Handbook of Wood Chemistry and Wood Composites

Wood has played a major role throughout human history. The earliest humans used wood to make shelters, cook food, construct tools, and make weapons. There are human marks on a climbing pole that were made over 300,000 years ago. We have found wood in the Egyptian pyramids, Chinese temples and tombs, and ancient ships, attesting to the use of wood by past societies. Collectively, society learned very early the great advantages of using a resource that was widely distributed, multifunctional, strong, easy to work, aesthetic, sustainable, and renewable. Wood has been used by people for centuries as a building material; we have accepted its limitations, such as instability toward moisture and degradation due to microorganisms, termites, fire, and ultraviolet radiation, in use. We must accept that wood was designed by nature to perform in a wet environment and that nature is programmed to recycle wood to carbon dioxide and water using the chemistries of biological decay and thermal, ultraviolet, and moisture degradations. By accepting these limitations, however, we also limit our expectations of performance, which, ultimately, limits our ability to accept new concepts for improved materials.