Accelerated life tests are used to help predict the rate of failure of components. Capacitors are frequent victims of accelerated life testing, and have a distant relationship with one of the earliest documented accelerated life tests: the unit of capacitance, the farad, is named for Sir Michael Faraday.
Michael Faraday remains one of the most important scientists of all time. He made foundational discoveries in electricity, magnetism, and electrochemistry. Today, Faraday is less well known for documenting the Royal Navy’s results of accelerated life tests on dry rot of wood.
In 1833, Michael Faraday was appointed to a professorship by the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Faraday’s first formal lecture in this role was about the causes and prevention of dry rot. Faraday relied on John Knowles for expertise about dry rot. Knowles was a senior navy civil servant and author of a well-known book on the subject. Knowles’ book had led to his appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Society. (See my review in my article Ten Books About One Failure Mode, 1812-1833.)
In the late 1820s, John Howard Kyan had developed a mercuric chloride treatment to prevent dry rot. Dry rot cost the navy dearly over the prior century, in some cases ruining ships that were brand new. The Admiralty agreed to test his process. In 1828, blocks of treated wood, cordage, and canvas were subjected to a test in the “fungus pit.”
Faraday described the pit as a hole in the ground that was lined with wood and covered. The pit was damp, had stagnant air, and rampant fungus growth. The hole was used to determine if materials would survive the most severe shipboard conditions. The American Railroad Journal later said that the fungus pit had been in use since 1815, hinting that a materials testing program of some sort existed.
Faraday and other witnesses were present for the opening of the pit in 1833. The test was successful and patented by the inventor. The treatment was commonly referred to as Kyanizing.
News of the accelerated-life experiment reached the Americas in The Military and Naval Magazine of the United States. The report said, “It is a proverb among the people of the dock-yard, that a month in the hole is worse for a piece of timber, than ten years in almost any situation out of it.”
Many later articles repeat this claim of accelerating aging by 10:1. The intent to accelerate aging seems clear and was disseminated to large audiences. This acceleration ratio is hard to take literally, since the samples were examined visually. No quantitative measurements were mentioned. Most tests ran for five years, so at least there was some degree of standardization. The damage mechanism was somewhat understood. Other articles reported that the accelerated damage was thought to be from the heat and carbonic acid vapor resulting from the biological processes in the pit.
This article also referred to Knowles’ book on dry rot by its title, continuing to spread the Royal Navy’s research on rot to the rest of the world.
The Kyanizing process had the potential to stop dry rot in many applications, not just naval construction. In 1839, an article in The Gardener’s Magazine referred to Kyanized samples processed for four years at a different fungus pit at the Sheerness dock-yard, so the navy apparently had an operating fungus pit at Sheerness since at least 1835. The article said that Kyanized poles were being used to grow hops, and that Kyanizing posed a threat to the market value of some wood species grown as commodities.
The Woolwich fungus pit was also used to conduct experiments in 1841 using another chemical treatment, Burnettizing, that would largely eclipse the Kyaninzing.
The United Service Magazine reported in 1843 that the fungus pit facility was still in use. A similar facility existed under Somerset House, which was the administrative headquarters of the Navy Board during this period. This article related that the Somerset fungus “vault” was below the water-line of the Thames and had no source of fresh air. The Somerset vault contained “canvas, rope, flax, flannel, and timber – both seasoned and green, prepared and unprepared.” The navy was interested in preventing rot not only in timber, but rigging and sails. A footnote relates that this was because a ship built from Kyanized wood returned from a tropical voyage with timber in good condition, but had used three sets of sails. Faraday was again part of this investigation.
Reports of the test of Kyanization using the Woolich fungus pit were common in the 1800s. A search of the Internet Archive (Archive.org) shows that dozens of periodicals wrote about the Woolich fungus pit in the first half of the century. Many of the publications use text that is similar or identical. This could be the result of an advertising campaign by Kyan, but these journals often acted as digests, reprinting material from other sources. It could also reflect that a large media market existed for news about practical scientific inventions. Besides, Faraday was a scientific superstar and elevated the subject by his attention.
An 1845 article about paving streets with wood was written by, or at least credited to Edgar Allen Poe. Poe also referred to the Kyan experiments in the fungus pit in 1845.
In 1843, the books on dry rot by McWilliam, Wade, and Knowles were quoted by the Journal of the Franklin Institute for application for sulphate treatment of wood for street paving. (Again, see my reviews in my article Ten Books About One Failure Mode, 1812-1833.) Some of the publications had repeated articles about Kyanizing over the years, especially the Journal of the Franklin Institute. Published in Philadelphia, this journal had wide readership in the United States and was one of the leading science and engineering journals of the time. When Burnettizing started to compete with Kyanizing, the writing sometimes referred back to the original testing done in the Woolwich fungus pit. This kept references to the fungus pit and the extreme test conditions in circulation for dozens of years. The research of this period led to better understanding of wood as an engineering material.
