Tracing Creosote's Legacy: From the Rails of Europe to Unplanned Deposits.

Abstract

This article combines infrastructure history with a residual materialist approach to trace the history of creosote-a toxic coal tar oil used to impregnate wooden railroad ties. Once an unwanted by-product of coal gasification, creosote became a valued industrial fluid through state and corporate interventions. Focusing on Germany and Austro-Hungary from the 1880s to the interwar period, its study highlights the central role of actors like the Rütgers company in this transformation. It examines the scientification of wood impregnation, the rivalry between creosote-treated wooden ties and iron alternatives, and the influence of maintainers in shaping material preferences. By investigating creosote's "unruliness"-its toxic effects and unpredictable material behaviors, from molecular interactions to transnational flows-the article reveals the entangled impacts of industrial materials on infrastructure, human health, and the environment. In doing so, it underlines the interconnectedness of human and more-than-human worlds in the Anthropocene.