forwarded by the courtesy of the Manager to the Committee, and it is
interesting to note from this that the walls are made waterproof by
first making them smooth with dagga plaster, then, when quite dry,
giving one good coat of boiling hot tar. A coat of limewash is applied
three days later. That this is effective is well evidenced by the fact
that the buildings erected have successfully withstood our last
abnormally heavy rainy season.

“The Globe and Phœnix system is the result of a number of experiments
carried out on that mine. Their mixture, which is stated to be
ant-proof, contains more moisture than Pisé de terre, and each course is
reinforced with old wire rope, or other suitable scrap. The material is
left in a heap for one or two days before being used.

“Circular huts have been built on the mine of the same material, the
forms being made of two rings of corrugated iron in three or more
sections joined up with cleats at the end laps and held in position with
cross bolts and distance pieces. The inner ring is 9 in. less radius
than the outer one.”

    [Headnote: Pisé Buildings for Settlers]

  _Extracts from a paper on Pisé in the “Farmers’ Handbook,”
  issued by the Department of Agriculture, New South Wales, 1911_

“Pisé is a material readily obtainable by the settler, of which cheap
and durable buildings can be easily and substantially erected.

“For the construction of pastoral or agricultural buildings, especially
in districts remote from railways, or from towns in which other building
materials are cheap or easily procurable, pisé is particularly well
adapted. In the country earth is plentiful and readily obtainable; in
the city or town such is not the case, and this fact, combined with the
very bulky nature of the material, prohibits its use in such centres of
population.

“To the selector or settler, who, like many of our successful pioneers,
is not burdened with a superfluity of hard cash, but who possesses an
abundant capital of energy, combined with a certain amount of handiness,
pisé has an additional advantage (which it shares with slabs, wattle and
daub, etc.) over most other building materials, in that it affords him
an opportunity of erecting his homesteading largely as the result of his
own labour.

“As a building material, pisé is infinitely superior and more durable
than slabs, galvanised iron, or weather-boards. In fact it is
questionable whether it is not more suitable for our climate, and
therefore to be preferred to brickwork; for pisé buildings, properly
protected and finished, are quite as durable and much cooler than
buildings constructed with solid brick walls. This statement may be
questioned by some whose knowledge of pisé is limited to buildings so
badly planned that the very elementary principles of building
construction have been neglected. This neglect, which is all too common,
makes things bad enough, but when to it is added, as is sometimes the
case, indifferent workmanship, combined with the use of unsuitable
material, the result does not call for admiration, and it is not
surprising that a bad impression is created. With no other knowledge of
pisé it is only natural to condemn it because of such specimens, but
under similar circumstances other better-known building materials of
proved excellence would also be condemned. Brickwork would just as
readily be condemned if its building qualities had to be estimated by
the appearance presented by a brick building which had been constructed
of badly-burnt bricks laid by unskilful tradesmen on an imperfectly
thought-out plan. Just as with other building materials, the
possibilities of this material can only be judged by an examination of
properly planned and constructed examples of the pisé-builder’s art.
Such are found here and there throughout the country, pleasing to look
at, affording comfort and satisfaction to their owners. A properly
constructed pisé building can be finished to suit the taste of the most
fastidious. Even without plaster the walls can be ‘floated’ down and a
‘skin’ obtained on them which, when limewashed, resembles stonework.
When plastered inside and out they possess the advantages of a stone
house, and are erected at a fraction of the cost.

“Some idea may be formed of the durability of pisé by the fact that
there is a stable built of pisé which has been in constant use for over
sixty years, and which at the present time is in good order. The good
condition of this stable is the more surprising because the external
walls are unprotected from the weather, and it is generally recognised
that pisé-work, especially if unplastered, should be protected from the
direct action of rain. Pisé buildings are said to have a life of a
century and a half.

“The stability of pisé buildings is beyond question, as is proved by the
following instance:--At Lambrigg, a second-story brick building, with
14-in. walls, and containing ten rooms, is built upon a lower story of
pisé. The bricklayer who had the contract for erecting the brick portion
of the house refused, as it was built upon pisé, to guarantee his work.
Some time after the completion of the house he visited it, and after a
thorough examination of the building, declared that it was the most
substantial brick house in the district, as it had not a crack in it,
a feature which was somewhat unusual in that locality. Another case
bearing on the same subject is that of a residence at Temora. When this
building was being constructed the workmen omitted to leave holes for
the bolts which were to secure the verandah plates to the walls, as it
was thought these could readily be bored out afterwards with an auger.
On attempting to bore out these holes on the completion of the building,
and when the pisé-work had become drier, the operation of boring proved
so difficult as to be practically impossible, and had to be abandoned.

    [Headnote: Builders’ Aversions]

“The merits of pisé-work have been recognised in France, India, Mexico,
and California for years past, and seeing its equal suitability for our
climate, it is surprising that these merits have not led to its being
more extensively used. The principal reason for this seems to be because
our builders are averse to undertaking this class of work, and in
consequence the bulk of it is placed in the hands of untrained men, who,
whilst quite fitted to carry out the pisé-work, are not competent to
undertake the other constructive work of a building. However, they do
not hesitate to do this, as well as to undertake the more important work
(though unrecognised as being so) of planning out the building. The
result is in most cases an improperly planned and defectively
constructed building, which appeals to no one, but has a tendency to
bring pisé into disrepute.

“The reason for a builder’s unwillingness to undertake pisé-work is not
far to seek. For the successful carrying out of his work a builder
relies upon skilled tradesmen; our tradesmen are trained in cities and
towns, and as pisé is not a suitable material for such places, tradesmen
do not become familiar with it. A good builder with a reputation to lose
shrinks from placing that reputation at the mercy of a pisé-builder, who
is not recognised as a tradesman, and in whom, in consequence of this,
a builder is likely to have little or no confidence.

“The actual erection of pisé-work presents so little difficulty that it
can be done by any one who has sufficient strength to shovel earth and
wield a rammer, provided he will exercise care to see that the moulds or
boxes into which the earth is shovelled are kept plumb and in straight
lines. The average settler, even with no previous knowledge of pisé-work
or building construction, need have no hesitation in undertaking the
pisé-work of his own buildings if he works to a well-thought-out plan
drawn up by somebody competent to do so.

