeated. Mr. Lukin was not so fortunate in 1811 as in 1808, for in the latter year he received a considerable reward from the Government for what was considered a successful principle of ventilating hospital ships. In 1815 Mr. Wade recommended the impregnation of timber with resinous or oleaginous matter (preferring linseed oil to whale oil) or with _common resin_ dissolved in a lixivium of _caustic alkali_, and that the timber should afterwards be plunged into water acidulated with any cheap acid, or with alum in solution. He considered that timber impregnated with oil would not be disagreeable to rats, worms, cockroaches, &c., and that the contrary was the case with resin. He also recommended the impregnation of timber with sulphate of _copper, zinc, or iron_, rejecting deliquescent salts, as they corrode metals. In 1815 Mr. Ambrose Boydon, of the Navy Office, strongly recommended that the timber, planks, and treenails of ships should be first boiled in _limewater_ to correct the acid, and that they afterwards should be boiled in a _thin solution of glue_, by which means the pores of the wood would be filled with a hard substance insoluble by water, which would not only give the timbers durability, by preventing vegetation, but increase their strength. Glue, he thought, might be used without limewater, or glue and limewater mixed together.