Transportation of Wood Out of the Forest (along Short Distances)

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.