“The necessity of having a plan prepared by some one who understands the
principles and requirements of simple building construction, before
undertaking the erection of any building, cannot be too strongly
emphasised. This great need, which is often overlooked by the settler,
cannot be economically dispensed with. The securing of a properly
prepared plan is of the greatest value towards obtaining a building of
the maximum strength and durability, combined with the best appearance
and greatest convenience, for the least cost. Even when a settler
undertakes the pisé-work of his own building, it will only be in rare
instances that he will not have the advantage of trained supervision
during its erection. The services of a tradesman will invariably be
found necessary to make doors and window-frames, construct the roof,
etc. This workman can be engaged when the building is started, and
whilst preparing the timbers of the roof, in readiness for the time when
they will be required on the completion of the pisé-work, can supervise
the fixing of the door and window frames, and see they are set
correctly, and in their proper places.

“Pisé walls are constructed in sections, the extent of which is
regulated by the supply of casings available.

“Into the moulds formed by the boxes the earth is shovelled in layers of
4 or 5 in., and then rammed until thoroughly solid before another layer
is put in. On the completion of the section, _i.e._ when the mould is
full and well rammed, the keys or pins are knocked out of the ‘bolts,’
and the ‘boxes’ taken apart and erected on another portion of the
building. The top of that portion of the pisé-work on which it is
proposed to erect another section should be well moistened and covered
with wet bags some hours before the mould is formed. The bottom of the
mould should overlap the top of the pisé-work by about 6 in. After the
‘boxes’ are put together, the top layer of pisé should be loosened with
a pick so as to form a bond with the section about to be built, and if
this section adjoins one already built, the ends of the latter should be
bevelled off so as not to form a straight joint.

“Material which is too sandy will fret away, and one containing clay
will crack when dry. Soils containing these defects should be avoided.
There is, however, such a wide range of soils which are suitable that a
holding of any size on which suitable soils cannot be found will be the
exception. It is possible to remedy the defects found in one soil by
mixing it with another soil, but very rarely will such a course be
necessary.

    [Headnote: Number of Men Required]

“The plant required will depend upon the number of men to be employed.
Three is the least number that can be economically employed--two
attending to the boxes and ramming, and one carting earth from its
location to the building and assisting generally. The plant required for
this number of men is given below. If more are engaged, additional plant
of the same character will be found advantageous.

“The necessary plant will consist of--2 wooden rammers, 1 iron shod
rammer, 2 straight boxes, 2 angle boxes, 3 casings for blocking up the
ends of boxes, bolts and keys for same, 12 gauge rods, washers--a
liberal supply of ¾-in. washers, 2 shovels, 1 spade, a horse and dray or
other means for transporting the material to the building
(if required).”

The following detailed instructions are taken from the same authority:

    [Headnote: Pisé in New Zealand]

  SPECIFICATION CLAUSES FOR A PISÉ HOUSE (NEW ZEALAND)

_Excavator._--Remove the turf to make footings, but not deeper at any
place than 3 in. Step where required.

  _Pisé-Builder_

_Walls._--Erect the walls as shown on plan, external walls 18 in.,
internal walls 15 in., carried up plumb and true, with all cross walls
properly bonded by continuing the pisé-boxes around all angles; when
necessary, the material for the walls is to be properly tempered with
sufficient water. All sticks and vegetable matter are to be removed.

_Suitable material_: to be a pipeclay loam, with a trace of small gravel
evenly distributed through it.[8] The boxes to be filled in thin layers
of 4 in. at a time, and well rammed until solid; the workmen are not to
use their rammers in unison.

    [Footnote 8: This was specified because it was the best material
    near the site.]

The whole of the internal angles, also door and window jambs, to be
neatly splayed.

_Floating._--Moisten well the outside and inside walls before the floors
are laid, and float same to even smooth surface with wooden hand-float,
using weak plaster, where required.

_Bolts._--To hold down wall-plates, provide and build in ½ in. bolts,
not less than 15 in. long, and spaced not more than 6 ft. apart.

_Damp-course._--Below all walls lay a three-ply Ruberoid damp-course the
full width of walls, to lap at ends at least 4 in.

_Ventilators._--Insert below floors, where directed, four 9 in. by 6 in.
galvanised iron air gratings, in wooden frames 1½ in. thick by full
width of walls; also insert at about 18 in. below ceiling similar air
gratings and frames.

_Plugs._--Insert plugs 3 ft. apart for skirting, chair and picture-rail,
at the heights directed.

_Frames._--Set all frames plumb and true, and secured in wall before
removing head. Lintels and heads must be well and solidly bedded in
mortar, at proper heights. The whole of the work to be done in a proper
workmanlike manner.

_Fillet._--Finish against intersection of floor and wall with neat 1½
in. quarter-round fillet, scribed to wall and floor and nailed to
floors.

The pisé-builder will require to build into wall at all window and door
openings 3 in. by 3 in. shaped plugs, spaced not more than 3 ft. apart
to secure architraves.

_Lintels._--For all door and window openings provide 6 in. by 4 in.
well-seasoned pine lintels, to extend 12 in. into pisé-work on each side
of opening.

_Skirting._--Provide and fix in all rooms, to plugs about 3 ft. apart,
6-in. skirting, neatly scribed to floors, mitred at angles as required.

_Picture-rail._--Provide 3 in. by 1 in. picture-rail to all rooms.

_Plugs._--Prepare and tar for pisé-builder 3 in. by 1 in. well-seasoned
softwood plugs, 15 in. long, as per detail, for skirtings, picture- and
chair-rail, to be inserted 3 ft. apart.

  STUDDING, WIRE-NETTING, AND PISÉ

“This is a modification of Pisé, which provides a settler in a district
where poles and saplings are available with a quick method of providing
himself with a comfortable temporary residence without the expenditure
of much cash. To construct buildings of this character, a framework of
saplings or poles, at intervals of 3 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. apart, is first
erected; this framework is covered on both sides with 1¼ in. mesh
wire-netting. The two sections of netting are held together,
strengthened, and prevented from stretching and bulging between the
posts by means of wire hooks or loops, which are as long as the posts
are wide. The spaces thus enclosed by the netting and the poles are then
filled with earth, which is well rammed, thus making a solid wall 4 in.
to 6 in. thick. This wall can be plastered, the plaster forming a key
with the wire-netting, which holds securely. Buildings of this character
can be made to look rather attractive, and, if neatly constructed, are
very much superior, both in appearance and comfort, to slabs or wattle
and daub.”

