AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975
PNGAF MAG # 9J W4 of 30th June 2023 Part Two
PNG WOODS SERIES
PNG FOREST PRODUCTS RESEARCH CENTRE HOHOLA Part Two
FPRC Global position in world wood science research facilities.
1963-1975
TABLE OF CONTENTS
“FORWOOD” -The Global Rise and Fall of Wood Research Institutes page 3
Ancient Times Activities Impact on Wood Supplies page 3
17th and 18th Centuries Activities Impact on Wood Supplies page 3
Transition from 18th to 19th Century page 4
Rise of Technology Training Institutes page 4
19th Century page 4
20th Century page 5
Development Wood Science, Technology & Forest Products Research page 6
Areas of Wood Research page 7
Wood Chemistry page 7
Wood Biology page 7
Wood Physics page 7
Rise of Wood Science and Technology Journals page 8
Current Issues of Wood Technology page 10
Challenges page 10
Possible Future Pathways page 12
Overview of Wood Research Facilities in Different Countries page 13
Details re Specifc Wood Research Facilities page 18
References page 75
Acronyms page 81
“FORWOOD” - The Global Rise and Fall of Wood Research Institutes
Employing Niemz (1993)2 and Niemz and Sonderegger (202)13 overview of wood research institutes in different countries, the editor was able to trace the development of wood science endeavours as pertaining to PNG Woods. As seen in 2023, the rise and fall of wood research institutes globally corresponds with world events affecting the appetite for wood fibre.
Ancient Times Activities Impact on Wood Supplies
Ancient writers observed that forests always recede as civilizations develop and grow. Trees have been the principal fuel and building material of every society over the millennia, from the time urban areas were settled until the middle of the nineteenth century. Without vast supplies of wood from forests, the great civilizations of Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Crete, Greece, Rome, the Islamic World, Western Europe, and North America would have never emerged. In ancient times, wood played an important role in daily life with demand for timber for buildings, fuel, ship construction etc. Over time this led to severe regional and transregional deforestation as in Mesopotamia in the Middle East or in the Mediterranean region during the ancient Greek and Roman eras.
Perlin (1991)4 asserted wood’s crucial place in the evolution of civilization He stated wood as the unsung hero of the technological revolution that has brought the world from a stone and bone culture to its present age. Perlin chronicles various scarcities of wood throughout the history of civilization which triggered major technological changes and advances.
17th and 18th Centuries Activities Impact on Wood Supplies
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries an increasing demand for timber for construction, for mining activities and fuelwood coupled with an increasing conversion of forested lands into farm land led to a dramatic decline in forested areas and accompanying massive timber shortages.
For many centuries the raw material wood, served as society’s principal fuel besides the use as a building material. It was the emergence of the fossil fuels which brought a decisive change in the supply of heat and fuel.
Many times, throughout history, the scarcity of wood became a driver for resource efficient use of the material, innovations, and new technologies, but efficiency gains and innovations have quite often been eaten up by so-called rebound and backfire effects as well (Krafft 20095).
The period of the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) with major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural condition of the civilizations involved and marked a major turning point in human history.
2 Niemz 1993 Physik des Holzes und der Holzwerkstoffe.
3 Niemz and Sonderegger 2021. Physik des Holzes und der Holzwerkstoffe. 2nd ed. Munchen: Carl Hanser.
4 Perlin J (1991) A forest journey. The role of wood in the development of civilization. Harvard University Press. Cambridge. Originally published by W.W. Norton, New York 1989.
5 Krafft U (2009) Effizienz und Innovation – Allheilmittel ohne Nebenwirkungen? Schweiz. Z. Forstwe. 160 (12): 371-374
Transition from 18th to 19th Century
At the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, the importance of sustainable forest management strategies (Hans Carl von Carlowitz 17136) and the reforestation of cleared sites led to the foundation of academic forestry institutions in several European countries as Russia, France, Germany, Sweden, and former Austria-Hungary. Kisser et al (1967)7 provided details on the historical development of wood anatomy with the advent of plant anatomy in the late 17th century.
Rise of Technology Training Institutes
Besides the arts, humanities, and the natural sciences, technology as a separate discipline slowly emerged with the foundation of the first mining and mechanical schools such as the University of Technology in Ostrava (1716) and the École Polytechnique in Paris (1794). Presumably it was Beckmann8 who first set the term “Technologie” in the year 1777 in his first edition of a technology handbook.
Following the first documentations by Beckmann (1780) and Karmarsch9 (1851) - besides many other books as the books by Kollmann (1936), Vorreiter10 11 (1949 and 1958) in German and the English versions Kollmann and Coté12 (1968) and Kollmann et al.13 (1975) as well as Haygreen and Bowyer14 (1982) became the very documentation of wood technology.
19th Century
Until the late nineteenth century, globally, there was no targeted wood research with corresponding research institutes. The first comprehensive studies were published in the last century.
1n 1872, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna commenced. In 1884, Bangor University UK commenced.
France in 1989 established the Colonial Test Garden Nogent -sur-Marne (forerunner to CIRAD).
6 Hans Carl von Carlowitz 1645-1714. https://www.environmentalandsociety.org
7 Kisser J. G., Ylinen A., Freundenberg K., Kollmann F., Lies W., Thunnell B., Stamm A. J., 1967. History of Wood Science. Wood Sci.Technol. 1:161-190.
8 Beckmann J (1780) Anleitung zur Technologie, oder zur Kenntnis der Handwerke, Fabriken und Manufakturen, vornehmlich derer, welche mit der Landwirtschaft, Polizei und Kameralwissenschaften in nächster Verbindung stehen. Göttingen, Verlag der Wittwe Bandenhoeck
9 Karmarsch K (1851): Handbuch der mechanischen Technologie. Hellwingsche Hofbuchhandlung, Hannover
10 Vorreiter L (1949) Holztechnologisches Handbuch – Bd. 2: System Holz-Wasser-Wärme, Holztrocknung, Dämpfen und Kochen, spanlose Holzverformung. Verlag Georg Fromme & Co, Wien n
11 Vorreiter L (1958) Holztechnologisches Handbuch – Bd. 1: Allgemeines, Holzkunde, Holzschutz und Holzvergütung. Verlag Georg Fromme & Co, Wien
12 Kollmann FFP, Coté WA (1968) Principles of Wood Science and Technology, I Solid Wood. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York
13 Kollmann FFP, Kuenzi EW., Stamm AJ. (1975) Principles of Wood Science and Technology, II, Wood Based Materials. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York
14 Haygreen JG, Bowyer JL (1982) Forest Products and Wood Science. IOWA State University Press/AMES, Iowa
In 1889, Maiden and (later) Baker were employed as economic botanists by the NSW Technological Museum Sydney (now Powerhouse Museum) working on Eucalyptus species.
20th Century
In 1905, Oxford Forestry Institute commenced in UK.
In 1906, a Forest Products Research Institute was founded in Dehradun India.
In 1906, Boas and Benjamin employed as industrial chemists, undertook Pulp and Paper Research at the Perth Technical School WA.
According to Kostler et al (1960)15, modern wood research began in 1910 with the establishment of the Forest Products laboratory in Madison/Wisconsin USA. (Anderson (2010)16 highlighted a century of achievements at Madison).
In 1911, Mann undertook wood science research at Melbourne University.
In 1917, under A. Tomlinson at the University of WA undertook timber seasoning kiln studies for Eucalypt species.
In 1918, Swain Forestry Conservator in Queensland established the Sailsbury wood research facility.
In 1919, the impact of R.T. Baker’s eucalyptus species research activities influenced work on Victorian Eucalyptus species. This was followed by Carter and Eddy at VSF Creswick.
In 1919, the formation of CSIR Western Australia (forerunner to CSIRO Forest Products)
In 1922, Brunswick Technical School Melbourne pulp and paper studies (moved from WA to Victoria as Australian needed Australia).
In 1928, the formation of CSIRO Division of Forest Products Melbourne under Boas. This was followed by OIC’s as Clarke, Dadswell and Muncey in 1971 when disbanded.
In Germany the first real wood research institute was founded in 1932 at the Technical University of Darmstadt and in 1934 as the Prussian Wood research Institute in Eberswalde.
Around this time, numerous wood research institutes were established in almost all industrial countries.
In 1966, TPNG’s Forest Products Research Centre (FPRC)17 at Hohola, a suburb of Port Moresby was established. The development of PNG wood science, based on global best practice, followed a similar pathway to that of Australia. In tracing the work of wood scientists from France, India, Great Britain, Germany, USA, and Canada coupled with the impact of World War 2, Australia’s CSIRO Forest Products Division provided the foundations for TPNG FPRC.
The genesis of Australia’s and PNG’s wood science forest products developments was the USA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) at Madison Wisconsin (commenced in 1910).
15 Kostler J. N., Kollmann F., Massov V., 1960. Denkschrift zur Lage der Forstwirtschaft und Holzforschung.
Wiesbaden: Steiner.
16 Anderson J., 2010. USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory celebrating a century of Accomplishments. Madison: USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory Madison USA.
17 Personal recollections of activities undertaken at FPRC Hohola are addressed in PNGAF Mag # 9j W4 of 30th June 2023 Part 3 – personal recollections.
Development of Wood Science, Wood Technology and Forest Products Research.
Mai, Schmitt, Niemz18 (2022), in their brief overview on the development of wood research described wood science as covering the areas of the formation and composition as well as the chemical, biological and physical-mechanical properties of wood. These fundamentals are also essential for understanding technological processes and product development.
In the past decades, the field of wood science and technology in the world has experienced significant changes in response to changes in resources.
Wood science and technology has had an important role to play in forest sustainability, as it has in human use of forests and use of forests and wood.
Wood Science is focused on the raw material wood, its growth and function, natural properties and structure and the way these characteristics are influenced by the environmental conditions within forests.
Teischinger19 observed that the meaning of the word technology itself as well as the specific meaning of the term wood technology has changed over the past centuries of industrialized production systems.
Wood technology in its broadest sense combines the disciplines of wood anatomy, biology, chemistry, physics, and mechanical technology.
Wood Science is applied to the field of Wood Technology that is based on scientific investigation as well as experimental.
Kollman et a20(1968) reiterated that modern forest products research from its start in the early 1900’s was now able to apply the title "wood science" to the field of wood technology that is based on scientific investigation, theoretical as well as experimental.
It was this research that fostered new uses for wood as a raw material and that created the foundation for new industries for the manufacture of wood-base materials such as plywood, laminated products, particle and fibre board and sandwich construction. Using wood instead of steel or concrete reduces environmental impact, as well as construction and operation costs. Advances in building technology allow the use of wood in a wide range of nonresidential, multi-story and long-span buildings.
It is through this interdisciplinary approach that progress has been made in wood seasoning, wood preservation methods, wood machining, surfacing, and gluing, and in the many other processes applied in its utilization. Kollman (1936)21 published a book entitled, "Technologie des Holzes", which was a first approach to a universal reference book on wood technology. This was updated in 197522 .
18 Mai C., Schmitt U., Niemz P. 2022. A brief overview on the development of wood research. Holzforschung 2022, 76(2) PAGE 102-119. Publisher De Gruyter.
19 Teischinger A. 2010. The development of wood technology and technological developments in the wood industries from history to future. European Journal of Wood and wood products. 2010. 68 (3) pp 281-287. Hal00608725.
