Culverts ? *otect5 ' UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES ROBERT ERNEST COWAN CULVER'S PATENT FOR- PROTECTING WOOD F R O M ALSO, AN ILLUSTRATED TREATISE ON THE APPEARANCE AND HABITS OF THE TEREDO AND WOOD BORING SHRIMP SAN FRAVCIS TAYLOR & NEVIK, EXGRAVEKS AND PRINTERS, 534 .COMMERCIAL STREET, BEXWEKX MUXTGOMKRY AND SANSOME. 1877. CULVER'S PATENT COMPOSITION FOE THE PROTECTION OF PILING, WHARVES, PIERS, DOCKS, AND SUBMERGED TIMBER IN SALT WATER. This invention is designed to prevent the destructive work of the Teredo Navalis or Ship- worm, and Limnoria Terebrans ; or Wood-boring Shrimp, also called the Grebble. The process "-' has been tried long enough to prove that it is entirely effective r to prevent the ravages of these pests. The process consists in I treating the piles with the bark on or off, as follows : First there Ij is a poisonous composition brushed over the surface of the pile ^ or timber, which is allowed to dry ; then the pile or timber is J coated with asphaltum, laid on at great heat to the bare wood, after which burr laps treated in asphaltum are wound around in spiral courses while warm, and finished by a final coating of hot asphalt. The piles can be handled, transported, and driven, with reasonable care, without injury to the coating, and after being driven are most fully protected. Contracts will be taken for protecting piles at the rate of $3.50 each pile and timber work, for bulkheads, tide gates, cribs, etc., in proportion. Piles protected by this process are in use at the Battery-street wharf, San Francisco, where the Teredo and Timber-boring Shrimp had previously completely eaten off many of the piles treated with antiseptics in the course of a few months. The protected piles by my process are as good as when driven. The process of protection commends itself to all practical minds. It forms a cheap, durable and effective sheath or covering, through which the worms cannot penetrate. The pile is first covered with the poisonous composition from A to A ; then with hot asphaltum from A to A ; then wound 291134 SEA WORM AND LIMNORIA. with spiral courses of treated bagging from A to A ; then given a final coat of asphaltum from A to A finishing ready to drive. SEA WORM AND LIMNORIA. The cloth or fibrous material being thoroughly saturated with hot asplialt and protected will not decay, and forms at the same time a cheap non-corrosive, indestructible, elastic covering, closely adherent and bonded to the wood or bark on the outside of the pile, and held there by the spiral-wound fibrous bagging. Various devices have been put in use to prevent the destructive work of these animals, but none of them have been sufficiently sure, practical and cheap enough to warrant long continuance. Cooking or boiling wood in creosote oil has been tried to some extent, but the great cost of sufch treatment and the bulky and immovable treating-apparatus or factory has not been found applicable 'to the treatment of piles. When it is considered that the boiler necessary in such treat- ment would have to be long enongh to accommodate the longest piles used, which in the majority of cases approximate sixty feet in length, it can readily be observed what cumbersome appliances are required to carry on this process, and why the cost should be so great and the treatment fall into disuse. It is evident, on the contrary, how easily piles and sub- merged timber can be protected by the covering process in this invention, quickly, cheaply, and at few hours' notice, as the apparatus simply consists of a movable asphaltum boiler not to exceed fifty gallons capacity operated in the immediate vicinity of the work, only requiring a few minutes to cover and fully protect each pile ready to be immediately driven. Two destructive elements have to be considered in protect- ing piles in salt water : First, the Teredo and Boring Shrimp below the tide lines ; second, the natural decay of the wood above the tide lines. By protecting the pile below the tide lines with the patent covering, or shell, the work of the worm and shrimp is effectually stayed. By the covering extending up nearly to the capping and forming a perfect fitting artificial bark to the pile, keeps the pile moist enough by the capillary attraction from the salt water to prevent decay between "wind and water." Prevent the worms and boring animals from working under the water and getting a foot-hold, and food from the wood, as they eat the piles completely off, and that portion above even without protection, every 'practical person at all familiar with the subject will admit is generally good for from twenty to forty years. Countless myriads of these worms and animals swarm around the timber work, and pursue their silent destruction, unseen and beyond reach, until by some SEA WORM AND LIMNORIA. dropping down of a section of a wharf or pier, here or there, we are apprised that there is no immunity to be enjoyed from them unless the piling is previously protected before driving. Could the damage done each year by these pests be estimated, it would be startling. It is calculated that an average pile driven and ready for capping is worth $6, which is a low estimate. Now, it has been found in San Francisco that in some places piles have been completely eaten off, affording no support for the beams and planking, in the course of eighteen months. Suppose they were protected so as to last many years for so small an amount as $3.50 each, the saving is evident and requires no calculation ; it is self-evident. Where docks and