    [Headnote: Pisé Shuttering]

  PISÉ SHUTTERING

That the plant now commonly in use for pisé-building is but a slight
improvement on the anciently accepted model, may be seen by a comparison
of modern examples with old engravings and descriptions. Pisé-building
lay off the great main stream of constructional activity, and the
enterprise and ingenuity lavished on the perfecting of other building
materials and methods passed Pisé by, leaving it undisturbed in its
quiet backwater, a primitive system still with its primitive tackle.

Yet there were a number of very obvious and unnecessary shortcomings in
the accepted shuttering that seemed to clamour for attention, defects,
too, that were in no way inherent, but merely traditional infelicities
reproduced in succeeding models that remained remarkably true to their
primitive ancestral architype--the Pisé plant described by Pliny.

Here seemed to be a very promising field for an ingenious inventor,
a field that is still “To Let.”

In the absence of any such inventive genius, the author has had certain
ideas of his own embodied in the “Mark V” type of shuttering--a type
that further experience and experiment will doubtless modify.

The principle of the building-process remains unaffected. The
improvements, such as they are, are merely improvements of mechanism.

  DIAGRAM OF MARK V PISÉ SHUTTERING]

  +Mark V Shuttering.+
  Showing top cross-braces thrown back and free leg disengaged.]

  +Mark V Shuttering.+
  Showing screw-up securing tackle of exterior corner-piece
  and its rounded interior. Also screw-cramp at interior angle
  of shuttering.]

  +Mark V Shuttering.+
  Shuttering about to be removed from a first section of Pisé walling.
  Top cross-braces have been thrown back and clamps to legs released.
  It is now only necessary to detach the stays and lift away the
  shutters. Where, as here, there is no masonry plinth, the
  bearing-pins are only required for the succeeding courses of Pisé,
  and need not be inserted for the first.]

  +Mark V Shuttering.+
  The angle-iron stay with cross-brace raised, and the blocking-box
  showing its internal clamping-gear.]

Scientific research could doubtless, if it would, do much towards
perfecting Pisé-building.

We know very little about the behaviour of different earths under
compression, or of their several reactions to chemical treatment.
Meanwhile, a few trifling mechanical modifications are all that
distinguish our modern plant from that devised by the ancients. That
said, a short description of the “Mark V” model may be of some interest,
pending the future developments that may now be hoped for.

  II

The chief desiderata in designing a satisfactory Pisé plant appear to be
these:

All constituent parts should be reasonably light and easy to handle. The
shutters should be rigid and not liable to warp, without being
expensively constructed. The shutters, when clamped in position, should
be firmly and positively supported, without deviation from the vertical.

The fairway between the shutters must be as little obstructed by the
cross-braces as may be, leaving good room for the men on the wall to
tread and ram.

The through-pins by which the shuttering rests upon the base wall or on
a completed course of Pisé, must be easily withdrawn without injury to
the wall.

The shuttering must be easily disengaged and removed from the wall, one
side at a time.

The special corner-piece must have some means of rigid attachment to the
ordinary shutters on the two meeting walls.

There must be some means of blocking off the shuttering at any desired
point, for the forming of door or window openings at any level.

The whole apparatus must be as simple and as fool-proof as possible, and
built to stand rough usage and exposure to the weather.

The author has attempted to construct a plant embodying these
essentials, and the working drawing and photographs shown will give the
reader a tolerable idea of his “Mark V” model.

The thing has, at the moment of writing, only been experimentally tested
in one of the London parks. These trials were, however, sufficiently
satisfactory to encourage a belief that the new plant will prove a very
considerable improvement on the old. It has now been despatched to a
site in Surrey, there to undergo the searching and very practical test
of being used for the building of a small-holder’s house and homestead.

  IV

To the second edition of this book a postscript must be added. Since the
last paragraph was written, the small-holder’s house has come into
actual being at Newlands Corner, near Guildford, and has attracted a
good deal of attention from the Press, both at home and abroad. It has
been inspected by multitudes of people, including a great number of
Colonials and prospective Colonists, and by many distinguished persons
directly or indirectly concerned with the problems of housing.

That “Good wine needs no bush” may be a true saying, but a novel system
of building assuredly needs demonstration, however great its merits. The
success of the experiment at Newlands is admitted by all who have made
the pilgrimage thither. Often would critics come to scoff and remain to
pray. Specially prized amongst the converts is a foreman-bricklayer once
openly scornful in his unbelief. Of enthusiasm, perhaps, there has been
almost over much; and it has been difficult to restrain the zeal of
would-be pisé-builders until the coming of spring, and the return of
such weather conditions as the craft might reasonably demand.

  +A Simple Mould for Pisé Blocks.+]

  +Block-Moulds, Large and Small. The Latter shown opened out.+]

  +Sketch of a Pisé House in Course of Erection.+
  With acknowledgements to _The Sphere_.]

For pisé is a “dry-earth” method of building, and, as at present
practised, that means it is a summer job, so far, at any rate, as
England is concerned.

The author is the last person to claim that pisé-building may be
successfully and economically carried out in all places, and at all
seasons. He merely suggests that in a great many parts of the United
Kingdom, pisé offers possibilities of cheap yet permanent building that
are very well worth exploitation.

A wide and thorough trial of the method now seems assured under a
variety of conditions in a sufficient variety of places. Pisé is to be
given its chance in Housing Schemes, in Government building
demonstrations, on Ducal estates, and by ordinary private citizens in
need of houses--by the rich (old and new), and by the poor.

    [Headnote: If Reason Rule]

If reason rule, pisé will make good and all will be well.

If pisé-building is attempted where the conditions are unsuitable and in
defiance of its physical limitations, the misguided enthusiasts
responsible must blame only themselves. But it is not self-reproach
alone that they will have to suffer, for the author and all true friends
of pisé will view their troubles with as much anger as sorrow.

Nothing could be so well calculated to bring discredit on a new movement
as the failures of a few enthusiastic incompetents.