20 Kollmann FFP, Coté WA (1968) Principles of Wood Science and Technology, I Solid Wood. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York
21 Kollmann F (1936) Technologie des Holzes – Erster Band Julius Springer Verlag Berlin
22 Kollmann FFP, Kuenzi EW., Stamm AJ. (1975) Principles of Wood Science and Technology, II, Wood Based Materials. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York
COST23 highlighted that in the last decades the key issues and driving forces of wood technology have changed significantly. Their forest domain FPS (Forest/their services and products) has the mission to promote research along the whole forestry-wood-chain by providing a platform for the effective coordination of nationally funded research activities in the areas of forestry, wood technology and pulp & paper. It became evident that their forest domain has changed its focus in later years from a technology-focus to a more environmental-related focus.
As a general conclusion one can state that the forest-based industry is essentially a mature industry which must rejuvenate, and innovative science and technology will be critical drivers for incremental improvements and breakthrough processes as well.
As a scientific discipline the further development of wood technology is strongly related to forest products research. Ellefson et al (2007)24 undertook a worldwide overview on wood research institutes in 2004/2005 on the ability of forest products research and development organizations to contribute to a nation’s well-being
Areas of Wood Research
Wood Chemistry is primarily concerned with the chemical compounds that make up wood, particularly the xylem. The industrial exploitation of cellulose fibres from wood relies on chemical pulping according to the sulphite and sulphate process. In addition to the utilisation of cellulose for paper production, regenerated cellulose and cellulose derivatives products have provided basic materials for the textile and chemical industries.
With the emergence of molecular biological methods, the research base on lignin biosynthesis has expanded. There has been a renaissance in lignin research to produce biofuels from ligno-cellulose.
Research continues into the use of wood extractives, tree extractives and tannins.
Wood Biology is a sub discipline of wood science and deals with the formation and structure of xylem tissues and is based on analyses on macroscopic, microscopic, and molecular levels. It includes cambium and its activities as the meristematic tissue responsible for xylem formation, and the physiological processes of wood-forming plants during their life cycle.
Wood Physics is the theory of the physical and mechanical properties of wood and woodbased materials. It is based on the findings of wood chemistry, wood anatomy and biology and classic physics, mechanics, and strength of materials.
Important areas of wood physics include:
• The behaviour of wood related to moisture. (basics of moisture sorption, swelling and shrinkage.)
• The influence of temperature on wood properties.
• Heat conduction and storage.
• Mechanical, rheological, and acoustic properties of wood and wood-based materials.
23 COST (http://www.cost.esf.org) an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology allowing coordination of nationally funded research on a European level.
24 Ellefson PV, Kilgore MA, Skog KE, Risbrudt CD (2007) Forest products research and development organizations. Organization, governance, and measures of performance in a worldwide setting. Forest Products Journal 57 (10): 6 – 13
Rise of Wood Science and Technology Journals
With the growing emphasis on wood research, a wood science and technology literacy has been founded.
Some international wood science and technology journals*. Source Teischinger 2010.
* There is no clear line between forest related journals, pulp and paper technology and timber (civil) engineering.
The development of wood science – with some aspects of technology, too, is well documented in a compilation in the first volume of the journal Wood Science and Technology (Coté et al25. 1967) A continuous update of a documentation of new knowledge in wood science – besides the many scientific wood science journals – is given by the Springer Series in Wood Science (ed. R. Wimmer)26 which also covers aspects of technology.
With the many findings of the various research being done, much of the new knowledge is firstly presented at conferences and published in conference proceedings and scientific journals.
25 Coté WA, Freudenberg K, Kisser J, Koch P, Kollmann FFP, Liese W, Marian JE, Stamm AJ, Thunell B, Winkelmann HG, Ylinen A (1967) The History of Wood Science. Wood Sci Technol 1 (3): 161 – 190
26 Wimmer R (ed.) Springer Series in Wood Science. http://www.springer.com/series/760
Many further technological aspects have been covered more specifically by various authors such as: wood machining by Koch27 (1964), the field of wood adhesives and technology of bonding by Pizzi28 (1983) and Marra29 (1992), wood-based materials by Maloney30 (1977), Deppe and Ernst31 (1977), Sellers32 (1985), Dunky and Niemz33 (2002) etc.
The “Primary Wood Processing” by Walker34 (1993) is one example of the many books dealing with the first step of wood processing.
The reinvention of old technologies such as the wood modification process have undergone huge developments, driven in part by environmental concerns regarding the use of preservatives treated wood. Hill35 (2006) provides a new scientific basis for these “green” wood protection technologies.
Society’s concern over increasing fuel prices, greenhouse gas emissions, and the associated global warming have created tremendous interest in the science and technologies that promise the sustainable production of materials, chemicals, and energy from domestic resources. These considerations unambiguously dictate the need for practically oriented scientific research and the book by Argyropoulos36 (2006) is just one example of a comparatively new compilation of the abundant research literature covering a wide range of the production of materials, chemicals, and energy from forest biomass.
27 Koch P (1964) Wood Machining Processes. The Ronald Press Company, New York
28 Pizzi A (ed.) (1983) Wood Adhesives. Chemistry and Technology. Marcel Dekker, New York, and Basel
29 Marra AA (1992) Technology of wood bonding. Principles and practice. Van Nostrand Reinhold. New York
30 Maloney TM (1977) Modern particleboard & dry-process fibreboard manufacturing. Miller Freeman Publications, San Francisco
31 Deppe HJ, Ernst K (1977) Taschenbuch der Spanplattentechnik. DRW-Verlag, Stuttgart
32 Sellers T (1985) Plywood and Adhesive Technology. Marcel Dekker, New York, and Basel.
33 Dunky M, Niemz P (2002) Holzwerkstoffe und Leime: Technologien und Einflussfaktoren. Springer, Berlin
34 Walker JCF (1993) Primary Wood Processing. Principles and Practise. Chapman & Hall. London
35 Hill C (2006) Wood modification. Chemical, thermal, and other processes. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, West Sussex, England
36 Argyropoulos D (ed.) (2006) Materials, Chemical and Energy from Forest Biomass. ACS Symposium Series 954. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC
Current Issues of Wood Technology. Source Teischinger 2010.
Challenges and a call for improved or new technologies can be identified along the whole wood supply and process chain:
• Wood supply – Forest resources are being affected by growing needs (including fast growing demand for wood as an energy carrier) to environmental restrictions.
• Timber in construction - Wood is a highly synthesized and optimized raw material from nature with load-bearing functions as one of its main functionalities. Improvements can still be made re the mechanic performance of wood by proper grading and excluding natural pattern and inhomogeneities and building up engineered material structures.
• Material engineering - Engineered wood composite materials and structures on all hierarchical levels (from nano- to macrostructures) are a main field of technology research to make wood materials more competitive.
• Wood aesthetics - Morphology and chemical composition including the various extractives create an inimitable surface aesthetic appearance of wood, especially with the various hardwoods. Unfortunately, the colour of wood is not UV-stable. A major challenge is to prevent fading and discoloration for a further viable use of wood surfaces (veneer and solid wood) in indoor and outdoor application in competition with technical surface structures.
• Wood modification - Much emphasis has been put on wood modification to make it more durable and stable etc. Putting new functionalities (including multifunctionalities) into the wood or onto the wood surface will be necessary to create a new wood performance which pave the way to so-called smart materials.
• Fractionizing wood - Various mechanical disintegration and chemical decomposition processes are well established to break down and fractionize the raw material wood and to rearrange and re-engineer it to glued components, wood-based panels, paper sheets etc However, improved and completely new processes of disintegration must be envisaged.
• Machining and processing - Primary and secondary wood processing has improved (e.g., high-capacity sawmills, continuous presses for wood-based panels, high-performance wood machining), but new process technologies, manufacturing concepts (mass customization, tailoring of products etc.) must be developed. Resource and eco- efficient processes must be envisaged in wood industries by means of improved and new process analytics as discussed by Kessler (200637) and production management systems which in turn are part of a concept of knowledge-based production.
• Wood refinery - Thermo-chemical processes, and increasingly, biotechnology is used to break down lignocellulosic feedstocks to their building blocks for the chemical and energy industry – the terms “integrated biomass technologies” and “wood biorefinery” became the keywords within the emergence of a new industrial sector of renewables-based technologies
• Recycling – An increased use of wood builds up a huge secondary feedstock to be used as a material and/or energy carrier. The material, industrial and building designs must be matched to a future demolishing of used structures and the recovery of wood. Wood technology becomes an important role in the concept of a cascadic use of wood.
• Technology assessment - In the future, the development of new technologies must be accompanied by technology assessment (such as described by Bröchler38 et al. 1999) provides future well-being.
• Technology education - Wood technology as an academic discipline must be further developed (and discussed within the wood science and technology community) encompassed by rigorous academic curricula to provide a profound technology education to the students, which must create the intellectual backbone of tomorrow’s forest-based industries and a knowledge-based society as well.
37 Kessler RW (ed.) (2006) Prozessanalytik. Wiley-VCH, Weinham
38 Bröchler S, Simonis G, Sundermann K (ed.) (1999) Handbuch der Technikfolgenabschätzung (Handbook of Technology Assessment). Band 1-3. Edition Sigma® Rainer Bohn Verlag, Berlin.
Possible Future Pathways
An example below of possible future pathways is the current USA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) at Madison Wisconsin mission statement and research areas.
Today (2023), USA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) at Madison Wisconsin Mission is to identify and conduct innovative wood and fiber utilization research that contributes to conservation and productivity of forest resources, thereby sustaining forests, the economy, and quality of life.
FPL Research Emphasis Areas
1 Underutilized Woody Biomass:
2 Nanotechnology.
3 Forest Biorefinery and Biomass Utilization.
4 Advanced Structures Research
5 Advanced Composites.
FPL Research Work Units
1 Durability & Wood Protection
2 Economics & Statistics
3 Engineered Composites Sciences
4 Engineering Properties of Wood, Wood-based Materials & Structures
5 Fibre & Chemical Sciences Research
6 Institute for Microbial & Biochemical Technology
7 Forest Biopolymer Science & Engineering
FPL Laboratory Units
1 Analytical Chemistry & Microscopy Laboratory
2 Engineering Mechanics & Remote Sensing Laboratory
3 Paper Test Laboratory
FPL Resources & Technical Assistance
1 Centre for Wood Anatomy Research
2 Centre for Forest Mycology Research
3 Technology Marketing Unit
4 FPL Library
FPL Research & Testing Facilities
1 Centennial Research
2 Research Demonstration House and Carriage House
3 Fire Test Lab
4 Pulp & Paper Plant
5 Nanocellulose Pilot Plant
OVERVIEW OF WOOD RESEARCH INSTITUTES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES 39 (As relevant to Wood Science Endeavours of PNG Woods).
COUNTRY YEAR INSTITUTES
Austria 1872 Institute of Wood Technology and Renewable Resources University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. Today in Konrad Lorenz – Strafe 24 3430 Tulin an der Donu.
UK 1884 Bangor University
France 1899 Colonial test garden Nogent-sur-Marne, forerunner to CIRAD.
Australia 1889 NSW Technological Museum (now Powerhouse Museum Sydney.) J. H. Maiden, Richard T Baker (economic botanists).
Great Britain 1905 Oxford Forestry Institute Oxford.
