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What is the history of plywood?
Home » Homebuilding » Plywood » What is the history of plywood?The man-made building product you can pick up at Home Depot has been around for 5500 years.
Believe it or not, the earliest known making of plywood was in 3500 B.C. in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians, the builders of the pyramids, were the first to create wooden articles made from sawn veneers glued together crosswise.
They originally did this because there was a shortage of fine wood. Because of this shortage, thin sheets of high-quality wood were glued over lower-quality wood for a cosmetic effect. It wasn't done for structural benefits as it is today.
Plywood was re-invented based on need throughout history.
Modern plywood - in which the veneer is cut on a rotary lathe from softwood logs - is of relatively recent origin, invented by Immanuel Nobel (the father of the more-famous Alfred Nobel). The first such lathes were set up in the United States in the mid 19th century. Plywood has been one of the most useful and most-used building products for decades.
Plywood has become a very common building material in the United States, used to make everything from furniture to houses.
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