  THE FIRST DEMONSTRATION PISÉ DE TERRE HOUSE AT NEWLANDS CORNER,
  NEAR GUILDFORD

  _With acknowledgments to the “Spectator”_

_Description._--The house has six rooms arranged on one floor, of areas
and cubical contents as laid down in their higher “schedules of
accommodation” by the Ministry of Health and the Board of Agriculture.

The plan is an adaptation of the first type illustrated in the Board’s
new manual “designed for the guidance of County Councils and their
architects” in the matter of buildings for small-holdings.

The walls are of 18-in. solid pisé-work, the roof of red Bridgewater
tiles, and the chimney breasts and stacks of brickwork.

The floors are boarded save for the back kitchen, which is tiled. The
inner partitions are of 2-in. breeze blocks, the ceilings are plastered,
and the casement windows are of steel.

There are two good lofts for storage, one entered from the barn, which
is an extension of the house proper.

The pillars of the barn and the partition wall between scullery and
veranda are of 18 in. by 9 in. by 9 in. rammed earth blocks; the angle
pillar to the veranda is of similar blocks made from soft chalk.

The rest of the structure is of monolithic pisé, built up _in situ_
without joints of any kind, either horizontally or vertically.

_Cost._--The total cost of the whole of the outer walling of the house
(in pisé) amounted to less than £20. Had the walls been built in
brickwork the cost would, according to estimate, have been about £200.

    [Headnote: The Newlands Specification]

_Specification._--The following is an abridged extract from the
specification so far as it affects the pisé-builder:

(1) Excavate to a depth of 9 in. over the site, dumping the turf and
surface humus where directed.

This soil is not to be used for building.

(2) Lay a 6-in. bed of cement and flint concrete 3 ft. wide under outer
walls. Centrally on this, lay two courses of brickwork in cement, to a
width of 18 in., or build up to the same extent in concrete.

Lay on this an approved damp-proof course; if of slates, having a
further course of brickwork or concrete above it to prevent fracture
when ramming.

  +The Newlands Corner Pisé Demonstration Building.+]

  +Newlands. The Cottage from the South-east.+]

  +Newlands. The Garden Court.+]

(3) Erect the walls according to the plan on the bases thus formed,
carrying them up plumb and true and properly bonded by working round the
building course by course, using the special angle-pieces at the corners
to keep the work continuous and homogeneous.

(4) All stones and flints above a walnut size to be removed by riddling
and reserved for concrete.

All sticks, leaves, roots, and other vegetable matter to be eliminated.

(5) The soil immediately on the site to be used without admixture of any
sort and to be thrown direct into the shutterings.

No water to be added without the express permission of the architect.

(6) The boxes are to be filled in thin layers of not more than 4 in. at
a time, and well rammed until solid. The workmen are not to use their
rammers in unison.

(7) Rammed earth at box ends to be shaved down to a 45 degrees slope so
as to splice in with new span of pisé adjoining it.

Where door and window openings occur, the special “stops” to be adjusted
and firmly secured so as to withstand hard ramming. Two 4 in. by 2 in.
by 9 in. plugs to be built in to each window jamb for the securing of
the frames and three to each door jamb.

Special care to be taken in the thorough ramming at the corners and
along the box edges.

(8) Insert below floor level, where directed, 24 3-in. field drainage
pipes to act as ventilators through the thickness of the wall. Insert
wire mesh stops to exclude vermin.

(9) Set all frames square and plumb, and where in outer walls, flush
with finished exterior plaster-face, the joint being covered by a 2-in.
by ¾-in. fillet.

Where lintels occur, they are to be tailed in at least 9 in. on each
side the opening.

Provide plain picture-rail round all rooms at window-head level,
providing plugs for fixing where necessary.

Secure to floor round all boarded rooms a 2-in. by 1½-in. angle fillet
as skirting.

(10) The smooth surface of the pisé walling to be hammer-chipped to give
good key to the plaster.

Before rendering or plastering walls, any loose earth or dust to be
removed with a stiff brush and the wall surface evenly wetted.

  [Illustration: NEWLANDS CORNER PISÉ HOUSE. THE PLAN.]

The rendering to be carried evenly round the walls--the minor square
angles being roughly chipped down first so as to obviate sharp corners.
The main corners of the house are ready-rounded off to a 9-in. radius by
the special corner mould.

(11) Bond brick and slab work to pisé walls by driving iron spikes into
the latter every few courses at joint level and bedding in.

(12) Colour-wash walls with tallow lime-whiting tinted with ochre.
Provide 2 ft. skirting of pitch, applied hot, to form base-course round
exterior of building.

  +Newlands. The Backyard, showing Barn with Pisé Pillars.+]

  +Newlands. Framing the Roof.+]

  +Newlands. An Interior, showing Fire-brick Hearth Fire.+]

N.B.--The exterior of the walls of the Newlands Corner house have been
finished in several different ways with a view to determining the most
durable and economical form of epidermis.

A trial pisé-building adjoining has stood for four years without any
external protection whatever. It has suffered no damage and grows
continually harder. For the sake of appearances, however, and for the
better preservation of the wall from chance injury whilst still “green,”
a coating of some sort may be deemed necessary.

    [Headnote: A Swedish Contribution]

  THE THEORY OF PISÉ

The Swedish scientist, Mr. Karl Ellington, of Nossebro, who is basing a
book on pisé (in his own tongue) upon the frail foundation of the
present volume, has, in the course of a letter to the author, made some
exceedingly suggestive “guesses at the truth.”