INDIA 1906
Forest Products Research Institute Dehradun
Australia 1906 Perth Technical School. Pulp and Paper Research under I H Boas.
TPNG 1908 Gilbert Burnett to PNG
USA 1910 Forest Products Laboratory Madison/Wisconsin
Australia 1911 James Mann Government research scholar at the School of Engineering, University of Melbourne
Germany 1913 Institute of Wood and Pulp Chemistry
Eberswalde. From 1934 Prussian Wood Research Institute and then 1934-1945 Reichsantait fur Holzforschung (German Central Institute for Wood Research).
39 Source: 2021 Carsten Mai, Uwe Schmitt, Peter Niemz A brief overview on the development of wood research. Publisher De Gruyter.
Canada 1913 Forest Products Laboratory Montreal (since 1927 Ottawa)
Australia 1917 Alfred Tomlinson University of Western Australia timber seasoning kiln.
Canada 1918 Forest Products Laboratory Vancouver
Australia 1918 Queensland Salisbury Research Facility
Australia 1919 Victorian Timbers and the Influence of Richard T Baker’s work on Hardwoods of Australia and their economics. Published 1919.
Australia 1919 Forest Products Laboratory Melbourne
Great Britain 1921 Building Research Establishment Garston.
Great Britain 1925 Forest Products Laboratory Princes Risborough Buckinghamshire.
PNG 1920/25 Australian Government Lane Poole TPNG forest investigations.
Australia 1928/71 Division of Forest Products Part of CSIR. (Mark 1)
Russia 1929 Institute of Wood Science and Technology
Leningrad (St Petersburg) strong orientation on wood chemistry (Faculty of Wood Chemistry).
Russia 1932 Union Research and development Association
Soyuzmetdrewprom Arkhangelsk (with the Research Institute of Mechanical Processing of Wood (ZNIMOD)). Today Nautschdrewprom –ZNIIMOD Arkhangelsk
France 1933 Institut National du Bois Paris (French National Wood Research Institute)
Great Britain 1934
Timber Research and Development Association High Wycombe.
Australia 1935 NSW Forest Commission, Division of Wood Technology.
Australia 1938 Timber Development Association of NSW.
Australia 1939/45 WW 2 Australian Forestry Survey Corp McAdam, Dadswell, White
Finland 1942 Laboratory of Wood Technology Helsinki.
Switzerland 1943 Wood Department of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing Zurich (today Cellulose & Wood materials, EMPA, Dubendorf.
Sweden 1944 Svenska Traforskningsinstitutet (SFTI), (Swedish Forest Products Research Laboratory), Stockholm. The Swedish Institute of Wood technology Research (TRATEK). Today part of RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden.
Latvia (formerly Soviet Union)
1946 Latvian Academy of Science, Institute of Wood Chemistry (SIWC) (coordinated all wood chemistry research in former Soviet Union).
Germany 1946 Institute for Wood Research of the Association for Technical Wood ions (Verein fur Technische Holzfragen e.V, Braunschweig. Today Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research (WKI).
Slovakia 1947 State Wood Research Institute Bratislava. Today part of Institute for Paper Technology.
New Zealand 1947 Forest Research Institute Rotorua. Today, Scion.
PNG 1947
Ongoing Wood Research work by CSIR for PNG
Austria 1948 Austrian Wood Research Institute Vienna. (Today Holzforscuhung Austria).
Germany 1950 Federal Institute for Forestry and Forest Products, Reinbek near Hamburg. Today Thunen Institute with its Institute of Wood Research, Hamburg in cooperation with University of Hamburg.
Germany 1952 Institute for Wood technology and fibres Dresden. Today Institute for Wood technology Dresden. (Institut fur Holztechnologie Dresden (1HD)).
Germany 1954 Institute for Wood Research and Wood Technology University of Munich. Today Wood Research Munich (Technical University Munich).
Russia 1962 VNiidrev (Union Research and Production Association) to 1971 Sojusnautschplitprom Podreskowo (with research institute Balabanowo). Since 1990, Institute for the planning of facilities for wood-based materials NIPKIDREVPLIT Podreskowo.
PNG 1966 Forest Products Research Centre Hohola PNG
Globally By the 1960’s
Many research institutes had been added by the 1960’s as:
Austria - Institute of Wood technology and Renewable Resources University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. Today, Tulin.
France - ENSTIB Epinal.
Canada - University of British Columbia Vancouver.
Canada - University of Laval.
USA - University of Main, Oregon State University.
Switzerland - Bern University of Applied Science Biel.
China - Chinese Academy of Forestry in Beijing. Universities in Nanjing, Kunming, Harbin.
Japan - Universities in Nagoya and Kyoto.
Considerable wood research capacities are available in South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, and Chile.
Australia -Universities as Melbourne, Southern Cross, Sunshine Coast.
Wood research areas had been established in Universities of former Eastern European countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and other countries).
DETAILS RE SPECIFC WOOD RESEARCH FACILITIES
Austria 1872 Institute of Wood Technology and Renewable Resources University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. Today in Konrad Lorenz – Strafe 24 3430 Tulin an der Donu.
The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) began its success story in 1872 as a small agricultural and forestry university under the name "k. k. Hochschule für Bodencultur". Today, the BOKU locations Türkenschanze, Muthgasse and Tulin offer the 15 departments and 11,000 students, optimal conditions for learning, teaching and research.
Bangor University is the longest standing Forestry Department in the UK with its roots dating back to the early part of the last Century when Forestry was the very essence of the original School. It is at the forefront of international forest research with active research programmes spanning from boreal to tropical forests.
In the late 19th century, following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, France decided to build a structure to coordinate activities in its colonial empire aimed at improving agricultural production. This was the birth of French tropical agricultural research. The colonial test garden in Nogent-sur-Marne, founded in 1899, received plants and seeds from the colonies that it planted and analysed in its laboratories. Worthwhile varieties were then propagated and despatched to the test gardens and experimental stations being set up at the time in the colonies. At the same time, specific teaching establishments were emerging in mainland France: tropical agronomy was becoming a scientific discipline.
Practical work for students learning how to pack seedlings for long-distance shipping, 1929 © INAC.
Australia 1889
NSW Technological Museum –now Powerhouse Museum
Sydney. Richard T. Baker, J. H. Maiden, H. G. Smith.
The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney. The museum has existed in various guises for over 125 years, previously named the Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum of New South Wales (1879–1882) and the Technological Museum (August 1893 – March 1988).
The Powerhouse Museum has its origins in a recommendation of the trustees of the Australian Museum in 1878. The new museum was to be called The Technological, Industrial, and Sanitary Museum of New South Wales; its purpose was to exhibit the latest industrial, construction and design innovations with the intention of showing how improvements in the living standards and health of the population might be brought about. The museum's first curator was Joseph Henry Maiden.
Museum Forestry/Wood Science Research activities included:
1889 J. H. Maiden published The Useful Native Plants of Australia
1890 H. Maiden published Wattles and Wattle Barks.
1896 Smith, Henry G (1896) The dyeing properties of aromadendrin and of tannins of eucalyptus kinos.
1902 Richard Baker published Research on the Eucalypts especially regarding their essential oils.
1903 J. H. Maiden published A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus. (appearing in over seventy parts from 1903, in which he recognized 366 species).
1904 J. H. Maiden published Forest Flora of New South Wales. (in seventy-seven parts from 1904).
1908 R. T. Baker published Building and Ornamental Stones of New South Wales.
1910 R. T. Baker and Henry Smith published A Research on the Pines of Australia
1913 R. T. Baker published Cabinet Timbers of Australia.
1915 R. T. Baker published Building and Ornamental Stones of Australia.
1919 R. T. Baker published The Hardwoods of Australia and their Economics.
1924 R. T. Baker and Henry Smith published Wood fibres of some Australian timbers: investigated in reference to their prospective value for paper-pulp production.
Source Wikipedia
Maiden, a botanist, and public servant, in 1880 became curator of the new Technological Museum. Interested in Australian flora and helped by the director of the Botanic Gardens Charles Moore and rev William Woolls. Maiden quickly established himself as an expert in economic botany and encouraged research into the properties of Australian timbers and essential oils. He began writing on botanical subjects in 1887 and in 1889 published The Useful Native Plants of Australia. A smaller work, Wattles and Wattle-Barks, followed next year. The next year he was appointed consulting botanist to the department's forestry division. Early in 1894 he became superintendent of technical education and in May 1896 director of the Botanic Gardens and government botanist.
His major achievement was the creation of the National Herbarium of New South Wales, with a museum and library, opened in March 1901.
Maiden continued his massive output of botanical research and publication. He maintained his interest in economic botany: the useful and the dangerous qualities of various plants. But this expanded into a taxonomic project: identification and classification of major Australian genera. His major works were A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus, appearing in over seventy parts from 1903, in which he recognized 366 species, and his Forest Flora of New South Wales, in seventy-seven parts from 1904. He lectured at the university in forestry in 1913-21 and in agricultural botany in 1914-21.
Active in the movement to retain large areas of native forests, Maiden also published important work on the use of plants to stabilize sand drift and on the essential role of trees in flood mitigation. A leading member of an important group of urban improvers, he ardently advocated more parks and trees to soften urban landscapes, dispatching thousands of seeds, and cuttings from the gardens to local councils and schools. He wanted protection for trees endangered by urban development, and popularized the palms which became a feature of Edwardian Sydney. As well as the Botanic Gardens, the State nursery and several vice-regal residences, Maiden oversaw the Outer Domain and Centennial Park. He fought hard (not always successfully) to make and maintain his various domains safe for public perambulation, day, and night. In 1909 he helped to found Wattle Day 'with the view of stimulating Australian national sentiment'. For many years he was president of the State branch of the Australian Wattle League and in 1922 was elected national president.
Richard
Thomas Baker (1854-1941)
Source ANBG.
Baker41 was an Australian economic botanist and museum curator and educator.
On 15 January 1888 he was appointed assistant curator to J H Maiden, curator of the Technological Museum, Sydney. He published his first scientific paper (with Maiden) in 1891. In charge of the museum from 1896, he was appointed curator on 5 September 1898, and economic botanist in 1901; he also had charge of branch museums at Goulburn, Bathurst, Newcastle, Albury, and West Maitland.
Although Bosisto and Mueller pioneered the eucalyptus oil industry, phytochemistry as a science was virtually unknown. Baker and his colleague H. G. Smith research work was
oriented towards the commercial applications of the various natural products of the flora such as essential oils, gums, and resins. Baker was an originator and mere compilations of data held little interest for him. In 1902 Baker published an important work, A Research on the Eucalypts especially in regard to their essential oils, prepared in collaboration with H . G. Smith and an updated version in 1920.
From the date of his first major work with Smith, Research on the Eucalypts, Especially Regarding their Essential Oils (Sydney, 1902), his theories were challenged by many Australian botanists, although his work was often praised overseas.
The cornerstone of Baker's work on the eucalypts, which he elaborated in the second edition of his book in 1920, was his assertion that each species of Eucalyptus was characterized by an oil of comparative chemical constancy, that there was a relationship between the leaf venation and the composition of the oil, and that chemical characteristics should be accorded equal value with morphological characters in the establishment of species. The last statement particularly aroused the ire of more orthodox botanists. Although more efficient methods of investigation have led to a substantial modification of Baker's theories, he and Smith were pioneers of modern chemotaxonomy as a recognized discipline, and their work enabled the eucalyptus oil industry to be established on a firm commercial basis.
