Abstract
Abstract Over thousands of years, man could achieve movement only through muscle power, running water, or with the help of gravity. Transportation was achieved using moving human, animal, or mechanical power. The massive weight of wood and the extensive distances between forest and consumer raised immense problems and were a challenge to the people involved in wood transportation. To facilitate this dangerous and hard labor, wood workers developed various permanent or temporary constructions, which were adapted to their respective local conditions. Over time these have been transformed according to developing technical standards, but they did not change remarkably until the introduction of steam and fossil fuels in the second half of the 19th century. Especially in mountainous regions, forestry was and is dependent on a particularly skilled transportation system. This study examines what locally-adapted technologies were used throughout history to meet the large demand for wood from industry, trade, and the general population, and the kind of organization and planning that was applied. This work focuses on skidding wood out of the forest over short distances, either directly to consumers or to a collection point, from which the transport of large quantities of wood over longer distances started.
Highlights
Wood was the most important source of energy from antiquity until the middle of the 19th century
This study focuses on the transportation of wood out of the forest over relatively short distances and covers the period from the late Middle Ages until the mid-19th century, when the use of fossil fuels sparked remarkable modifications
This study investigates legislation related to wood transportation throughout history
Summary
Wood (lignum) was the most important source of energy from antiquity until the middle of the 19th century. Problems occurred due to wood’s heaviness and the demand for large-dimensions of construction timber as well as the lack of roads and transportation facilities These problems could only be solved by reducing its weight, which could be accomplished by creating charcoal or by ongoing technical innovations, especially in the transportation of the material. Meeting the needs of the second valley demanded highly skilled technology Examples of this include the wood-escalators in Steinbach at the Attersee-lakeshore in Upper Austria or Mariazell in Styria, big dams such the Preszenyklause or Chorinskyklause, or extended grates such as Großreifling or Hallein (see Fig. 1). Different transportation methods were applied; in many cases the legal framework and management methods were designed
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