“I am very interested to hear that you are proposing to use an hydraulic
rammer for making blocks. I have thought a good deal about this pressure
business. I am trying to scrutinise the thing from ‘the inside,’ so to
speak. I am trying to trace out how Nature makes rock. That helps us to
understand pisé. Nature made all the stratified rocks out of what was
once fine loose earth and mud. Rivers carried the mud out to sea. Waves
pounded and gnawed the shores and got down some more stuff. The tides
went forth and back and shovelled and levelled at the sea-bottom. Some
more mud on top of that, and a few hundred or thousand feet of the heavy
water on top of that--and Nature’s pisé was in its making. But why do
these mud particles stick together for ever even after that stratum is
raised up high above the sea and the pressure is discontinued? That is
the counterpoint of the whole problem. What is gravitation? Is it some
form of magnetic or electric energy? We don’t know. Do particles of mud
grip and hold each other if they are forced together close enough to be
united by some sort of magnetic or electric energy? Or do the particles
only get a ‘mechanical’ grip on each other? However that may be, we seem
to know now that we can make them grip by bringing them closely
together. It would seem important, then, that we must bring as much of
particle surfaces together within any given cubic space as we possibly
can; that is, we must have as little of ‘holes,’ ‘empty spaces,’ pores
and channels as possible in the mass, in the pressed wall. This, then,
would in turn make it important that plenty of very fine (small)
particles must be present in the mass--and so well distributed among the
coarser particles as to be on hand close by wherever there can be one
more chance for a small particle to fill a little chamber that the
coarser particles would like to bridge over. We can think of how well
Nature was fitted for this work of shuffling over all the particles at
the sea-bottom and under great water pressure till she got every
particle into the niche where it would exactly fit. She used waves,
tides, and gulf streams as shovels and mixers and packers, and the water
above as ‘hydraulic rammer.’ Looking at the pisé matter in this way, it
would appear that both the _mixing_ and the _shuffling_ are of vital
importance. And by ‘shuffling’ I mean in this connection only that the
smaller and larger particles get a chance to shift over a little during
the process of pressing the earth together to hardness, so that the
pressure may not work only and exclusively in a straight downward
direction, but in a sort of wavy zigzag direction as well--much as when
a street-roller is working the macadam and gravel a little forth and
back at the same time as downward. I have a great respect for old tools
which are the outcome of long-time experience and handed-down wisdom.
I suspect the presence of some of that sort of experience in the rammer
described in your book, p. 59. That tool would do the necessary shifting
while attending to its _main_ intention: hammering the mass solidly
together downwards. Now for your hydraulic rammer--is it advisable to
make it blow or press only in a straight line downward? Maybe there
ought to be two or three kinds of strokes alternating--one stroke with a
rifled or wavy surface under the rammer--and the next stroke with a
_plane_ surface. . . . What sort of witchcraft enters into the effect of
_high frequency blows_ as compared with blows with a little longer
intervals between? Do the strokes create also some ‘magnetic’ effect in
the pounded earth-mass which helps to fasten the particles to each
other? And does this magnetic charge or friction heat, or whatever it
is, act more promptly if one keeps on ‘striking the iron while hot,’
instead of letting the charge ‘evaporate’ and sneak away between
strokes? Two or three of my hairs are turning grey over these questions
alone. You compliment me by insinuating that I might stumble across some
fruitful idea for the forms or boxes if I speculate a little more on the
key-problem. Well, the thing won’t leave me alone, so I have thought out
several foolish variations and rejected them too. But the last one seems
to have a little more vitality, so if it will live till I write my next
letter I will tell you about it. One is so apt to follow the temptation
of ‘perfecting’ an apparatus--at the cost of getting away from keeping
it cheap, simple--and ‘fool-proof.’ By this time the idea has grown ripe
in my mind, so that I ought to write out a little book on the pisé
problem in Swedish and have it printed before springtime. Something
ought to be done. . . . I have to ask you kindly to permit me to make
use of the data contained in your book. To this I will have to add what
special precautions we must observe as to foundations in a climate like
ours. I intend to treat only the pisé method. Cob and chalk methods are
not applicable here, as we have such materials only in a few unimportant
spots.”

Mr. Ellington has long been an admirer and a firm friend of England, and
he is good enough to regard his country as indebted to ours for the
introduction of pisé-building:

“Let me tell you that the help you are giving me now--not me, but my
nation--will work as an additional bond that draws us more closely
towards each other. . . . Some of our people here have always looked too
much towards the South and too little towards the West.”

    [Headnote: A Pisé-Builder’s School]

  PISÉ, PRACTICE AND PLANT

Now that so many able architects and enterprising bodies are seriously
taking up pisé-building, the improvement in plant and technique should
be both rapid and considerable. The School of Pisé Building established
at Hornchurch in Essex, by the Imperial Ex-service Association, should
alone provide us with much new and valuable knowledge of a highly
practical kind.

It is there, for instance, that various types of shuttering and rammers
are being experimentally tested side by side, and their relative
efficiency under varying conditions ascertained. Under some conditions
it is probable that the floor and roof timbers (destined for use in the
house under construction) will be found the most economical and
satisfactory form of temporary “shuttering” for the making of the earth
walls.

The pisé “Test-House,” built by Messrs. Alban Richards at their Ashstead
works, was built in this way, and proved highly satisfactory.

Another effective and more generally applicable form of shuttering
(designed and manufactured by the same firm) is illustrated in the
diagram reproduced below. It should be observed that wedges intervene
between the movable shutters and the uprights.

The method of employment of the “Mark V” shuttering is well illustrated
by the bird’s-eye view showing the Newlands cottage under construction.

    [Headnote: Alternative Shutterings]

In this matter of shuttering there is still, however, great scope for
improvement, and it may be hoped that soon ingenuity and experience will
jointly produce a complete pisé plant perfectly fulfilling all the many
conditions enumerated earlier in the book.

Shuttering made by riveting plain galvanised sheet iron to one side of a
corrugated sheet has the qualities of lightness, smoothness, cheapness,
and rigidity, and the claims of the inventor and patentee are now being
put to the test in actual building.

  [Illustration: PATENT SHUTTERING FOR PISÉ DE TERRE
  _By W. Alban Richards and Co._]

There now seems little doubt but that pisé blocks will be largely used
for partitions and chimney stacks where the soil is good enough, and
experiments are being made with a view to discovering the best and
cheapest way of making earth slabs similar to those of coke-breeze and
concrete.

The size aimed at is 18 in. by 18 in. by 3 in., the edges to be tongued
and grooved.

Certain “concrete” machines seem to lend themselves to adaptation for
the making of earth blocks, but it is necessary to remember that sharp
blows are required rather than a steady pressure, and also that we are
working with a _dry_ material. The ordinary primitive way of making pisé
blocks is indicated below.

The hand-rammers are undoubtedly worth study and careful design. A set
of three seems to meet all ordinary requirements, and those shown on p.
101 may be taken as typical. They should be of hard-wood, smoothly
finished, and provided with long handles. They should be 9 in. to 12 in.
long, and about 5 in. by 4 in. at maximum cross section.