Baker was lecturer on forestry at the University of Sydney 1913–1925, was a member of the Royal and Linnean Societies of New South Wales and published over 100 papers in their journals. He was a member of the council of the Linnean Society 1897–1922.
Baker published a small book, Building and Ornamental Stones of New South Wales (1908), and, again in collaboration with Henry Smith, another valuable piece of research, A Research on the Pines of Australia (1910). In 1913 Cabinet Timbers of Australia appeared, and in 1915 two more books Building and Ornamental Stones of Australia, and Australian Flora in Applied Art. An important work, The Hardwoods of Australia, and their Economics, was published with many illustrations in 1919. Baker retired from the Technological Museum on 30 June 1921. With H. G. Smith he published Wood fibres of Some Australian Timbers (1924).
Baker published over 120 scientific papers dealing with Melaleuca, Leptospermum, Prostanthera, Angophora and other essential-oil-bearing genera. In 1908 he issued a small book, Building and Ornamental Stones of New South Wales (which he greatly expanded in 1915). It was followed in 1910 by Research on the Pines of Australia (with Smith), Cabinet Timbers of Australia (1913), and The Australian Flora in Applied Arts (1915) in which he warmly advocated the waratah as Australia's national flower and its use as a motif. He regarded Hardwoods of Australia and their Economics (1919) as his major work and dedicated it to Munro Ferguson. After his retirement from the museum in June 1922, Baker and Smith collaborated in producing Wood fibres of Some Australian Timbers … (1924). All these books were not only scientifically and practically important but are a lasting tribute to the quality of Australian book production at the time. A talented artist, he illustrated several of his own books as well as numerous scientific papers.
Following the establishment of a Forestry School at Oxford University in 1905, a separate Institute was established in 1924.
With political changes its name changed from Imperial (IFI, 1924) to Commonwealth (CFI, 1947) and finally to Oxford Forestry Institute (OFI, 1983). It was for almost a century arguably the English-speaking world’s leading institution concerned with forestry education, research, information, and advice; it dealt with most topics related to forests throughout the world, their description and assessment, conservation, policy, economics, management, and use.
The Oxford Forestry Institute’s main research areas were gentic resources, silviculture, pathology, social forestry, ecology, wood processing.
The Oxford Forestry Institute was incorporated into the Department of Plant Sciences in 2002, and research relating to forestry was undertaken under that name until 2022 when the department merged with the Department of Zoology to form the Department of Biology. Some students were Imperial Forest Service students, who came from many parts of the British Empire to qualify as foresters before they returned home. It ran a post graduate MSc forestry course for many years.
Forest Products Research Institute Dehradun
Early History of Indian forests under the British Empire in India
Heavy destruction of forests also occurred in the later part of the 18th and early part of the 19th century. The teak forests along the coast of Malabar were over-exploited with the timber supplied to meet the requirement of the British Navy. Over-exploitation followed appointment of a commission in 1800 to inquire into the availability of teak. Sandal wood trees of South India were exploited for the European market.
The first Conservator of Forests was appointed in 1806. It was basically to organize timber supply from the West Coast. First teak plantation in Nilambur (Kerala) was raised in 1842. This was the first step towards the conservation forestry. In 1855, the Government of India issued a memorandum outlining the rules for the conservation of forests for the whole country. A qualified forester, Dr. Dietrich Brandis, was appointed the first Inspector General of forests in 1864. The First Indian Forest Act was drafted in 1865. A revised Indian Forest Act came into existence in 1878. It became operational in most of the provinces. For the first time forests were classified into Reserve and Protected forests. In 1927, the Act of 1878 was consolidated.
The Imperial Forest Research Institute was established in 1906 in Dehradun to organise and lead forestry research in India. Its history is synonymous with the evolution and development of scientific forestry not only in India but in the entire Indian subcontinent. The institute also administered training to forest officers and forest ranger in the country and after independence, it was aptly named as Forest Research Institute and Colleges. In 1988, FRI and its research centres were brought under the administrative umbrella of Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE) under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India
Australia 1906
Perth Technical school. Pulp and Paper Research under I H Boas.
Classes started in the Perth Technical School in May 1900, which would be renamed The Perth Technical College in 1929, offered voluntary classes for trade apprentices and others possessing an occupational qualification. The school also provided university courses under licence from the University of Adelaide until the University of Western Australia was established in 1914.
In 1906 Issac Boas42 became lecturer in chemistry at the Technical School, Perth. For his survey of Collie coals, made in 1914 at the request of a State royal commission, he was awarded the degree of M.Sc. by the University of Western Australia.
In 1915 paper sample tests, samples from old eucalypt trees were pulped using high sodium hydroxide charges. The pulp was of poor quality and pulp yield only 30%.
The Western Australian Forest Products Laboratory is a complex story43 involving strong personalities, State and Federal Agencies.
In about 1918, following a report of successful French pulping tests of young E. globulus, Lane Poole suggested to Boas at Perth Technical School that wood from karri regrowth may also be suitable for pulping.
Boas became increasingly interested in the chemistry of wood and associated products. The shortages of World War I convinced him that Australia needed a central organization to deal with the problems of the forest industries. In his makeshift laboratory at the Technical School, he investigated the fundamental and chemical reactions involved in the soda process of papermaking, uninhibited by existing techniques and undismayed by adverse reports of visiting experts. Making pulp from karri and producing a few sheets of paper from it, he showed that the apparent unsuitability of Australian hardwoods was due to misconceived techniques rather than the timber itself.
42 Source Newman Rosenthal Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, 1979. Online 2006
43 L. R. Benjamin 1923. Manufacture of pulp and paper from Australian Woods. CSR Bull.25.
L. R. Benjamin 1959. The challenge of the eucalypts. Appita 13 (3): 90-103.
I. H. Boas The commercial timbers of Australia, their properties and uses. CSIR publication Melbourne.
In 1919 Boas persuaded the Australian States to establish a forest products laboratory, to be set up in Perth under the auspices of the projected Commonwealth Bureau of Science and Industry and was appointed officer-in-charge. In 1919 Federal authorities agreed to establish a Forest Products laboratory in Perth and sponsored Boas in 1919-20 to study forest industries and research facilities overseas in North America, England, Europe, and India. On his return, he persuaded WA newspaper owners to contribute 600 pounds to purchase a model paper machine and some auxiliary items. After setting up the laboratory and the Pulp and Paper section with Benjamin in charge, Boas resigned because by 1921 the bill to establish the bureau had not been passed. Boas became the chief chemist in the Melbourne leather firm of Michaelis, Haldenstein & Co. He soon found a common interest with Professor D. O. Masson in the problem of scientific control of the tanning, glue, and gelatine industries in Victoria. Meanwhile in Perth, a former student L. R. Benjamin was carrying on where Boas had left off. Despite difficulties, pulping and papermaking continued, extending to almost all Australian eucalypts.
In 1923, the Forest Products Laboratory moved from Perth to Brunswick Technical School in Melbourne. The Brunswick laboratory closed in 1928 and the papermaking machine was transferred to Dept of Forest products premises in East Melbourne.
In 1890 in Queensland, Leonard G Board was appointed the first Inspector of Forests together with forest rangers Gilbert Burnett and F. W. H. Lade. They formed the Forestry Branch in the Dept of Public Lands.
The Australian administrator of Papua and New Guinea Murray, first attempted to survey the timber potential of parts of Papua in 1908. By arrangement with the Queensland Government, a Queensland Forest Inspector Mr Gilbert Burnett went to Papua to report on its timber resources. He stayed there for seven months and visited various places along the coast from the Purari Delta to Samarai and in the vicinity of Buna Bay to the north-east. Mr Burnett44 reported he had some difficulty in penetrating into the country, but he produced a report of an optimistic nature, and he listed 120 species of trees by their Papuan names, obtained wood samples and classified them according to use, but not botanically.
45The death is announced of Mr. Gilbert Burnett a highly respected resident of Wellington Point.
The late Mr. Burnett was one of the early seekers on the Gympie field when it broke out. In going over the ranges at Conondale they let the dray down by way of a rope made fast to trees.
Later, Mr. Burnett settled at Burpengary, and after a few years he took charge of his father-in law's sugar plantation and mill at Woondall, near Wynnum.
From there he took control of the late Captain Hope's sugar mill at Ormiston, and later he bought the mill and a large tract of land at Wellington Point, where he erected the mill and grew sugar cane.
44 1908 Gilbert Burnett Timber Trees of the Territory of Papua Reports and catalogue. Public Library of Victoria 31 Aug 1911
45 Transcribed from “the Queenslander Saturday 23rd May 1925.
Subsequently he converted the mill into a sawmill and carried on timber milling for many years.
But misfortune came, the whole mill and contents being burnt down. Mr. Burnett held a position in the Queensland Forestry Department and made many friends during his travels in all parts of Queensland and New Guinea
USA 1910 Forest Products Laboratory Madison/Wisconsin
Early USA Forestry History.
By the late 1800s, awareness was growing that timber resources were finite and careful use could extend them. In 1887 B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture reported that ignorance of various tree species wood properties was fostering a wasteful use of USA natural forests E.g., Black Walnut used for fence material, Chestnut Oak left rotting in the forests unused, Hemlock ignored, etc.
Between 1890 and 1910 research into timber management and reforestation was scattered across various U.S. universities. Research into the mechanical properties of various woods was done at Purdue and universities in Washington, California, Oregon, and Colorado. Yale hosted studies on preservation and kiln drying. An experimental pulp mill was at Boston, along with studies of wood chemistry and preservation.
The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) was conceived of in 1907 by McGarvey Cline, chief of the U.S. Forest Service Office of Wood Utilization. Cline saw the need for a centralized research facility to improve coordination among regional research centers. Along with Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot, Cline selected the University of Wisconsin campus as the site for this new laboratory because Madison had good access to rail lines, was close to timber resources, and the UW had a good reputation for scientific research.
The old Forest Products Laboratory 1910 on the University of Wisconsin -Madison campus Source UW.
In 1910 the Forest Products building was completed, with eight divisions: Timber Physics, Timber Testing, Pulp and Paper, Wood Preservation, Wood Chemistry, Wood Distillation, Wood Engineering, and Pathology.
The lab's work grew, and a new lab was built in 1931 and 1932. Source UW.
Research at the FPL had facilitated breakthroughs in housing, packaging, recycling, and conservation of forest resources. Specifically, researchers at the FPL developed particle board, glued laminated wood, the laminated arch, pulp paper processes, and fiberboard boxes, and wood crates. The FPL has also made numerous important contributions to the country during its history, including crucial research for the armed forces during times of war.
FPL Mission is to identify and conduct innovative wood and fiber utilization research that contributes to conservation and productivity of forest resources, thereby sustaining forests, the economy, and quality of life.
FPL Research Emphasis Areas
1 Underutilized Woody Biomass: Research efforts include characterizing and identifying potential uses for small diameter thinning material and underutilized woody biomass.
