Invention Timeline: John H. Kyan, English Inventor Who Preserved Wood By the Chemical Process of “Kyanizing”
b. ? 1775 and d. January 6, 1850
English inventor. The first to preserve wood by a chemical process, in 1832. His process was called “kyanizing.”
Turn back the tide of ages to its head,
And hoard the wisdom of the honored dead.
—Charles Sprague
Before my breath, like blazing flax,
Man and his marvels pass away;
And changing empires wane and wax,
Are founded, flourish, and decay.
Redeem mine hours—the space is brief,
While in my glass the sand-grains shiver,
And measureless the joy or grief,
Whentime and thou shallpart forever.
—Walter Scott
But who shall turn the glass for man,
When all his golden grains have run?
Who shall collect his scattered sand,
Dispersed by time’s unsparing hand?
Never can one grain be found,
Howe’er we anxious search around.
—J. McCreery
1665—Robert Hooke studied the use of air in combustion.
1761—Torbern Olof Bergman proved that fixed air is an acid.
1811—Chemicals were manufactured at Salem, Mass.
1800—Andrews and Tail demonstrated that ozone was a condensed form of oxygen.