In the sketch they are shown “narrow-ways-on.” No. 1 is used for
preliminary pounding and final finishing, No. 2 for general
consolidating, and No. 3 for working along the edges, against window
stops, and under cross-ties.

A South African correspondent, Major Baylay, makes interesting comment
as regards rammers and local pisé practice:

    [Headnote: South Africa]

“My experience of all black labour is, that they won’t put any ‘guts’
into it. They therefore want fairly heavy rammers, which they can lift
and drop, say a foot, and which will do the rest for them. The heat of
the sun and extreme dryness of atmosphere out here make it advisable to
cover up completed courses at once with sacking, moist for choice,
otherwise it is liable to dry out too quickly and crack. It dries out
uncovered at night very well, when there is no rain.

“The red loams of South Africa, where not too sandy, make excellent
pisé. They or their equivalent are found almost everywhere. In the dry
state they set so hard that moisture added just before ramming is
useless. A large heap must be made, well damped and covered over with
moist sacking, and left until the moisture is distributed throughout the
mass. When about four or five days old, in ordinary weather, the earth
is ready to use--viz., just wet enough to bind when gripped in the hand.
It should be passed through a sieve. I use a sort of ‘chicken run,’
8 ft. long, and throw the earth on to it before using. Six feet of it is
½-in. mesh, and 2 ft. ¼-in. mesh; the reason for this is that, if the
earth is a little too dry, it does not always bind well with the
previous layer. Therefore, put a few petrol tins of the fine earth into
the shuttering first in order to ensure good bond, and throw the coarser
stuff in after.”

  [Illustration: PISÉ HAND RAMMERS]

  _Second Note by Major Baylay, Peter Maritzburg, Natal, South Africa_

“I have completed a small building, and though weather conditions have
been as bad as possible, it is sound and very satisfactory.

“In my opinion, pisé-building should not be attempted in the rainy
season in Africa. Earth contains too much moisture, and the power of the
sun dries it out too quickly and causes cracks.

“_Re_ plastering. I covered the outside and inside with a mixture of 6
earth, 2 sand, 1 blue (Hyd.) lime, the earth being the red, rather ‘fat’
earth found everywhere, and the same stuff the house is built of. It is
put on thin with a trowel, after damping the wall. When it dries and
cracks, rub all over with a sacking pad covered with the plaster
mixture, but wetted to a thin cream consistency. It may sound an odd
method, but the natives do this work well, and the result is as good as
one can wish for. You can put tar or any wash (No. 6) on this.”

    [Headnote: Soils]

  SOILS

Were it not for the fact (often somewhat embarrassing) that soil quite
incapable of making good pisé will none the less produce enthusiastic
pisé-builders, a warning as to the vital importance of the earth being
really suitable might seem superfluous.

The author has found some of the staunchest champions of pisé-building
living on and valiantly struggling with stiff glutinous clay and almost
pure sand.

Even the most vigorous optimism can achieve little under such adverse
conditions unless soil-blending be resorted to, and even so,
pisé-building begins to lose points in the matter of economy directly
complications of this sort are introduced.

Fortunately, however, England is well off in the matter of pisé soils,
the red marls being amongst the very best.

A study of the country, or, failing that, of the geological maps, will
reveal a great tract of this earth extending diagonally right across
England, from Yorkshire down into Devonshire, where it ends
conspicuously in the beautiful red cliffs about Torquay.

There is a large area of the stuff in the Midlands, notably in
Warwickshire, with lesser patches here and there about the country.

Second only to the red marls come the brick earths, which, fortunately,
are also widely distributed.

“Brick earth” is merely clay that has been well weathered and
disintegrated under the action of wind, rain, frost, and organic agents,
the sulphides having become oxides, and what was a cold intractable
slithery mass having become merely a “strong” and binding earth.

It is probable that even stiff clay, if dug in the summer or autumn, and
left exposed for a winter, would prove sufficiently reformed to be quite
amenable for pisé building in the spring.

After the marls and the brick earths there is an endless variety of
soils that will serve well for pisé-building--some, of course, better
than others, but all, save the extremes (the excessively light and the
excessively clayey), capable of giving good results under proper
treatment.

Before putting pisé construction actually in hand, however, the
intending builder will do well to submit samples of his earth to some
competent authority, that they may receive his blessing.

A fistful taken from a depth of 9 in., and another from say 2 ft. below
the surface, should give sufficient evidence as to the soil’s
suitability or the reverse.

_CHALK_

§ I. GENERAL

Chalk, as a source of lime, has always been of high importance to
builders, and, until improved transport brought alien materials into its
old preserves, chalk was in general use for walling in the form of
roughly squared blocks.

Chalk again forms the basis of a compost that, used in the form of a
stiff paste, has been largely employed for building from the earliest
times down to the present.

“Pisé de Craie,” or chalk consolidated by ramming within a casing, is a
form of building that has been long held in high repute in France and
elsewhere, but which has only recently been given a serious trial in
England.

Chalk in all these forms, if fairly dealt with and reasonably protected
from the weather, is a most amenable and satisfactory material to build
with.

The last-named method particularly seems to promise results that should
satisfy the most exacting critics of the unconventional, as it assuredly
does those who inhabit the cottages so constructed.

The several systems of chalk construction are fully dealt with in the
pages that follow.

_Chalk Compost: Historical._--At the Ancient British village on West
Down, Chilbolton, some five miles south of Andover, delving
archæologists have brought to light undeniable fragments of chalk
“Daub,” with the wattle marks still clearly showing upon them.

This discovery is chiefly of academic interest, though it is a pretty
refutation to those who regard any building material save brick and
stone as “new-fangled,” and it should also serve to hearten the doubters
and the timid amongst us who seek historic sanction for any departure
from current building practice.

_Composition and Uses._--In the Andover district Chalk Compost or “Chalk
Mud,” as it is called locally, is prepared and used as follows:

The chalk is dug out in the autumn, and the frost allowed to play on it
during the winter. In the spring building starts, and the weathered
chalk is spread all around the outside of the walls. Straw is sprinkled
on it and it is then well trodden, usually by the workers, but sometimes
by horses. Sometimes chopped straw is added, sometimes unchopped straw
is sprinkled on. The quality of the walls depends very largely on the
preparation--that is, in getting the mud to the right consistency--and
the old hands know by experience when it is ready.