2 Nanotechnology This research presents great potential for improved wood product performance and serviceability. Potential nanotech applications include wood composite materials with embedded nanosensors to measure and react to structural forces, loads, moisture, and temperatures. Nano-enabled antimicrobial and water-resistant coatings on lumber for use in flood-prone areas and hurricane zones could improve health, safety, and wood resiliency in these areas. The development of high-value products from undervalued wood resources using cellulose nanocrystals and nano fibrillated cellulose components can also improve the performance and durability of fibreboard, particle board and glued structural products for use in a wide array of structural applications.
3 Forest Biorefinery and Biomass Utilization. Research opportunities to improve the economics of producing transportation fuel, bioenergy, and chemicals from woody biomass.
4 Advanced Structures Research including functionality, environmental impact, and economics.
5 Advanced Composites. Research opportunities include biobased composite products based on natural fibres, and hybrid products, such as wood–plastic composites, and new composite technologies, such as nano-enabled composites
FPL Research Work Units
1 Durability & Wood Protection: Improving durability and wood protection through improved building design, advances in low-toxicity wood preservatives, and improvements in fire safety.
2 Economics & Statistics: Providing economic information, analysis, and projections and to enhance the efficiency of research through development, evaluation, and application of modern statistical research.
3 Engineered Composites Sciences: Understanding relationships between materials, process, and performance to engineered bio composites.
4 Engineering Properties of Wood, Wood-based Materials & Structures: Improving the characterization of the mechanical and physical properties of wood and wood-based products used in wood building systems.
5 Fibre & Chemical Sciences Research: Formulating efficient processes for converting wood to chemicals and fibres, developing viable uses for underutilized wood resources, and improving methods for recovering and reusing forest products such as waste paper and construction debris.
6 Institute for Microbial & Biochemical Technology: Developing biotechnology and nanotechnology for wood and fibre conversion.
7 Forest Biopolymer Science & Engineering: Understanding the basic properties of wood and other materials used in conjunction with wood to improve their properties, enhance their service life, and develop new uses.
FPL Laboratory Units
1 Analytical Chemistry & Microscopy Laboratory provides high-quality analytical support using specialized equipment as a nanoindenter, atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope.
2 Engineering Mechanics & Remote Sensing Laboratory conducts physical and mechanical tests on a wide range of materials, building systems, and structures for use in the development of building codes and structural design.
3 Paper Test Laboratory focuses mainly on analysing printing and writing grades of paper.
FPL Resources & Technical Assistance
1 Centre for Wood Anatomy Research home to the world's largest research wood collection. Over 100,000 samples are used for research and identification purposes. Researchers study anatomical and other characteristics of wood that may affect their utilization potential, provide wood identification services, and answer questions concerning the properties, characteristics, and uses of tropical and obscure native species.
2 Centre for Forest Mycology Research herbarium containing 70,000 dried specimens of decay fungi, as well as a collection of more than 12,000 living cultures. Samples from these collections are used by researchers around the world to further their studies.
3 Technology Marketing Unit provides a broad scope of expertise in wood products utilization and marketing, technology transfer and technical assistance
4 FPL Library subject areas include solid wood products, pulp and paper, mycology, wood anatomy, wood engineering, biotechnology, adhesives, wood preservation, fire research, economics, biodeterioration of wood, paints and coatings, and recycling.
FPL Research & Testing Facilities
1 Centennial Research Facility designed and built for researchers in engineering mechanics to test the strength of full-scale structures while durability researchers put wood products to the test in a rather punishing weather simulation chamber to improve performance across the most important efficiency metrics.
2 Research Demonstration House and Carriage House allow researchers to conduct housing-related studies in a real-world setting
3 Fire Test Lab is equipped to perform standardized tests for flame retardancy and fire resistance.
4 Pulp & Paper Plant equipped to replicate industrial pulping and papermaking processes on a pilot scale.
5 Nanocellulose Pilot Plant is the country's leading producer of nanocellulose materials.
Australia 1911 James Mann Government research scholar at the School of Engineering, University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne Australia and founded in 1853. James Mann (1857-1921) was the Government research scholar at the School of Engineering, University of Melbourne, 1910-1912, and oversaw the Engineering Laboratory, for 20 years when Professor W. C. Kernot occupied the chair of engineering.
James Mann46 47 was a leading researcher and authority on determining the strength and durability of Australasian timbers, and pioneered methods for identifying species using microscopic examination, and splinter tests.
James Mann wrote several papers in conjunction with the Victorian Institute of Engineers, the Royal Society of Victoria, and other technical bodies, and was consulted by the Victorian Forests Department after it was formed in 1908. E.g., Mann, James, 'Australian timbers: present day practice in Australia, and some original experiments (Paper & Discussion)', Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Engineers vol. V (1905), 106-137, 149151. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24327. Details
Mann published a textbook Australian Timber: its strength, durability, and identification, 1900. An extended second edition was published in 1921, that included more detailed research based on test samples with known age, forest location, and soil conditions, as well as including details about imported timber species from Papua, Burma, New Guinea, and New Zealand.
These texts are internationally recognised by the 'International Association of Wood Anatomists' for identification of hardwood specimens.
Source
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Author James Mann
Publisher Walker May & Co 1900.
46 Reference PNGAF Mag # 9JW3 of 19/11/11 p19-20.
47 Reference PNGAF Mag # 9A of 15/3/21 p20.
In 1911, James Mann48 (1857-1921), presented a paper of his work on six Papuan timber species titled 49Papuan timbers - some of the properties of six specimens, by James Mann, 1911
Germany 1913 Institute of Wood and Pulp Chemistry
Eberswalde. From 1934 Prussian Wood Research Institute and then 1934-1945 Reichsantait fur Holzforschung (German Central Institute for Wood Research).
A Central National Institute of Wood Research, replacing the Prussian Wood Research Institute set up in 1934, was established before World War II at Eberswalde. On the collapse and partition of Germany, it ceased to exist, and the revival of timber research in West Germany was slow and difficult. 50 51 In Germany, the first real wood research institute was founded in 1932 at the Technical University of Darmstadt and in 1934 as the Prussian Wood Research Institute in Eberswalde (later the “Reichsanstalt für Holzforschung”) under the direction of Franz Kollmann (1906–1987)
Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries. Institute of Wood Research Brandenberg. Research areas include:
1 Quality of Wood and Wood Products - Lesser-known wood species as well as new wood-based products available on the European market and testing and evaluating their properties and possible applications.
2 Bio-based Resources and Materials - research to optimally utilize wood in all its applications: from construction to natural chemical raw materials.
3 Impact of Wood Utilization on Environment and Climate - Work on carbon balances and life cycle assessments.
4 Human Health and Consumer Protection -
50 Unasylva Vol 6 # 3 Sept 1952. Prof Dr J. Weck, Prof F. Kollmann Federal Institute of Forests and Wood Economics Reinbek. Research in the Federal Republic of Germany.
51Peter Spathelf, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Responsibility for the forest – Forest research and higher education at Eberswalde since 1892. Peter Spathelf, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development.
Canada 1913 Forest Products Laboratory
Montreal (since 1927 Ottawa)
Since 1913, forest products research in Canada has been a federal research function52 with the Forest Products Laboratories, a unit of the Dominion Forest Service. The Forest Products Laboratories research53 in forest products were established in Canada in 1913 at Montreal, in co-operation with McGill University, as a part of the Forest Service of the then Department of the Interior.
Since that date, the Laboratories have expanded, and the work is now carried out in three locations, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Montreal.
The function of the Laboratories was to obtain scientific and technical information on forest products to promote the wider and more efficient use of wood.
The laboratories were organized in three divisions, timber physics, timber tests and pulp and paper and their overall goals were:
1 to secure authoritative information on the characteristic mechanical and physical properties of commercial woods and on products obtained from them
2 to study and develop the fundamental principles underlying the preservative treatment of wood and the use of wood in the production of fibre products.
3 to develop ways and means of using wood that under existing conditions was being wasted.
4 to serve as a public bureau of information on the properties and utilization of forest products.
5 to cooperate with consumers of forest products in improving existing methods of use. 52 Cameron
Australia 1917 Alfred Tomlinson University of Western Australia timber seasoning kiln.
Not long after the third Australian Forestry Conference held in Melbourne in November 191654, a timber seasoning kiln was installed by Acting Professor Alfred Tomlinson55 at the Engineering School of the University of Western Australia. At the same time , C.E. Lane Poole arranged for investigations on pulp and paper manufactrue to be commenced at Perth Technical School under Issac Herbert Boas.
54 CSIRO Forest Products Newsletter # 350 April May 1968.
55 Source: trove The West Australian (Pert WA 1879-1954) Wed 0th May 1925 page 10. Late professor Alfred Tomlinson.
Canada 1918
Forest Products Laboratory Vancouver
Historical Background
Canadian research in forest products essentially began in 1913 when the Forest Products Laboratories of Canada were established under the jurisdiction of the Dominion Forestry Branch in cooperation with McGill University in Montreal.
In 1918, a branch laboratory was established at Vancouver on the University of British Columbia campus to deal with problems pertaining to British Columbia timber that could be coped with most effectively on a local basis. Encouragement for establishing the Vancouver Laboratory is reported to have come from the Department of Aeronautical Supply, imperial Ministry of Munitions, to test Sitka spruce for use in aircraft construction in the United Kingdom.
By 1925, the Vancouver laboratory had expanded its function beyond engineering and was attempting to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding western forest industry. In this year, the laboratory moved to Point Grey, the new site of the University of British Columbia. Under the terms of an agreement with the university, the laboratory staff conducted classes in mechanical engineering and made available the large testing machines for demonstration and research (Minister of Forestry and Rural Development 1968).
In 1927, in the Eastern laboratory, the pulp and paper division was split off and formed the core of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute, a cooperative laboratory focused on pulp and paper.
The remaining divisions moved to Ottawa
On the academic scene, faculties of forestry were eventually established at several Canadian universities.
Keith56 in 1990 detailed Canadian wood research accomplishments in wood science, wood chemistry and biotechnology. Sawn timber manufacture, seasoning, composite products, adhesives, wood building systems, fire performance, forest products pathology and preservative treatments.
Source. Canadian Forest Service.
56 Keith C 1990. Canadian Accomplishments in Forest Products Research April 1990 The Forestry Chronicle p148-155. Downloaded from pubs.cif-ifc.org by 110.144.51.134 on 05/07/23.
Australia 1918 Queensland Salisbury Research Facility
The Salisbury Research Facility combines Australia's largest science and technical capacity in forest products research. With more than 3,100m2 of laboratories, processing equipment and office space, the facility is equipped to undertake forest products research and development on semi-commercial, pilot and laboratory scales including:
• kiln drying and sawmilling technology.
• timber grading and advanced mechanical wood properties testing.
• wood anatomy and wood identification.
• wood product design and manufacture.
• timber preservation and performance testing.
David Gough57 in describing 100 years of forest research in Queensland, highlighted that in Queensland by the 1870’s, the need to reguale the profligate cutting of Queensand timber resources was recognised. In 1975, a select committee was appointed by the Queensland Legislative Assembly to advise on the status of forest conservancy in Queensland.
Two visonaries were Archibald McDowall (later to become Surveyor General in the Dept of Public lands) and Maryborough sawmiller and local Legislative Assembly Member Richard Hyne.
