Wood preservation preservation reaching back to ancient Greece during Alexander the Great's rule, where bridge wood was soaked in olive oil. The Romans protected their ship hulls by brushing the wood with tar. During the Industrial Revolution wood preservation became a cornerstone of the wood processing industry. Inventors and scientists such as Bethell, Boucherie, Burnett and Kyan made historic developments in wood preservation, with the preservative solutions and processes. Commercial pressure treatment began in the latter half of the 19th century with the protection of railroad cross-ties using creosote. Treated wood was used primarily for industrial, agricultural, and utility applications, where it
Wright's Coal Tar Soap and proprietors of "Wright’s Coal Tar Soap" and other coal tar specialities". It soon became necessary for the company to lease adjoining premises, until in quick succession numbers 44, 46, and 48 were added to the original warehouse at Southwark Street. Wright met an 'untimely death' in Dundee in September 1877: "he caught a cold in the face, which developed into erysipelas, the inflammation extending to the brain, he succumbed with great suddenness at the age of fifty one". Erysipelas is an acute infection of the skin and underlying fat tissues, usually caused by the streptococcus bacteria. Two of his