The compost is lifted on the wall by a fork and another man stands on
the wall and treads it in. It is then chopped down straight with a
spade. Some of the naked walls at Andover show traces of the courses,
which are usually something under 2 ft. in height.

Where a course has to be left unfinished it should be ended with a
diagonal ramp so as to splice in with the work that follows.

Some of the old builders seem to have been somewhat catholic in their
conceptions as to what constituted “chalk,” and vague patches of earth,
loose flints and other stray substances not infrequently mar their work
and sometimes seriously reduce its strength.

As a general rule, the finer the chalk the stronger and more durable is
the walling.

What is aimed at is a conglomerate of small chalk knobs cemented
together by a matrix of plastic chalk and straw, the whole forming as
dense a mass as possible.

Grinding in a mortar-mill would probably reduce all the chalk to an
amorphous powder, which would not be desirable, and in any case such
mechanical mixing is quite unnecessary.

Building by ramming the moist compost between timber shutterings does
not appear to have been practised in the past, though there is nothing
against the method except its tendency to delay the drying out.

The drying of each course takes several days, depending on the weather.
A course is usually laid right round the building. It must be covered up
at night in case of rain, and when it is hard another course is laid on,
and so on till completion. The aim is to build during the summer and
autumn, and when the moisture has dried out, to render the exterior.

Where brickwork is used with chalk compost it is generally bonded in in
the ordinary way, but block-bonding the depth of a chalk course is a
better way of doing it.

The exterior corners of chalk buildings are the vulnerable points, and
these should therefore be well rounded off.

_Timber._--In the old work nothing seems to have been done to prevent
woodwork built in to the compost from decaying, though in many cases it
has survived surprisingly. In any new work, however, proper ventilated
air-spaces should be contrived or the timber ends treated with some
preservative.

The door and window frames are fixed to fairly large pieces of wood
built in across the thickness of wall, and other woodwork is fixed to
wood blocks built in in a similar way.

Picture-rails should be provided in all rooms, as chalk walls are apt to
flake and chip if nails are driven into them.

Lintels are usually of wood, and when plastering is carried down over
these some form of key must of course be provided to hold it.

    [Headnote: Winter Work Barred]

_Frost._--New work must not be exposed to frost or there will be danger
of collapse, and winter work is barred out for this reason.

_Repairs._--Chalk compost walls are not easily repaired in that
material, and bricks are generally used, well bonded in.

_Chimneys._--Chimneys, too, are usually of brick, though there would
seem no reason against the flues being carried up in chalk, especially
if clay pipe linings were used.

The chimney-stacks above the roof might well be built in flint, the
corners being rounded off in deference to the peculiarities of the
material.

_External Rendering._--It is of the first importance that a good
weather-tight skin be maintained, and many old buildings have suffered
through neglect of this precaution.

The rendering was often of the poorest quality, more mud than lime, and
the constant repairs that the indifferent materials necessitated has
resulted in many of the old cottages becoming patchworks of variegated
plaster blotches, when not whitewashed over, which give an impression of
dilapidation by no means warranted by the facts.

_Rendering._--Given a good skin, however, of cement or cement and lime,
a chalk conglomerate wall will last indefinitely. So vital is the skin
that it is as well to put it on in two good coats--rounding off all the
corners and finishing it either with slap-dash or rough from the wooden
float.

Also, to ensure its proper adhesion throughout, wire-netting may be used
as reinforcement--being secured to the face of the chalk wall by means
of cross netting or wires laid on the wall as the building rises.

If the netting be of a fine mesh it also serves as an absolute barrier
to vermin, though pounded glass incorporated in the base of the wall is
equally effective.

_Strength._--Provided the wall has dried out thoroughly, any of the
ordinary loads occurring in a two-storied house can be borne with ease.

Chalk conglomerate walling, however, has no great lateral strength, and
it should not be asked to stand up to thrusts.

The roof, therefore, must be well tied, and should sit on the building
merely as a lid.

  +Details of Chalk Construction at Amesbury.+
  (From a sketch by W. R. Jaggard, F.R.I.B.A., the copyright of
  the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.)]

  +Chalk Construction at Amesbury, Wilts.+
  (From a sketch by W. R. Jaggard, F.R.I.B.A., the copyright of
  the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.)]

_Roof._--Though thatch is the traditional roofing material of chalk
cottages, any other will serve that is permanent and good of its kind.

The only special demand that chalk walls make is that the eaves shall be
generously overhung for their better protection from the weather.

Where, in later years, the boldly projecting thatch has been
thoughtlessly replaced by a slate roof with meagre eaves, or with none
at all, the walls have suffered accordingly.

    [Headnote: Garden Walls]

_Garden Walls._--A chalk garden wall must be afforded just as much
protection as the wall of a house and on both sides.

The hat with which it is provided is of the highest importance to the
health and longevity of the walling.

Examples of garden wall copings are given in the sketches shown below.

  [Illustration: WALL COPINGS.]

_House Walls._--Chalk conglomerate walls rarely exceed 18 in. in
thickness, and are usually the same upstairs as down.

A plinth of the same thickness as the chalk wall it supports is usually
carried up 6 in. to 18 in. above the ground level in rubble-work, flint,
or brick, being known as the “Underpin Course.” Any of the stock
damp-courses are suitable, but they must be well and truly laid, as damp
feet are nearly as deleterious to a chalk wall as a leaky or inadequate
hat.

No special tools are required for this method of building, an ordinary
farm fork for lifting and a spade for the final chopping down of the
wall faces being all that are necessary.

A house built during the summer is usually fit for occupation the same
autumn.

_Old Examples._--Those who may wish to see buildings in chalk
conglomerate, both old and new, would do well to visit some such typical
chalk district as that lying about Andover in Wiltshire.

It should, however, be constantly borne in mind that most of the old
cottages were somewhat unscientifically erected by their original
jack-of-all-trades occupiers, that damp-courses and Portland cement were
unknown, and that the advantages of proper ventilation and the causes of
dry-rot were discoveries yet to be made.