Richard Hyne (James Hyne’s great, great, grandfather) emigrated to Australia from England in 1864. As a qualified carpenter with a box of tools, he set to work as a successful builder and carpenter during the Gympie gold rush. In 1870 he became the publican of the Mining Exchange Hotel. Some years later, he moved to Maryborough, acquiring the lease of the Royal Hotel. While retaining the Royal Hotel freehold, he was no longer the licensee. He established Hyne, then called the National Saw and Planing Mill on the banks of the Mary River in Maryborough in 1882. By 1998, he was a well-established timber manufacturer and well placed to understand and drive forest-related policy. As a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, successfully introduced a motion that the government take immediate action in the replanting of forests and the creation of a Department of Forestry.
By 1890, a forest conservation policy was established resulting in the formation of a Forestry Branch in the Dept of Public Lands on 1st August 1900. Leonard G Board was appointed the first Inspector of Forests along with two forest rangers G Burnett and F W H Lade.
In 1905, the Board was replaced by P MacMahon with the title of Director of Forests. He published a report titles The Merchantable Timbers of Queensland (Australia) with special reference to their uses for Railway Sleepers, Carriage and Wagon Building and Engineering Works.
57 Gough D Early Forestry and 100years of Timber Research in Queensland. Australian Forest History Society Newsletter #75, June 2018. Pages 3-12.
In 1911, Norman Jolly (first Director of Forests with a university education in forestry) replaced MacMahon (who died in office). In 1918 Jolly resigned to join the NSW Forestry Commission. He was replaced by Edward H F Swain as Director of Forests
In 1918 Director Edward Swain announced the birth of timber research in Queensland with the establishment of the Forest Products Bureau in Queensland with three sections:
1 Wood technology (timber properties and wood classification).
2 Forest Products showrooms.
3 Industrial chemistry.
Over the decades, research facilities operated at Newstead in Brisbane, and at Woolloongabba where there was a small sawmill as well as drying kilns. In 1965, the Queensland government established its new base of timber research at Salisbury, which remains the only research centre of its kind in the country.
Source: Timber & Forestry e-news Issue # 509 3rd May 2018. Pages 4-6.
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Source: Gough D Early Forestry and 100years of Timber Research in Queensland. Australian Forest History Society Newsletter #75, June 2018. P 3-12.
Australia 1919
Victorian Timbers and the Influence of Richard T Baker’s work on Hardwoods of Australia and their economics. Published 1919.
Victorian Timber Display - Great Britain exhibition. circa 1890.
Source: State Library of Victoria
Early foresters, sawmillers and timber merchants recognised the unique qualities of Victorian hardwood timbers, and the Government was keen to promote them to the world market.
Mal McKinty58 described Australian aboriginals sourcing food, shelter, fibre, and clothing materials from Victorian forests. Early European squatters’ buildings were initially framed with round poles with roofs of sheets of bark and occasional split slabs. Stiffened mud walls may have been made with Acacia sticks. Round timbers and/or brush provided stockyards and fencing. Rapid population expansion and expansion of the railway system meant a large increase in round and sawn timbers. In the 1850’s pit sawyers and eventually steam powered sawmills supplied the growing markets. Wattle bark was superior for tanning. While much of the finished timbers for flooring, cladding and furniture were imported, by the end of the 19th Century, communities were recognising the quality and utility of Victorian woods.
An example of works was the Public Library, Museums, and National Gallery of Victoria, in 1894, published A Descriptive Catalogue of the Specimens in the Industrial & Technological Museum, Melbourne, Illustrating the Economic Woods of Victoria. The original of this catalogue was revised by Baron von Mueller. This edition described 181 plants and their uses including mention of oil extracts produced by "Mr Bosisto".
The Victorian School of Forestry (VSF) was established in October 1910 at Creswick, in the Australian state of Victoria. The creation of VSF was one of the many recommendations of a Royal Commission held between 1897 and 1901 into forest degradation
The Victorian Forests Commission was first established in 1918 with three members (Forests; Mines and Water Supply; and Mines Department) for the purpose of providing continuous management of Victoria's State forests.
Formal research into native timbers began sometime after Federation in 1901 and progressed with the publication of Richard T. Baker’s important work "Hardwoods of Australia and their Economics" in 1919. 59
The 1920s saw experiments with eucalypt pulp and timber treatment processes, particularly seasoning.
Another example of timber use descriptions was Victorian Commercial Timbers. FCV. 1924.
In 1925 Alfred J. Ewart published his Handbook of Forest Trees for Victorian Foresters. As well as providing botanical descriptions for all the principal tree and understorey species in the State, Ewart listed the economic uses of each species, providing detailed insights into how Victoria’s community had adapted to using its forest resources by that time. Many of the uses were related to the era of horse-drawn transport which, in 1925, was facing the new challenge of the motor-vehicle industry. So Ewart’s publication could be seen as describing the uses of Victoria’s forest products at the end of the pioneering era of the forest industries. Information from Ewart’s book was included in the ‘Victorian Handbook’ for the Empire Forestry Conference in 1928 and later in the ‘Handbook of Forestry in Victoria’ for the Forestry Conference in 1935. The following table example was based on that in the 1928 Victorian Handbook but with supplementary information from Ewart’s 1925 Handbook. The table also included Ewart’s suggestions for some of the uses Aboriginal Australians made of the plants.
Two of the Principals from the Victorian School of Forestry (VSF), first Charles Edward Carter in the 1920s, followed by Alan Eddy in the 1950s did foundation research into the properties of Victorian timbers.
Charles Carter 1920’s. Source Wikimedia.
In 1923 Principal Charlie Carter, recently returned from Yale with a Master of Forestry, used his expertise to reform the curriculum. Alongside more advanced theoretical classwork, he encouraged the development of practical skills and student research through opening a eucalyptus still, a charcoal kiln, an oil testing laboratory, and a sawmill.
Alan Eddy60 VSF Principal host to HRH Prince Charles’s overnight visit to VSF Creswick in 1974.
Source The Forester Feb March 2021.
Alan graduated Dip. For (Cres) in 1948, BSc. For (Melb) 1953 and Master of Forestry (Calif) 1959. Alan worked in six Victorian forest districts from 1949 including Maryborough as District Forester. He was a visiting lecturer at VSF from 1954 to 1958, senior lecturer at VSF 1960-1966 and Principal from 1969 to 1978. This was followed by appointments as Chief Forest Education Officer and Policy Coordinator Victorian Forest Commission.
Herbert Eric Dadswellworked with both Carter and Eddy at the Forest Products Division CSIRO Melbourne in Melbourne from 1929 until 1964. He tested thousands of timber samples and his authoritative descriptions of Australian hardwoods included engineering properties such as strength, hardness, appearance, suitably for joinery, resistance to termites, durability etc. The huge Dadswell wood collection now resides with the CSIRO and contains over 45,000 samples representing 10,000 species while a sunset is kept in the Forestry School museum at Creswick.
Some eucalypts, particularly mountain ash, were very prone to suffer from collapse in the seasoning (drying) process and work focused on steam reconditioning. This problem created some initial reluctance from Victorian sawmillers to invest in timber seasoning so an experimental workshop and kilns were established by the Commission at the Newport Seasoning Works from 1911 until it closed in 1956 under controversial circumstances. By far the greatest proportion of dressed timber for internal work, joinery and furniture was imported in the 1920s mainly from America and Scandinavia. The Commission sought to improve the position of native hardwoods in the market and put the Victorian industry on a sound footing. The pioneering work at Newport together with the CSIRO bore fruit and by 1931 it was estimated that 80% of flooring laid down in Melbourne was kiln-dried Mountain Ash milled from the State's forests.[11] Some of the finished timber from Newport was shipped to London to feature as flooring in Australia's High Commission building.
But despite these efforts, as late as the 1960s there was still some resistance from architects, builders, joiners and home owners to Australian hardwoods so the Commission constructed a timber display pavilion at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds in 1966. This initiative led to the establishment of the Timber Promotions Council (TPC) in 1969 in partnership with Victorian Sawmillers Association and timber merchants. The TPC undertook research and development, marketing, and training into the use of Victorian timber. It also offered an advisory service to builders, architects, and the public. A levy was generated from sawlog sales to fund the TPC until it was revoked in 2005.
History CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products Divisions61
Australian forest products policy of adding value to wood products, was the desire to process raw materials into manufactured products and provide more employment prior to export and to replace imports, which had been expressed in the 1920s, continued and was re-asserted in the 1980s and 1990s.
1916-192562
Forest products research and development work which had commenced in the 1920s included notable improvements to be made in kiln-drying and machining to add value to domestic production and to provide small quantities of high-quality eucalypt timber for premium export markets. In Victoria, a policy was adopted of allocating the logs cut from State forests only to mills equipped to process them to the highest possible value. This policy was applied across major regions and enabled some mills to develop niche product lines. By contrast, in Western Australia, purchasers of first and second-grade jarrah sawlogs were required to add value to at least 50 per cent of their sawn output.
The establishment of an Australian Commonwealth Forest Products Laboratory was first advocated by W A M Blackett (President Royal Victorian Institute of Architects) at the third Australian forestry Conference Melbourne 1916.
Previous forest products research efforts included:
• Work of Maiden, Baker, Smith of the NSW Museum of Technology from 1889 to 1924 – refer page 16.
• 1906 on at Western Australia’s Perth Technical School under Issac Herbert Boas. By 1917 C.E. Lane Poole arranged for investigations on pulp and paper manufacture to be commenced. – refer page 10.
• 1917 a timber seasoning kiln was installed by Acting Professor Alfred Tomlinson63 at the Engineering School of the University of Western Australia.-refer page 23.
In 1919, the Institute of Science and Industry (later CSIRO) accepted an offer from the WA Government of an annual grant and site at the University of Western Australia for the establishement of a laboratory. I. H. Boas was appointed Director. The main areas of work were investigation of hardwoods for paper making, a survey of tanning materials, attempts to make a suitable tanningmaterial from marri extract and a study of the Powell process for wood preservation.
Laboratory proposals did not eventuate and Boas resigned in 1921. R.A. Fowler became Acting Director. H. Salt investigated proerties of tanning agents, L. R . Benjamin was in charge of the paper making department and S.A.Clarke in charge of the drying kiln.
After some years, Benjamin’s paper study had progressed to where larger laboratories were needed for semi-commercial testing. The Australian Paper Mills at Geelong made facilities
61 SchedvinCB,TraceK,1978,HistoricalDirectoryofCSIRandCSIRO1926-1976,CSIROPublishing
62 CSIRO Forest Products Newsletter # 350 April-May 1968
63 Source: trove The West Australian (Pert WA 1879-1954) Wed 0th May 1925 page 10. Late professor Alfred Tomlinson.
available and here the experiments progressed to the commercial stage64. This work led to the establishement of the Australian hardwood pulping industry. At the same time it promoted the use of short wood fibres for the manafacture of high quality paper globally.
With the large scale test of pulp and paper manufacture transferred to Geelong in 1922, the rest of the pulp, paper and tanning research was transferred to the Brunswick Technical School in Melbourne.
In 1927, D Coghill completed the tanning survey.65
1926-1935
In 1925 the Federal Government commissioned Sir Frank Heath (Head of Britain’s Dept of Science and Industry) to review and report on imperial cooperation in scientific and industrial research work. His 1926 report resulted in the formation of the CSIRO which took over the functions of the CSIR including establishing a Forest Products Laboratory.
