Balsa: The Official Wood of 30 Squares

The Bookery's balsa facade

I wasn't actually reading through Louis Hertz's The Complete Book of Model Aircraft Spacecraft and Rockets looking for something about the Aero Miniature Flying Machine, but was looking to see if he had anything to say about the history of balsa wood as a modelling material.

Mr. Hertz notes that balsa wood, while neither unfamiliar to nor unused by a few model airplane builders prior to World War I, was to remain to most hobbyists for some time a rather mysterious and obscure material whose qualities and advantages were little known or understood, and was not readily available until the 1920's.  And I assume if it was little known to model airplane builders, it might also have been little known to model railroaders of that era. Maybe model ship builders used it? That's something to look into.

Apparently in the pre-1920's era materials such as cane, reed, rattan, cigar-box wood, spruce, basswood, bamboo, poplar, maple, white holly, and birch were all used for various model airplane parts. But once balsa hit the scene, it took over.

In Model Railroader's archive the first mention of balsa is on page 7 of the June 1934 issue where it's noted that a Mr. Forest Fottler had built a baggage car of balsa wood. The first use of balsa wood as a primary construction material for a miniature building story in MR appears to be Small Station by Frank Taylor that appeared in the October '38 issue; however, he only recommends it as an alternative for the project in case a power saw isn't available to cut the recommended 1/8" 3-ply veneer for this HO scale model. Maybe balsa use was still catching on in the 1930s model railroad world even though it might have been fully adopted by model airplane builders.