Show GREAT SALT LAKE I 1 PRESERVES TIMBER in replacing a railroad trestle recently burned the he north shore of ireat great salt lake erint ers have jut juc found that the piles are still perfectly sound after 43 years of service e looking for or the cause since these were only of local p 4 ne and fir they found the timbers were impregnated throughout with salt from the lake at another point on the lake IS 18 inch piles set 29 years are similarly preserved preserve i with salt which has penetrated to their very center timbers in the southern pacific trestles across ac ross salt lake placed in 1902 appear to be as good as on oil the day when the piles were driven they ha have ve been preserved well above water line by the salt dashed on to them by the waves a tact fact apparently anticipate by the engineers who built the trestles the first transcontinental telegraph line built before the railroad extended west from salt lake city thru the prosperous mining camps of eureka austin and virginia city when the railroad was built the telegraph line was transferred to follow its right of way and the old poles sawed off at the ground an engineer who recent ly examined the butts left in the ground in the salt desert near fish springs found that altho fifty years had passed since the poles were cut i off the old butts were perfectly soum telephone and electric companies in it the salt lake valley have used the local salt for preserving poles when set up about 75 pounds of salt is placed around the pole on the ground this method cannot be used however when the pole Is on or near a law lawn or in any place where vegetation Is desired 1 it t Is pointed out that the reason why the waters of salt lake act as a strong preservative as distinguished from ocean waters Is because the lake water Is so much saltier being practically a saturate solution preservation er with salt is of no use in ocean piling against the attack of ter edos and other marine borers experts in the forest service who have been investigating the preservation treatment of timber offer the suggestion that ties and poles which have been immersed for some time in the waters of the lake ought to be impervious to decay if the salt Is not nol leached beached out by the action of the ele ments it has been suggested that tha this can be guarded against for ex ample by painting the butt of th the pole with a coat of creosote which will keep out the moisture and kaei keei ki in the salt |