wharves have to be constantly over- hauled and torn up to replace worm-eaten piles, it is not the pile alone that has to be renewed so much as the expense of replanking, loss of wharfage during repairs, etc. LIMNORIA TEREBRANS. These little animals inhabit salt water and are a genius of Crustacea of the Isopoda order. There are said by some natu- ralists to be but this one known species, while others are divided as to its relationship with other wood-eating animals. The Limnoria is about two lines in length (a sixth of an inch, or about the size of a grain of rice), of a dark ash-gray color. The eyes are black, which are composed of numerous oscelli placed close together. The front outline of the body is a long oval, though the head is large, round, and strongly denned. The general appearance is not unlike that of a wood louse. When disturbed or handled they roll themselves/up similar to a hedgehog, apparently to shield the lower or under portion of the body, and present as a shield the shell or crust of the back, or, like the turtle, shield the limbs and head under its shell. These little creatures are wonderfully destructive to submerged timber-work, such as piles, docks, piers, bulkheads, etc. In the Bay of San Francisco they eat piles entirely off in a short time. The contents of the stomach consists of comminuted wood, from which it is explained that they eat the wood, and that food is the object sought. They attack a pile about half tide. Kyanising of wood has been resorted to as a protection., .but in the above bay both the Teredo and Limnoria were not prevented from working in piles so treated. The treatment with the SEA WORM AND LIMNORIA. antisceptic could be discovered at least two inches in thickness below the surface of the piles. The Limnoria were working upon the surface in some places entirely through the kyanised shell of two inches, and the Teredo tunneling as apparently unconcerned as in untreated timber. The Limnoria swarm around the timber attacked in great numbers. They excavate little cells along the annual rings of growth, and while eating the wood for its albumen, as is presumed, make a sheltering place for protection from their enemies and in which to breed and live. The outside appear- ance of the wood has a spongey look, and, when subjected to the Appearance of a pile *Y eaten off by Limnoria. microscope presents the appearance of being so fi-ail as to drop apart in handling. A mass of these perforations as large as a base-ball taken into the hand and the water squeezed out, leave a mere pulp of woody fibre, many times reduced from the original bulk. ENLARGED LIMNORIA. Timber-boring Shrimp or GREBBLE. (Large as a grain of Bice,) (ENLARGED SEVEN TIMES.) If any knots are met with at the point where they make their attacks on timber or piles, they are left unmolested, standing out in bold contrast to the general eating away of other portions. SEA WORM AND LIMNORIA. KNOTS LEFT BY LIMNOEIA. "Whether it is because the knots are so much harder than the other portions of the wood, and consequently not molested, is questionable. The knots are picked as clean of the woody portion as a bone of- meat. It is concluded that the reason for this is not by any inability on the part of this little creature to destroy every part, if disposed to do so, but from the fact that the knots do not contain the food necessary to pay for the labor of working up. It may be likened to the squirrel eating away every kernel of corn and leaving the cob. This view is strengthened by the fact that the hardest woods do not enjoy any greater immunity from their attacks than the softer species. They attack bitter as well as sweet woods. They cover a large geographical range, and work in salt water to such an extent as to cause great alarm to those entrusted with the care and maintenance of docks, wharves, piers, bulk- heads, tide-gates and every species of timber work open to their ravages. On the continent of Europe their work is equally destructive. The docks and piers of Southampton, England, have suffered greatly from them. Stephenson, the Eng- lish Engineer, in his operations connected with the building of the famous Bell Rock Light-house, found them vexatiously trou- blesome. On the Pacific Coast they seem to thrive. At San Francisco they are probably as destructive, if not more so, than elsewhere. They have existed here in lesser numbers for years, but are now observed to be increasing so rapidly as to cause anxiety. They commenced to be particularly destructive at the Battery-street Wharf, which is near the present terminal dock system toward the sea. From this point they have rapidly spread in the harbor toward the wharves, having reached Vallejo-street pier, some quarter of a mile distant, inward toward the main dock system, thus threatening the entire dock front. Their work in destroying piles can be reckoned at many thou- sands of dollars yearly; It has been estimated that the Teredo SEA WORM AND LIMNORIA. and Limnoria combined do from $50,000 to $100,000 damage yearly in the harbor of San Francisco alone. TEREDO NAVALIS or SHIP WORM. SEA WORM AND LIMNORIA. Appearance of a section of pile sawed in two, eaten by Ship Worm. These animals have been much studied, aud many theories are advanced concerning them their origin, development and habits. It must be confessed the subject is somewhat difficult on account of the creatures' home being confined in a tunnel cut out of the solid wood. The first part of their existence they have eyes, ears and fins, and live in the sea. Their bodies