Creosote Council Blog
How Creosote-Treated Crossties Made the World’s First International Railroad Possible
A History of the Shortline Railroad from Montreal to Portland, Maine In the early 1800s, shipping remained the dominant way of transporting goods in the United States, yet the harsh environment of the northeast posed serious challenges to commerce. Temperatures there remained below freezing for much of the year, which could stall important routes like the St. Lawrence River for months. New England businessmen and leaders soon realized that railroads—with their creosote-treated ties—could...
Creosote: The Tried-And-True Wood Preservative for Over a Century
Creosote-treated wood has played a major role in infrastructure thanks to “empty-cell processes.” What are these? During the 19th century, wood could be preserved with creosote using a "full-cell" process, developed in 1838 by John Bethell. But this method used a large amount of creosote, which was still too expensive for some industries. At the turn of the 20th century, Max Rüping and Cuthbert Lowry both developed wood pressure-treatment methods that used less creosote; these...
Century-Old Tracks: How Creosote Preserved a Beach Railroad Decades Beyond Its Operation
More than a century ago the wooden railroad ties of the Delaware Bay and Cape May Railroad traversed the sandy beaches of the New Jersey coast. They had just one job: to transport sand to the Cape May Sand Company for manufacturing glass and construction purposes. Its ties lay in direct sunlight all day, exposed to high temperatures and harsh salt water. The tracks were in service for 31 years, transporting hundreds of tons of quartz sand from 1905 until the plant was shut down in 1936 to...
Wood Treatment in the 20th Century: Wood Preservation Takes Off Thanks to Empty-Cell Processes
Following a century of experimentation in treating and preserving wood for industrial and transportation purposes in the U.S., at the turn of the 20th century Max Rüping and Cuthbert Lowry developed wood pressure-treatment methods that revolutionized the industry. The Rueping Process and the Lowry Process, which followed just four years later, were both “empty-cell” processes that used substantially less creosote than their predecessor, the Bethell Process. These joint innovations made wood...
The Bethell Process: The Foundation of the Modern Wood Preservation Industry
How did the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and Britain’s Industrial Revolution bring about the need for creosote-treated wood for modern infrastructure? Industrial-era wood treatment began with numerous innovations in Great Britain and took on its modern form as the American economy burst on the scene at the turn of the 20th century. Early Wood Treatment: France vs Britain (1700s – Early 1800s) One of the earliest practical applications of preserving wood was recorded in 1705 when a...