Arguably the finest and most beautiful American forestry work

October 15, 2024 12:04 PM

Hough’s first step was technological: he patented a machine capable of cutting razor-thin wood veneers in three directions: transverse, radial, and tangential. His initial impulse was commercial. The wooden cards were so thin that they could be used as projection slides in Magic Lanterns. (One imagines that this was the height of at-home entertainment at the time.) Moreover, the tranverse sections were so strong that they could also be used as business and greeting cards. For just 10 cents ($1.00 today), customers could buy individual wooden cards to use for whatever purpose they wished. Hough’s innovation in veneer-cutting proved a massive commercial success. Fortunately for the world of book collecting, Hough was not prepared to stop there. from Romeyn Hough’s American Woods [Bauman Rare Books]

One of the Bauman Rare Books Blog's Weird and Wonderful series

posted by chavenet (3 comments total)

This week’s episode of PBS’ Antiques Roadshow had a complete collection of these books. Amazing stuff.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:48 PM on October 15 [1 favorite]

Oh wow. The library at my workplace has a copy; I should schedule a time to go see it!
posted by sciencegeek at 3:53 PM on October 15

It's worth the effort to see an example in person - check Worldcat for "copies" near you.
posted by Glomar response at 4:18 PM on October 15