Early studies of quasi-1-D conductors were motivated by a proposal, in 1964, that certain types of polymer chain compounds could exhibit superconductivity with a high critical temperature T.  The theory was based on the idea that pairing of electrons in the BCS theory of superconductivity could be mediated by interactions of conducting electrons in one chain with nonconducting electrons in some side chains. (By contrast, electron pairing is mediated by phonons, or vibrating ions, in the BCS theory of conventional superconductors.)  Since light electrons, instead of heavy ions, would lead to the formation of Cooper pairs, their characteristic frequency and, hence, energy scale and T would be enhanced. Organic materials, such as TTF-TCNQ were measured and studied theoretically in the 1970s.  These materials were found to undergo a metal-insulator, rather than superconducting, transition.  It was eventually established that such experiments represented the first observations of the Peierls transition.
The first evidence for CDW transport in inorganic linear chain compounds, such as transition metal trichalcogenides, was reported in 1976 by Monceau et al., who observed enhanced electrical conduction at increased electric fields in NbSe. The nonlinear contribution to the electrical conductivity σ vs. field E was fit to a Landau-Zener tunneling characteristic ~ exp[-E/E] (see Landau–Zener formula), but it was soon realized that the characteristic Zener field E was far too small to represent Zener tunneling of normal electrons across the Peierls gap. Subsequent experiments showed a sharp threshold electric field, as well as peaks in the noise spectrum (narrow band noise) whose fundamental frequency scales with the CDW current. These and other experiments (e.g.,) confirm that the CDW collectively carries an electric current in a jerky fashion above the threshold field.