Bamboo Flooring History
Bamboo has a great, interesting history dating more than 5,000 years ago when the ancient Chinese used this versatile grass for many activities (example: arrow making, construction, weaving, books, and paper). Archeologists working in the ruins of the Neolithic village of Banpo near Xi’an, China in the Shaanxi province unearthed archives written on bamboo slips that date back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 A.D.). During the Jin Dynasty (265-316 A.D.) the first known bamboo research was recorded in a book detailing the 61 different species of bamboo native to China that included biological descriptions and methods of cultivation.
China has a long and not so surprising history with the use of bamboo, given that there are more than 400 species of the resilient grass indigenous to the area. Bamboo mostly grows in China. In the 19th century, the Chinese military found a new use for bamboo while alchemists trying to create an elixir for immortality found sometime around 850 A.D, that mixing saltpeter, sulfur, carbon of charcoal, and honey results in fire, and sometimes burns your house to the ground. By 919 A.D., the military put this property to use by building bombs to be launched by catapult. The first time the military put it to proper use was in a battle fough in 1126 by the Song army against the invading Nuchens.
The account describes the use of a bamboo “firing cannon”. When filled with gunpowder and lit, and sent a flaming missile at the enemy from a movable platform. This may not have been thought as an efficient weapon but it made quite a great impression.
During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), bamboo was a ubiquitous material in the daily lives of the Chinese people. For example, it was used for dozens of articles, including paper, tiles, rafts, rain capes, clothing, and shoes. It was burned for firewood, and the tender bamboo shoots provided a crunchy, tasty food source packed with nutrition in the form of vitamins, fat, sugar, and protein. Bamboo served as a cheap and plentiful source of materials for making a variety of useful products because this plant grows quickly and requires little attention. This fact has not changed over the years and even now we are still finding new uses for bamboo.
Papermaking was considered to be a big business thanks to the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.220). The Chinese produced high-quality paper made from bamboo. It was an efficient and cheap material with a high rate of return, 1 ton of paper per 3 tons of bamboo. The paper was later mixed with rags, strings, and other plant materials to produce a lighter, more practical paper. The Chinese kept the manufacturing process secret, but a battle with Turkish invaders ended with captured papermakers and their secrets taken back to Samarkand. The first real paper industry was started in Baghdad in 793 A.D. Bamboo is still widely used in papermaking today.
Bamboo was and still is used as a medicine. For example, it is used to reduce phlegm and treat epilepsy, fainting, and fever. Also medicine made out of bamboo is used in a huge number of mental degeneration disorders associated with aging. It is also thought to have cooling properties. Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine utilizes the natural properties of bamboo in astringents, fever-reducers, antispasmodics, stimulants, tonics, and aphrodisiacs, and a powder made from tabasheer (a part of the bamboo) mixed with pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, and sugar is used to treat colds, sore throat, sinus congestion, and cough. Furthermore, bamboo is also used to treat various forms of lung disease, for example: tuberculosis.
Bamboo Flooring Beginnings
In the early 1990s, bamboo first made its appearance as a floor covering on the international market. The product was undeniably beautiful, but without the perspective of education, it was a hard sell. For example, people in the United States were familiar only with common local uses, like old-fashioned fishing poles from the slender, flexible varieties of bamboo native to North America, and from imported items like back scratchers and chopsticks. Bamboo has become a very popular choice in flooring today and the beauty, plus the durability makes it aesthetically satisfying and efficient. Fast-growing sustainability makes it a great substitute for old-growth hardwoods that can take 30 or more years to mature.
Bamboo Flooring Today
Now, bamboo flooring comes in a huge variety of colors and styles. It can also be “painted” during the manufacturing process to look like various hardwoods and the direct print process includes natural-looking variations layered onto flooring planks in a three-part process. This action produces a convincing grain pattern and color complete with shading found in woods.
The expanding bamboo flooring industry may also generate additional environmental benefits in the long run. Bamboo is a remarkably efficient oxygen generator, especially during its early growth years. We also need to keep in mind that adding a high volume product like flooring to the list of uses for this plant, we may end up addressing even more concerns for the future health of our planet.