In 1927, the Federal Government commissioned A. J. Gibson (Conservator of Forests, Bihar and Orissa with Government of India approval) re establishing an Australian Forest Products Laboratory.66
At the same time in 1927, Lane-Poole became the Commonwealth Inspector-General of Forests and Acting Principal of the Australian Forestry School (1927-44) in Canberra. He was also the Administrator of the Forestry Bureau which he had proposed to co-ordinate education, research, and policy (not formally established until 1930). The research section which he first promoted in Western Australia to include research into making paper from eucalypts was developed in Melbourne as the Division of Forest Products of CSIRO. The forestry research section of the bureau eventually developed as the Division of Forest Research, C.S.I.R.O in Canberra.
I.H.Boas 1928-1944 Chief of Division of Forest Products.
The Division of Forest Products was formed on 1st July 1928 with Boas appointed as Chief at 314 Albert St East Melbourne.
Source CSIRO Forest Products Newsletter # 350 of 1968.
Forest Products activities at Brunswick Technical school were taken over by the Divison of Forest Products.
Two overseas studentships to train at the Forest Products Laboratory Madison USA were created for:
• J.E. Cummins to study wood preservation.
• H.E.Dadswell to study wood chemistry.
64 Source Bulletins of Institute of Science and Industry & CSIR 1919-1928
65 Source CSIR Bulletin # 32.
66 Source CSIR Pamphlet #9 of 1928.
In 1928, a pilot tannin extract plant commneced at WA University funded by CSIR and WA Government.
In 1929, preservation investigations began in WA.
In 1929, wood chemistry and technology investigations began at AFS Canberra.
Due to the forest products industry being based in Melbourne and the depression, laboratories were established at CSIR’s Head Office in Albert Street East Melbourne. By June 1929, seasoning and utilization studies had commenced.
In 1930, the tannin extract plant and staff were transferred to Melbourne as was the wood chemical work in Canberra.
In 1930, commencement of the series of Trade Circular Notes by the Division of Forest Products.
Staff members were continually sent abroad to study at the Forest Products Laboratory Madison USA and Princes Risborough Britain.
In 1930, collection of wood samples undertaken, using the services of Mr de Beuzeville of HSW Forest Commission and sourcing other wood samples from around the world.
In 1931, the wood technology group was transferred from Canberra to Melbourne.
In 1931, S.A. Clarke appointed as an Asssitant Chief.
In 1933, Timber Physics section created.
In 1934, new laboratories at Yarra bank Road South Melbourne. W Russel Grimwade made a sizable doantion for timber testing equipment.
1936-1945
In 1936, display exhibit at Ideal Homes Show Melbourne.
In 1937, educational facilties expanded, flax investigations commenced.
In 1938-1939 the veneer and gluing section formed. Grimwade donated funds for pruchase of a Coe lathe for veneer peeling.
In 1939-1940 the Divison took over timber control activities. Its main defence work included actiities on tropic-proofing, munitions boxes, aircraft timbers, standardisation and timber identifications.
S. A. Clarke 1944-1960 Chief of Division of Forest Products.
Source CSIRO Forest Products Newsletter # 350 of 1968.
Two assistant chiefs were appointed C. S. Elliot in 1944 and H. E. Dadswell in 1945.
Post War Development 1946
In 1946, the first of Forest Products Research Conferences held.
In 1950-51 the annual number of enquiries reached 7000 and an information officer was appointed to handle enquiries.
In 1952, FAO Eucalypt study tour of Australia.
1957 British Commonwealth Forestry Conference - Chairman
S. A. Clarke (Chief) flanked by H. E. Dadswell (Assistant Chief) and Vice Chairman J.S.Reid (NZ).
RHS bottom up, Secretary A. P. Wymond (DFP) and representing the State Forestry Departments S. E. Jennings (Queensland) and E. B. Huddleston (NSW).
Overseas delegates not named Source Bill Balodis.
H. E. Dadswell 1960 – 1964 Chief of Division of Forest Products.
Source CSIRO Forest Products Newsletter # 350 of 1968.
New developments included Fiji who sought asssitance re a cooperative research program on Fijian timbers and the Australain Plywood Association contribution for plywood investigations. By 1963/64 arrangements were made for the Victorian Forests Commission to handle certain enquiries as they now totalled some 18,000 per year.
In 1964, Dadswell died suddenly, and J. D. Boyd became interim chief.
R. W. R. Muncey 1966-1971 Chief of Division of Forest Products.
Source CSIRO Forest Products Newsletter # 350 of 1968.
Form the original establishment by the Federal Government in 1919 as the Forest Products Laboratory, it became part of CSIR in 1928 as the Division of Forest Products (mark I).
In 1971 the Division was broken up with resources transferred to the Division of Building Research and the Division of Applied Chemistry. Pulp and paper research continued as a component of the latter. In 1974 the Division of Applied Chemistry was split into the Division of Applied Organic Chemistry and the Division of Chemical Technology which continued the pulp and paper research. In 1983 following a divisional review, the Division of Chemical Technology was combined with the Agricultural Engineering group from the then disbanded Division of Mechanical Engineering to form a new division, the Division of Chemical and Wood Technology which undertook research in areas such as wood science, wood preservation, fibre separation and pulping. Following the McKinsey-assisted restructuring of CSIRO in 1988, the Division of Chemical and Wood Technology was closed, and the resources disbursed to the following divisions: Forestry and Forest Products mark I; Biotechnology; Chemicals and Polymers and Food Processing.
The Forest Research Institute was not part of CSIRO and was formed in 1964, from the silviculture and forest resources divisions of the Forestry and Timber Bureau. In 1975 the Forest Research Institute and the Forestry and Timber Bureau were amalgamated and transferred to CSIRO as the Division of Forest Research. The Division was based in Canberra but with regional stations in Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. In 1987, CSIRO underwent a major restructuring, and the Division of Forest Research became the Division of Forestry and Forest Products in 1988.
In 1991 the Division spit, becoming the Division of Forestry and the Division of Forest Products (mark II) which remerged in 1995, once again forming the Division of Forestry and Forest Products (mark II). In 2004 the Division of Forestry and Forest Products formed a joint venture with Forest Research NZ to form ENSIS which in 2007 was renamed the Division of Forestry Bioscience.
In 2008 the Division of Forestry Bioscience was absorbed into the Division of Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE) which had been created in 2007.
Alan Brown Forest and Timber Bureau Canberra 1953, lecturer AFS 1961-1966, Silviculture research Forest research Institute of Forestry and Timber Bureau, Deputy Chief CSIRO Division of Forestry and Forest Products 1988-90 and Chief Division of Forestry 1991-95.
Publications included Hillis, W.E.; and Brown, A.G. eds, (1978) Eucalypts for wood production. Brown, A.G.; and Hall, N., Growing trees on Australian farms (1968) Hall, Norman, and Brown, A.G., The use of trees and shrubs in the dry country of Australia (1972).
67 Source: CSIROpedia 11th July 2013.
History of Forestry and Forest Products
Chief of Division/Officer-in-Charge Division Chief
Isaac Herbert Boas (1928-44)
Stanley Anthony Clarke (1944-60)
Herbert Eric Dadswell (1960-64)
Jack D Boyd (1964-65)
Forest Products (mark 1) (1928-71)
Robert William Roy Muncey (1966-71)
Maxwell Frank Cooper Day (1975-80)
Alan Gordon Brown (Acting 1980-81)
Joseph John Lansberg (1981-86)
Forest Research (1975-87)
Applied Chemistry (1966-74)
Chemical Technology (1974-83)
Chemical & Wood Technology (1983-87)
Forestry and Forest Products mark I (1988-91)
Forestry (1991-95)
Forest Products mark II (1991-95)
Forestry and Forest Products mark II (1995-2004)
ENSIS (2004-07)
Forestry Bioscience (2007-08)
Materials Science and Engineering (2007-14)
Alan Gordon Brown (Acting 1986-87)
Sefton Davidson Hamann (1966-74)
Donald Eric Weiss (1974-79)
Huntly Gordon Higgins (1979-83)
Warren Hewertson (1983-88)
Warren Hewertson (1988-91)
Alan Gordon Brown (1991)
Glenn A Kile (1992-95)
Warren Hewertson (1991-96)
Glenn A Kile (1996-2001)
Paul P Cotterill (2001-04)
Paul P Cotterill (2004-06?)
Tom Richardson (2006-07)
Richard Ede (2007-08)
William Mark Lonsdale (2008)
Calum John Drummond (2007-11)
Catherine Patricia Foley (2011-14)
Boas, Isaac Herbert (1878–1955)68 Source State Library of Western Australia b2504521.
Isaac Herbert Boas (1878-1955), scientist, born in Adelaide, educated at Prince Alfred College, the South Australian School of Mines and Industries, and the University of Adelaide (B.Sc., 1899). In 1901 he was appointed lecturer in geology and mineralogy at the university and later worked as a demonstrator in physics. In 1903 appointed a lecturer in physics and chemistry at the technical school at Charters Towers, Queensland. In 1906 he became lecturer in chemistry at the Technical School, Perth. In 1914 awarded the degree of M.Sc. by the University of Western Australia.
Boas became increasingly interested in the chemistry of wood and associated products. The shortages of World War I convinced him that Australia needed a central organization to deal with the problems of the forest industries. In his makeshift laboratory at the Technical School, he investigated the fundamental and chemical reactions involved in the soda process of papermaking, uninhibited by existing techniques and undismayed by adverse reports of visiting experts. Making pulp from karri and producing a few sheets of paper from it, he showed that the apparent unsuitability of Australian hardwoods was due to misconceived techniques rather than the timber itself.
In 1919 Boas persuaded the Australian States to establish a forest products laboratory, to be set up in Perth under the auspices of the projected Commonwealth Bureau of Science and Industry. Appointed officer-in-charge, in 1919-20 he toured similar laboratories in North America, England, Europe and India. When by 1921 the bill to establish the bureau had not been passed, Boas resigned to become chief chemist in the Melbourne leather firm of Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co. He soon found a common interest with Professor D. O. Masson in the problem of scientific control of the tanning, glue, and gelatine industries in Victoria. Meanwhile in Perth, a former student L. R. Benjamin was carrying on where Boas had left off. Despite difficulties, pulping and papermaking continued, extending to almost all Australian eucalypts.
Boas was appointed chief of the forest products division when it was set up in Melbourne in 1928 under the reorganized Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. In 1935 he toured North America and Europe and attended the Fourth British Empire Forestry Conference in South Africa. During World War II he was, among other positions, assistant controller for timber supplies in the Department of Supply and Development and was on the advisory committee of aeronautical research; he was also a member of the Commonwealth committees on development of secondary industries and flax production. In April 1944 he retired as chief of his division so that he could join the board of New Zealand Forest Products Ltd, but he remained on half time with C.S.I.R. until May 1945, working as a consultant and completing a book (published in Melbourne in 1947) on the Commercial Timbers of Australia Boas69 in 1936, described Forest Products Research in Australia.
68 Source Newman Rosenthal Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, 1979. Online 2006.
69 I. H. BOAS M.Sc., A.A.C.I. (1936) FOREST PRODUCTS RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA, Australian Forestry, 1:2, 21-24, DOI: 10.1080/00049158.1936.10675102 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00049158.1936.10675102 Published online: 15 Apr 2013.
Dadswell, Herbert Eric (1903–1964)70
Yalu Forest Resource Workshop TPNG July 1944. Photo credit Linda Cavanaugh Manning.
