Science: Improbable Sandwich

Weight for weight, the strongest structural material in the world is not steel or any other metal but "an improbable sandwich"—two or more thin sheets of wood pressed together with glue between. This is plywood. In an article describing plywood and its modern technology, FORTUNE last week declared that new plywoods are as different from old "as a 1940 automobile from a vintage of 1910." Plywood is at least as old as 1900 B. C.—for a mummy case dated thereabouts, and discovered in Egypt, was made of it. But until recently the only...

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