Modern forest products research had its start hardly fifty years ago. Today we are in a position to apply the title "wood science" to the field of wood technology that is based on scientific investigation, theoretical as well as experimental. It is this research that fosters new uses for wood as a raw material and that creates the foundation for new industries for the manufacture of wood-base materials such as plywood, laminated products, particle and fiber board and sand- wich construction. Wood technology in its broadest sense combines the disciplines of wood anatomy, biology, chemistry,...

The principal author published the first edition of a book entitled in German "Technologie des Holzes" (Springer-Verlag) in the year 1936. This book was available only in photostat copy form in the United States during World War n. A translation into the English language was later made in Australia. Due to many hampering factors caused by World War n it was not unti11951 that the second edition of the first volume of thir:; book with the enlarged title (translated) "Technology of 'Vood and W ood Based Materials" was published. The se co nd volume followed in 1955. The enormOllS expansion of...