The Creosote Fortress: How a New Plant Aimed to Save Seattle’s Piers from the 'Teredo'

A DIRECT LINE Independent Railway to Portland. Organization of the Seattle & Southern. Surveyors to be Placed in the Field Immediately.

The directors of the Seattle & Southern Railway Company held a meeting yesterday afternoon and, after organization and election of officers, began immediately the work of construction of their line from Seattle to Portland. The final survey and location of the route was ordered and the engineering party will begin operations from this city within four days.

MR. EWING INTERVIEWED. Mr. Thomas Ewing, the promoter and newly elected president of the Seattle & Southern, was seen at his rooms last evening by a Post-Intelligencer reporter who found him very conservative in his statements concerning the purposes of the company. "The work of construction," said Mr. Ewing, "will begin at this end of the line. The surveying party... has been in the city for several days, in readiness to begin the work of location of the 170 miles of line between this city and Portland... I need hardly say that all the money necessary for building the line is available."

ANOTHER HALT. Yesterday Mr. J. H. Rengstorff sold to Col. H. E. Holmes his lot on the east side of Front street just north of Pike for $15,000. This lot has sixty feet frontage and is considered a fine buy at that figure.

FIGHTING THE TEREDO. The Creosote Process as a Protection Against Them.

In the evening Mr. E. Bickensecker, of the Paget Sound Creosoting Company, made the following statement concerning the purposes and condition of his company to a reporter at the Occidental:

"Our works are located in Seattle," answered Mr. Bickensecker, "at a point six miles north of Seattle. Messrs. Allen & Nelson of this city have just finished a 'T' shaped wharf for us, which is 560 feet long, and 24 feet wide inshore, and 100 feet wide and 180 feet long in the channel. This wharf cost $3,500.

We have about finished the erection of seven buildings. One is the creosoting building, in which the piles are coated. It is 70x105 feet. There are two buildings of 172x40 feet each. In these the creosote is to be manufactured. There are two cottages, a boarding-house and an office. These structures are frame, covered with corrugated iron, and will cost from $20,000 to $30,000."

What material will you use in the manufacture of creosote?

"Creosote can be made either from coal tar or wood. We will use the latter material. Creosote is a staple article of commerce. It is a dark, oily fluid obtained by distillation from the acid and tarry matter in wood. Covering piles with creosote is the only method in use that will protect them from the attack of the terrible teredo and preserve them from decay in salt water. It is a method which has been used by engineers in England for 40 years past. Piles driven in England 40 years ago are still as sound as a dollar where they have been subjected to the creosoting process.

Our works when completed will be the largest on the coast, if not in the United States... We will employ about 24 men and consume about 75 cords of wood per week. The residue after the creosote is extracted is the finest sort of charcoal. This will be sold to the iron furnaces at Kirkland and elsewhere to be used in smelting ore so there will be practically no waste."

CREOSOTED PILES WILL COST ABOUT TWICE AS MUCH AS THE ORDINARY PILE.