Born in Sydney, educated at Newington College and the University of Sydney (B.Sc., 1925; M.Sc., 1927), Eric studied organic chemistry, and played tennis, golf, and cricket.
In 1926 the recently established Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization from 1949) selected Dadswell as one of its first overseas research students. He sailed for the United States of America in November, entering the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, then the world's leading institution of its kind.
Returning to Australia in April 1929, Dadswell was appointed to C.S.I.R.'s division of forest products. Initially attached to the Australian Forestry School in Canberra and based in Melbourne from June 1930, he embarked on investigations into the anatomy, chemistry, identification, and utilization of wood which became his life's work. He studied many genera of the south-west Pacific region, particularly the genus, Eucalyptus, on which he published more than one hundred papers. In 1931 he was placed in charge of the division's research into wood structure. The University of Melbourne awarded him a D.Sc. in 1941 for a thesis and published work on the structure, identification, and properties of Australian timbers.
Widely respected for the breadth and depth of his knowledge, Dadswell lectured at North American universities and in 1955 was Walker-Ames professor of forestry at the University of Washington, Seattle. His laboratory in Melbourne attracted guest-workers and students from abroad. From 1935 he had been an Australian delegate at international congresses, on forestry as well as forest products. An office-bearer in learned and technical societies, he was a foundation member (president 1950) of the Australian (and New Zealand) Pulp and Paper Industry Technical Association, and a council-member (president 1962) of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. For his contribution to forest products research, he was awarded Queen Elizabeth II's coronation medal in 1953. Next year he was appointed assistant-chief of C.S.I.R.O.'s division of forest products and was promoted to chief in 1960.
An example below of a card sorting system like what Dadswell produced for timbers of New Guinea and neighbouring islands in 1940’s.
This work led to the ongoing development of wood science in TPNG.
Hillis, William Edwin (Ted) (1921–2008) 71
Born in Victoria, Ted was raised during the Great Depression. He studied industrial chemistry and biochemistry, leading to degrees of BSc, MSc and ultimately DSc at the University of Melbourne. His scientific career, resulting in over 200 publications, was described by Josef Bauch in Holzforschung 55, 111-116, 2001.
His early work and leadership of a national program in the 1940s supporting the war-effort involved coal gas and tar, and isolation of manitol from tree exudates. A life-long fascination with tree exudates and wood extractives followed, culminating in his muchpraised text-book Heartwood and Tree Exudates published in 1987.
From 1942 he worked at CSIR (later CSIRO) where he became Chief Research Scientist of the Division of Forest Products and Visiting Fellow after his retirement in 1986.
He was one of the pioneers of forest products research in Australia. His holistic vision of tree biology, forestry, and wood science and technology as strongly interlinked fields made him very supportive of research on wood structure, and he always recognized the crucial role the latter played in understanding other wood properties. Apart from wood and tree chemistry in which he was eminent, diverse fundamental and applied aspects of tree biology and wood science had his active interest e.g., Botanical classification of Eucalyptus and Nothofagus species, thermal properties and the adoption of high temperature drying of radiata pine, and the multipurpose applications of black wattle plantations in China
Ted strongly supported and mentored younger staff and defended tenaciously the immense value of CSIRO’s H.E. Dadswell Memorial Wood collection, later renamed the Australian Collection.
Ted taught wood science as a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra between 1974 and 1986. At this time, he also co-edited Eucalypts for Wood Production (1978), a book that correctly anticipated the subsequent significant expansion of eucalypt plantations in Australia.
Ted established the wood science course at UNITECH Lae PNG under Prof John Davidson in 1975.
Ted Hillis was very active in fostering international cooperation. A member of the IUFRO Executive Board and a co-coordinator of Division 5 Forest Products, 1976-1983, President of the International Academy of Wood Science (1978–1982), Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (1980), Institute of Wood Science - Stanley Clarke Memorial Medal in 1986, Order of Australia 2003.
Ted Hillis’ scientific contribution lives on in his many publications which will have a lasting impact in tree biology and wood biochemistry.
71 Jugo Ilic, 'Hillis, William Edwin (Ted) (1921–2008)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/hillis-william-edwin-ted-18333/text29945, accessed 8 June 2023.Australian Forestry, vol 71, no 2, 2008, p 160
Grimwade, Sir Wilfrid Russell (1879–1955)72
Peter McHugh73 described the early life of Wilfrid Russell Grimwade
He was a chemist, botanist, industrialist, and philanthropist. Russell studied chemistry at the University of Melbourne and in 1907 became a partner of his family’s multi-faceted and successful chemical firm. The company was instrumental in establishing the Britannia Creek Wood distillation plant near Warburton in 1907.
Russell was a keen botanist, especially of the eucalypts, and was official botanical adviser to the Army during World War II. He read widely in botanical literature, and published in 1920 An Anthography of the Eucalypts, a survey illustrated with his own photographs. He campaigned tirelessly for the conservation of forests as an office-bearer of the Australian Forest League and a contributor to its journal Gum Nut
He supported the opening of the Australian Forestry School, under his friend Charles Lane Poole, at Canberra in 1927, endowing the Russell Grimwade prize to encourage scientific forestry. In 1929 he made an endowment of £5000 to the then Commonwealth Forestry and Timber Bureau to create the Russell Grimwade Prize for forestry. The award was for a postgraduate course at the Imperial Forestry Institute at Oxford, but this was subsequently amended to widen its scope. The funding was bolstered with a further £15,000 in 1954.
Some notable Victorian recipients of the Grimwade Award include Alf Lawrence (1933), later Chairman of the Forests Commission, Bob Orr (1965), Senior lecturer at VSF, Arthur Webb (1968) Chief Forest Assessor, Peter Langley (1973), NRE Director of Regional Management and Dr Tony Bartlett (1984), now at the Australian National University.
The Russell Grimwade Prize is available to university graduates who have subsequently worked for at least two years in a forestry or forest management related field in Australia or overseas. Study may be taken at any university in Australia or overseas offering postgraduate study in forestry or forest management. Applicants must be Australian citizens/permanent residents and have the qualifications for entry to postgraduate research degrees. The Russell Grimwade Prize is awarded once every two years to a suitable candidate. The Russell Grimwade Prize is for advancement of scientific forestry in Australia. The term scientific forestry covers a range of scientific disciplines in forestry, forest management, forest sciences, forest conservation sciences, environmental management, and environmental sciences. Forest engineering and harvesting, material engineering based on forest products, wood science, manufacturing of forest-based products, environmental impact sciences (including social impact) and forest goods and services are included in the term.
He gave financial support to the Forest Products Division of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, as well as involving himself, for forty years, in C.S.I.R.'s advisory Councils.
As a gift to the people of Melbourne to celebrate the centenary of European settlement in Victoria in 1934 he donated Captain Cook’s cottage. The building was moved, brick by brick from Great Ayrton in England to the Fitzroy Gardens, shipped in 253 crates and 40 barrels
72 Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, 1983 online 2006b by J. R. Poynter.
73 Source: Peter McHugh 18th Sept 2022 Russell Grimwade price Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage
complete with an ivy cutting which had grown on the original house. Today the cottage is covered by the ivy.
Bill Balodis74 described some of the activities over time of the Divison of Forest products in its various formats.
Building Research Establishment (BRE) was established in 1921 as the Building Research Board at East Acton as part of the British Civil Service, as an effort to improve the quality of housing in the United Kingdom. BRE was a founding member in 1976 of BSRIA, the Building Services Research and Information Association and the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) in 2007.
Having subsumed several other government organisations over the years, including the former Fire Research Station, and the Princes Risborough Laboratory, it was given executive agency status in 1990, before being privatised by the Department for Environment, Transport, and the Regions on 19 March 1997. From 1 January 2013, BRE took over the management of the UK and Ireland chapter of Building SMART. In August 2016, Constructing Excellence merged with BRE, with BRE undertaking to maintain the CE's brands and functions.
BRE is a centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust. BRE provides research, advice, training, testing, certification, and standards for both public and private sector organisations in the UK and abroad. It has its headquarters in Garston, Hertfordshire, England, with regional sites in Glasgow, Swansea, the US, India, the Middle East, and China.
BRE is funded with income from commissioned research, commercial programmes and by several digital tools for use in the construction sector.
The main research areas were wood technology, product development, forest products, protection and wood processing.
• BRE's certification arm, BRE Global, is an independent, thirdparty certification body responsible for sustainability certification schemes such as BREEAM (for buildings and communities), CEEQUAL (for infrastructure), the Home Quality Mark (for housing) and LPCB certification (for fire and security products and services).
• BRE's training arm, the BRE Academy, provides online and classroom courses on built environment related issues.
• BRE also carries out research and data generation in support of national and international standards and building codes, including the UK building regulations.
• BRE's digital tools include construction waste management tool SMART Waste and construction health, safety, and wellbeing tool Yellow Jacket. It also has UKAS accredited testing laboratories, and a publishing business in partnership with IHS Press called the BRE Bookshop.
The BRE Trust also financially supports five university Centres of Excellence. One of the first Centres established was at the University of Edinburgh in 2004, a research and education programme on fire safety engineering. The other centres are in Strathclyde (energy utilisation), Bath (construction materials), Cardiff (sustainable engineering), and Brasilia (integrated and sustainable communities).
Great Britain 1925
Forest Products Laboratory Princes Risborough Buckinghamshire.
The first suggestion that a central Forest Products Research Laboratory be established in Great Britain to deal with utilization of forest products was made at the British Empire Forestry Conference in 1920.
In 1925, this led to the formation of the Forest Products Research Board to undertake work on seasoning, wood technology, mycology, and wood chemistry at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough, Imperial College London, and the Imperial Forestry Institute Oxford and elsewhere.
In 1927, new laboratories were built at Princes Risborough. The first Director was Sir Ralph Pearson, who stayed until 1933. Initially activities covered basic anatomical, chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of wood. In addition, work covered the process of biological attack (Lyctus beetle, dry rot) and technical properties of a wide range of commercial species (by 1937 over 4000 species from different countries).
Wood Structure Laboratory Princes Risborough.
Photo credit Forest Products Research Laboratory, Princes Risborough.
By the 1930’s the main sections of the laboratory were wood structure, chemistry, physics, mycology, entomology, seasoning, preservation, utilization woodworking, publications, and records.
W. A. Robinson became the Director from 1933 until 1945.
In 1945, Dr F. Y. Henderson became Director until 1960. Henderson faced a difficult period because of changes in the timber supply situation. Many of the traditional timbers were no longer available and priority had to be given to testing new little-known timbers introduced as substitutes from the colonial territories.
Around 1953, greater investigations were required on home grown timbers in cooperation with the Forestry Commission.
In August 1958, it was decided by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research that the government could not continue funding into the forestry products research, and that the timber industry should pay for it themselves, with funding being withdrawn from around 1963. The Forest Products Research Board closed in 1958, with some research passing to the Timber Development Association (now called TRADA). From 1960 to 1962 the Director was Sir Alcon Copisarow, who became the Chief Scientific Officer from 1962 to 1964 at the Ministry of Technology. From the 1960s, the site was run under the Ministry of Technology.
On 1 January 1971, the site was transferred to be overseen by the Department of the Environment. The site at Princes Risborough continued with work into timber research until 1988, being known as Princes Risborough Laboratory.
