Creosote

kre'o-sot, a substance having the general appearance and qualities of carbolic acid. Creosote was prepared first from coal tar by repeated treatment with potash and acids, followed by distillation. It rises from the tar at a high temperature, 400 deg. to 760 deg. F. It is obtained also by the destructive distillation of wood. Pure creosote is an oily, heavy, colorless liquid. It refracts light powerfully. It has a sweet, burning taste and smells like a smoked ham. The word is from the Greek meaning flesh preserver. It is one of the strongest preservative agents known. Meat dipped in a one per cent solution of creosote is safer from spoiling than if smoked.

Creosote water is used in medicine. It stimulates digestion and kills bacteria in the intestines. Creosote vapor is inhaled with helpful effect by consumptives, and by patients afflicted with bronchitis. Severe cases of nausea are sometimes relieved by creosote. Though less dangerous than carbolic acid, creosote should be used as a remedy only under competent advice. Creosote is added to whiskey to give the desired flavor of reeking peat, much as though the whiskey had been distilled over a smoking peat fire.

Creosote is an excellent preservative of wood. By killing germs of decay it prevents dry rot; posts dipped in hot creosote last longer. In this respect the action is like that of tar. Owing to the advancing price of railroad ties treatment with creosote has been employed with excellent results. The life of a wooden pavement may be tripled by the use of creosote. The blocks are placed in a cylindrical steel drum; the air is first exhausted by an air-pump causing the vapors of the wood to pass off by expansion; creosote oil, boiling hot, is then introduced. By tumbling the blocks awhile in the drum, they are so impregnated with creosote that they become practically rot-proof. It is claimed that a pavement of creosoted blocks, well laid in boiling tar and gravel on a concrete foundation, will outwear and outlast several ordinary wooden pavements. The treatment of ties is not essentially different.