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All the United States Wisconsin Madison Forest Products Laboratory

Forest Products Laboratory

Where experiments are conducted on all things wood.

Madison, Wisconsin

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An old postcard showing the Forest Products Building c. 1930.   Boston Public Library/Public Domain
U.S. Forest Service Shield in the front lobby of the Forest Products Laboratory.   David Jester/Atlas Obscura
FPL developed, designed, and engineered wooden aircraft parts, such as this propeller.   David Jester/Atlas Obscura
During WWII, one of FPLs contributions was the development and creation of shipping crates for the war effort.   David Jester/Atlas Obscura
The CARWASh weather simulation, which can create any recorded weather condition in North America   David Jester/Atlas Obscura
The Old U.S. Forest Products Laboratory at 1509 University Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin   James Steakley
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About

Who would you call if you had a wood-related question? The Forest Products Laboratory, of course. But, did you even know of its existence?

The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) was created in 1910, and was moved to its current building atop a knoll overlooking the University of Wisconsin Madison Campus in 1932. There, research is conducted on all things wood-related. The lab's xylarium, or research wood collection, is the largest in the world, with over 103,000 samples. Its herbarium contains one of the largest collections of wood-decay fungi in existence.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, FPL is the only federally funded wood utilization research laboratory in the United States, and as such it answers to the public as a government resource. Operating under the Forest Service, the laboratory dispenses timely advice on wood through its hotline—just call 608-231-9200.

When it's not answering the public’s burning questions, FPL is a repository of oddities. In their xylarium they have a piece of Leadwood, which is the heaviest and hardest wood in existence, weighing 85 pounds per cubic foot. Another sample, a piece of African Crossfire Mahogany, was the veneer used on the interior of Pontiac automobiles in 1973. It’s a beautiful specimen with brown waves rippling through its golden grain, like caramel cascading down a candied apple.

Within the walls of this curious laboratory, innovative research is conducted on a daily basis for society’s benefit. And resting in cabinets sit artifacts accrued over a century, waiting to tell a story about our past and the potential future of wood technology.

Related Tags

Trees Tree Week Science Plants

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Edited By

Blindcolour, Meg

  • Blindcolour
  • Meg

Published

October 20, 2016

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  • http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/theres-a-hotline-for-people-with-knotty-wood-questions
Forest Products Laboratory
1 Gifford Pinchot Dr
Madison, Wisconsin
United States
43.074614, -89.427617
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