1833 – The New Monthly Magazine
1833 – The Genesee Farmer and Gardener’s Journal (Rochester, N.Y.)
1834 – Arcana of Science and Art
1834 – Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates
1835 – Herapath’s Railway Magazine and Steam Navigation Journal
1835 – The Metropolitan
1836 – The Church of England Magazine (somehow had a column on applied chemistry)
1837 – The Agricultural and Horticultural Gleaner
1837 – Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette
1837 – The Family Magazine; or Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge
1837 – Mechanic’s Magazine
1838 – The Quarterly Review
1838 – The Literary Gazette
1838 – The Farmer’s Register
1838 – The American Journal of Science and Arts
1838 – New England Farmer and Horticultural Register
1839 – Journal of the Common Council of the City of Philadelphia
1839 – The Colony of Western Australia: A Manual for Emigrants
1840 – Naval and Military Gazette
1841 – Railway Locomotives and Cars
1841 – The Mining Journal
1842 – The Builder
1843 – The Albion
1843 – Chamber’s Edinburgh Journal
1844 – Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia
1844 – Campbell’s Foreign Semi-Monthly Magazine
1844 – Boston Cultivator
1844 – Maine Farmer
1845 – Broadway Journal
1847 – The Practical Railway Engineer
1851 – The Annual of Scientific Discovery
1852 – Encyclopedia of Architecture
1852 – Putnam’s Home Cyclopedia
1853 – Elementary Principles of Carpentry
1854 – The Builder’s Pocket Manual
1855 – Cyclopedia of the Useful Arts
References
Faraday, Michael. On the Practical Prevention of Dry Rot in Timber. United Kingdom, J. and C. Adlard, 1833. https://www.google.com/books/edition/On_the_Practical_Prevention_of_Dry_Rot_i/I-NKAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
The Gardener’s Magazine and Register of Rural & Domestic Improvement. United Kingdom, Longman, Rees, Orome, Brown and Green, 1839. p. 320
https://archive.org/details/gardenersmagazi07loudgoog?q=fungus+pit
American Engineer and Railroad Journal, Vol 13. United States, Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, 1841. Pg. 82
The Military and Naval Magazine of the United States. United States, Thompson and Homans, 1833. p. 132
The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal. United Kingdom, William Laxton, 1843. p. 205 https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Civil_Engineer_and_Architect_s_Journ/VL1BAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=woolwich+dockyard+burnettizing&pg=PA206&printsec=frontcover
The United Service Magazine. United Kingdom, H. Colburn, 1843. p. 494 https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_United_Service_Magazine/SnkDAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22fungus+pit%22+Woolwich&pg=PA494&printsec=frontcover….
The Practical Mechanic and Engineer’s Magazine, Vol 2. United Kingdom, Published at the Mechanic’s Magazine Office, 1843.
Edgar Allan Poe, “Street-Paving,” Broadway Journal, March 19, 1845, pp. 241-242.
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924007167913?urlappend=%3Bseq=253%3Bownerid=13510798903124189-335
History of Myconology https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0000ains_e9i2/page/92/mode/2up?q=woolwich+%22fungus+pit%22
First-hand description and more discussion between Kyan and Faraday
“Remedy for The Dry Rot” The Albion Vol 1, Issue 24, 1833, New York p. 189 https://archive.org/details/sim_albion-a-journal-of-news-politics-and-literature_1833-06-15_1_24/page/n4/mode/1up?q=fungus+pit
First-hand eyewitness description of removal 1837 (in The Army and Navy Chronicle)
“Mr. Kyan’s Process for Preventing Dry Rot” Army and Navy Chronicle, Vol 5 Issue 22, Washington, A.B. Claxton & Co. 1837, p. 341 https://archive.org/details/sim_army-and-navy-chronicle_1837-11-30_5_22/page/341/mode/1up?q=fungus+pit
Description in applied chemistry column of Church of England magazine 1836
The Church of England Magazine. United Kingdom, J. Burns, 1849. p. 300
https://archive.org/details/churchenglandma17unkngoog/page/300/mode/1up?q=fungus+pit
More description of the pit and experiments 1837
Kallipoliti, Lydia. “Dry Rot: The Chemical Origins of British Preservation.” Future Anterior 7.1 (2010): a1–19. Web.
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