From Forest Conservation to Market Preservation: Invention and Diffusion of Wood-Preserving Technology, 1880-1939

Aldrich explores the evolution of wood-preservation technologies in the US over a 60-year time frame. The story begins with railroads. With their voracious appetite for wooden ties (as well as bridge timbers, wooden buildings, and rolling stock), railroad management wrestled with the economic trade-offs of treated and non-treated ties. Preservation techniques were multi-factored: multiple chemical recipes for preservatives and competing techniques for infusing them into wood all suffered from a lean theoretical base and a culture which frequently fostered fraudulent claims.