are very small during this state. In a very brief space, however, they enter the wood, when a complete metamorphosis takes place, in which they have no eyes, ears, fins or legs. Their first appearance in the wood cannot be discovered by the eye, or even by the use of a magnifying glass for that matter, so small is the embryo. It is not until the lapse of a little time that the creature can be seen. A stick of timber examined, for instance, on the first of June, with the greatest of care, did not under the glass show the least visible opening upon the surface, nor after thin layers of the wood had been taken off could there be discovered the least sign of attack. The same stick of wood being submerged until the 8th of June following, and again closely examined, showed no outward appearance of having been entered by the worm, but upon again taking off a shaving a twentieth of an inch in thickness disclosed the commencement of very small openings, following which only an eighth of an inch a white semi-opaque mass was reached. This was very tenderly placed at the focus of a microscope, and lo ! a perfect Teredo appears. After begining to bore they develop so rapidly that they increase in diameter and length equal to the progress made ahead, until fully developed. They grow from four to eight inches in length and are about three-eighths of an inch in diameter. I (/ SEA WORM AND LIMNORIA. The head is encased in a rim or hood of pearl of great hardness. It is provided with one hinge on top. On each side of the forehead is a small triangular-shaped area resembling the outer shell of a scallop, only that one side of the twenty-two raised cutting edges are very sharp. The same formation occurs except that cross groves intersect on each side of the head running back from the face of the jaws in seventeen raised cutting edges, intersecting on a diagonal line with the first cutters. These shell cutting edges and the pearl head-covering have the appearance of wonderful fineness and adaptation for the purpose made use of. The head in boring must be moved with a rolling, rasping motion, bringing these fine but terribly destructive cutters into play. The edge of each distinct cutter is like a syckle, and so hard that brass can be scratched with them without turning their edges. The general appearance of the head may be likened to a hinged bivalve auger. It may be supposed that the oval-shaped object directly in the centre of the mouth is a valve and a mouth combined, suction being the means of bringing the cutters up to and holding them firmly to the wood. Such theory is strengthened by the fact that speci- mens taken from the wood showed a portion of the woody fibre detached and lying outside of this valve in the forepart of the mouth, looking as though when sufficient wood became detached by the cutters, the valve was loosened and the accumulated food eaten. An air passage runs the entire length of the body, just above the intestinal canal, in the position that a backbone would naturully occupy in an eel's body. About one-third of the length of the body from the tail is an enlarged air-chamber. Each side of the tail are two curious projections that resemble mini- ature quill feathers. The resemblance is so striking that they would readily be mistaken for feathers. These are the gills or breathing apparatus to admit or exclude air and water to the creature as desired, and is also an air brake to take hold by creating a vacuum inside of the valve, or, by letting go, bring the air to a status. The quills of these two feathery appendages enter the body by terminating in two delicate tubes, which intersect each other shortly after entering the body, connecting with the air passage. Each gill is about one-fourth of the total length of the body over all. The sack of the stomach is filled its entire length with comminuted wood, which is the food of this animal. That near the head closely resembled brown sugar, * changing in color near the void to a darker brown. The intes- " 10 SEA WORM ARD LIMNORIA. tinal canal has a lining of calcareous matter adherent to the food, which is likely afterwards deposited as a sheathing, as found adhering to the interior surface of their tunnels. No species of wood has as yet been found, bitter or sweet, that they would not attack, except possibly the cabbage tree. They bore lengthwise of the grain of the wood, following the rings of annual growth. As they progress in their lonely and dark passages, they scrupulously respect their neighbors' habitations, never break- ing through the oftentimes almost membraneous film of wood leading to the tenement of their neighbor. As long as any wood remains to be eaten between the stages of water where they work, which is usually between low tide and the mud line, they continue completely riddling the wood. In the harbor of San Francisco they are very destructive, as well as all along the coast. Their damaging operations can scarcely be reckoned, but amounts to a sum each year, if it could be estimated, that would be startling. For any further information required and estimates for protecting piles and timber, address the inventor and patentee, JOHN P. CULVEK, CIVIL AND HYDKAULIC ENGINEER, 542 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal. N. B. All persons using the whole or any part of my combination without written authority duly executed by me, will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. J. P, CULVER, PATENTEE. (?NiVi F CALIFORNIA AT LG3ANGEUS This book is DUE on the last date stanwed below 10m-8,'32