WOOD, a solid substance, whereof the trunks and branches of trees consist. The wood is all that part of a tree included between the bark and the pith. For the structure of the pith, bark, and wood of plants, see the article PLANT.
Composition for preserving Wood. See CHEMISTRY, no 112, 149.
Staining or Dyeing of Wood for inlaying, &c. Red, is done by boiling the wood in water and alum; then taking it out, adding brazil to the liquor, and giving the wood another boil in it. Black, by brushing it over with logwood boiled in vinegar, hot; then washing it over with a decoction of galls and copperas till it be of the hue required. Any other colour may be given by squeezing out the moisture of horse-dung through a sieve, mixing it with dissolved roch-alum and gum arabic; and to the whole adding green, blue, or any other colour designed. After standing two or three days, pear-tree or other wood, cut to the thickness of half a crown, is put into the liquor boiling hot, and suffered to remain till it be sufficiently coloured.