Cultures and costs of maintenance. The rise of Creosote and its precarious legacy
Final Report Abstract
This project addressed current research gaps in the history of technology and Science and Technology Studies with regard to cultures of maintenance and repair. It shifted the focus from innovation to the full life cycles of technologies and linked them to contemporary debates in environmental and material history as well as New/Neo Materialism. At the center of the analysis was creosote, an oil derived from coal tar, primarily used to impregnate wooden railway sleepers. The study traced the history of this substance from the late 19th century to the present across various historical contexts. While focusing on Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom, it also considered global flows of materials. A history of creosote required an examination of a wide-ranging network of actors who interacted with this substance and shaped its production, use, reuse, and disposal. The project approached the history of maintenance from a transnational and longue durée perspective, spanning from around 1880 to the present. The first chapter explored the rise of creosote from an industrial by-product to a sought-after wood preservative at the turn of the 20th century. It discussed the material entanglements of different wood types and preservatives and examined the competition between wood and iron in the so-called “sleeper question.” It also reconstructed the scientific development of knowledge on wood decay and preservatives, highlighting different sites of knowledge production— from laboratories and rot chambers to test tracks. The second chapter followed the journey of impregnated sleepers from the treatment plants to the railway tracks, introducing a new set of actors: railway maintenance workers. At its core, this chapter offered a knowledge history that investigated the interplay of material, environmental, and sociotechnical knowledge in maintenance work. It examined similarities and differences between European maintenance cultures, as well as processes of knowledge transfer, adaptation, and standardization. The third chapter used creosote as a case study to outline various European regulatory cultures and traced their historical development. The fourth chapter analyzed negotiation processes concerning the identification and remediation of creosote-contaminated sites since the 1990s. The final chapter focused on the histories of recycling, repurposing, disposal, and externalization of used railway sleepers as toxic waste. Cultures and Costs of Maintenance advocated for integrating historical knowledge of maintenance practices and their socio-economic and ecological dimensions into contemporary societal debates—particularly in light of the crucial role railway systems were expected to play in transforming Europe’s mobility sector.
Publications
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Holz im Zeitalter von Kohle und Stahl. Zur Persistenz und Wandelbarkeit eines Werkstoff es in der Hochindustrialisierung. Technikgeschichte, 88(3), 251-286.
Meiske, Martin & Zumbrägel, Christian
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Clio-Guide: Technikgeschichte. in: Clio Guide – Ein Handbuch zu digitalen Ressourcen für die Geschichtswissenschaften, hrsg. von Silvia Daniel, Wilfried Enderle, Rüdiger Hohls, Thomas Meyer, Jens Prellwitz, Claudia Prinz, Annette Schuhmann, Silke Schwandt, Berlin
Martin Meiske
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Empire, Extraction, and Externalization. Wood Impregnation in Early Twentieth Century Bosnia and Herzegovina and Its Precarious Legacy. Environmental History, 377-399. Springer International Publishing.
Meiske, Martin
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Public History: The Infrastructural Utopia of Metropa. Technology and Culture, 65(4), 1335-1347.
Esselborn, Stefan & Meiske, Martin
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Tracing Creosote's Legacy: From the Rails of Europe to Unplanned Deposits. Technology and Culture, 66(3), 777-798.
Meiske, Martin
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„Sicherheit ist Beinarbeit. Spannungsfelder historischer Wartungskulturen am Beispiel des Bahnunterhaltungsdienstes in Deutschland zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts,“ traverse. Zeitschrift für Geschichte. Revue d’histoire 1 / 2025, S. 61–80
Martin Meiske
