Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million: Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts
John Stuart Mill · en
1139. _Cure for the Dry Rot in Timber, so as to make it
indestructible by Water._--Melt twelve ounces of resin in an iron
pot; add three gallons of train oil, and three or four rolls of
brimstone; and when the brimstone and resin are melted and become
thin, add as much Spanish brown, or red and yellow ochre, or any
other color required, first ground fine with the same oil, as will
give the whole a shade of the depth preferred; then lay it on with a
brush as hot and thin as possible; some time after the first coat is
dried, give it a second. This preparation will preserve planks for
ages, and keep the weather from driving through brick work.
1140. _Method of trying the Goodness of Timber for Ship-building,
used in the Arsenal at Vienna._--One person applies his ear to the
centre of one end of the trunk, while another, with a key, hits the
other end with a gentle stroke. If the tree be sound and good, the
stroke will be distinctly heard at the other end, though the tree
should be a hundred feet or more in length.
1141. _To season and render Green Timber immediately fit for
use._--After the timber has been cut down from the stock, take off,
immediately, both the outer bark and also the inner rind, clean to
the wood; cut it up to the different purposes for which it may be
wanted, whether scantlings for roofings, joists, planks, deals, or
the like. After preparing them for their proper use, steep them in
lime-water a few days, or pay them over with a little of the lime,
along with the water. The hotter it is used after the lime is slaked,
so much the better. Lime-water is made by slaking the lime-shells in
water. This will answer equally well for round trees. The author of
this method says, he has been, for a great number of years past, used
to take down and repair both ancient and modern buildings, in which
a good deal of Scots fir had been used, but he never found one inch
either rotten or worm-eaten, where it was in the least connected with
lime, and kept dry; on the contrary, he found it more hard and firm
than when first used.
BUILDING.