Secondly, a large number of these cottages have been sadly neglected
either recently or in the past, and they bear the disfiguring marks of
their ill-treatment upon them now.

But a chalk cottage that is well found in the beginning, and that is
reasonably well cared for subsequently, has nothing to fear from
comparison with cottages built in the most approved manner of the more
fashionable materials.

Mr. James Thorold gives the following particulars of a block of three
chalk cottages recently built for Sir George Cooper on his estate at
Hursley, near Winchester:

“The chalk walling was done by Messrs. A. Annett and Son, of Winterslow,
near Salisbury, where this method of building has been kept alive from
olden days. It consists of working up the soft upper strata of the chalk
by putting a bed of it 4 ft. 6 in. thick on the ground, watering and
treading it to a sticky consistency with the feet, working in shortish
straw at the same time. When thoroughly mixed by the builder’s mate, he
lifts up a forkful to the builder working on the wall immediately above
him, the latter catches the chalk, dumps it down on the top of the wall,
building an 18 in. course all round. As soon as the weather has dried
this sufficiently he goes round with a sharp spade squaring up both
sides of the wall. As this work is greatly dependent on the weather it
is well if the men have other work to fall back on, and that building
operations should be commenced in the spring or early summer. The wall
is built 18 in. thick to the first floor joists and 14 in. above. Chalk
in itself being very absorbent of moisture, the usual plan is to render
the outside of the wall with a lime mortar, which, however, requires
renewal every few years. To obviate this we fixed with long staples 1¼
in. mesh wire-netting over the outside surface of the wall to give a
reinforcement for a rendering of hair mortar and cement gauged in
proportion of 1 to 2 respectively, and left rough from the trowel. This
rendering was done at a cost of 3s. 3½d. per square yard, which is a
substantial addition to the cost of the walling, but so far there is no
sign of a crack or hollow place behind it, and the cottages have kept
very dry. The walls were finished off with a limewash containing Russian
tallow and copperas.[9]

    [Footnote 9: See recipes for Whitewash in Appendix (I).]

    [Headnote: Cost of Three Cottages]

“As regards the cost of this block of three cottages, the result is
obscured by the fact that tall chimney-stacks with ornamental bricks and
appropriate foundations were built and reinforced leaded lights were
used in the windows to keep the building in character with the other
cottages on the estate, but at the time we estimated that the chalk
walling saved a sum of £54 as against the amount we should have had to
have spent in carrying out the building with bricks made on the estate,
and this had to include lodging money and profit, the builders being
independent men. The ornamental chimney-stacks were put in for the sake
of appearance, flues built up in the chalk being entirely satisfactory
and fireproof. The foundations are either flint or brick with a slate
damp-course.

“I consider that for a chalk country this method of building has many
advantages.

  “(1) It saves cartage.

  “(2) It can be carried out by a skilled labourer who can be
    otherwise employed during unsuitable weather.

  “(3) No fuel is required as in burning bricks.

  “(4) If a suitable rendering is employed to keep it weatherproof,
    and a good damp-course on the foundations, the cottages are nice
    and dry and keep an equable temperature, chalk being a good
    non-conductor.

“Sir George wonders if any method could be devised by chemical means to
harden the chalk and make it weatherproof; if this could be done it
might save the expense of the cement rendering.”

  CHALK CONGLOMERATE

  From _Country Life_, February 23rd, 1901:

“Soft chalk is practically mud, yet Dr. Poore, one leading authority on
rural hygiene, had his model hygienic cottage built with it at Andover,
just outside the boundaries, in order to escape the tyranny of the
bye-laws. In several other places this material has been used time out
of mind.

“The white cottages on the Wiltshire Downs are as good as any in
England.”

  +Three Chalk Cottages at Hursley Park+]

  THE WINTERSLOW COTTAGES

  From _Country Life_, April 6th, 1901:

“The white chalk cottages of the scattered straggling village are found
in every sort of position. They must not be confounded with the cottages
of rock chalk at Medmenham. You might almost call them mud cottages.

“The house is generally both planned and constructed by the owner.

“. . . The soil is only a few inches deep, soft chalk lies close to the
surface and can be dug out with a spade. This is a very suitable
material in the district and costs nothing but the labour of
digging. . . .

“On the downs there is a constant lack of water; that which falls in the
shape of rain is therefore very precious, and in some cases is indeed
the only kind available. But a large tank or artificial well is needed
to contain it, and the pit from which the chalk is dug out can be made
to serve the purpose. . . . One was made watertight by means of a lining
of concrete, and held enough water to keep the family going through all
the dry season.

“In another house . . . the chalk-pit had been utilised to form a large
and convenient cellar. . . .

“Most of them (the cottages) . . . are on two floors, with parlour,
kitchen, back kitchen and so forth on one, and the bedrooms on the
other. In the preparation of the chalk, the method followed is that of
treading it into a kind of rubble, and adding a proportion of straw and
a small quantity of lime.

    [Headnote: Expensive Scaffolding Avoided]

“There is a local builder who will run up the shell of a house for a
matter of £100, more or less, according to its size. . . . Most of the
cottages are literally hand-made. A skilful architect who visited the
Winterslow cottages felt sure that boards must be used to keep the walls
straight, but he was wrong. The chalk is shovelled up and the walls are
kept straight without line or plummet. No expensive scaffolding or
machinery is employed. Yet the walls come out beautifully in the end,
the colour being an exquisite soft white. They are about 18 in. thick,
and the slowness of their construction has one good effect, it gives
them time to dry. No point is of more importance than this. It is
advisable not to put on any rough-cast, plaster, or paper for at least
twelve months, as doing so will prevent the moisture from exuding. One
or two of the little cottages were slightly damp, but the majority were
as dry as tinder. The thickness of the walls helps to render the cottage
more comfortable, to make it cool in summer and dry in winter.

“One word should be added in regard to soft chalk as a building
material. Where it can be obtained in the garden at a few inches depth,
and especially where the cottager is his own architect and builder, it
can be most heartily recommended, but there are obvious objections to
its transportation to districts where it is foreign.

“The village itself is a very homely and irregular one without a single
dwelling of any pretence. The country lying adjacent to Salisbury Plain
consists of broken, sparsely peopled downland, and very ornate or
finished cottages would be out of keeping, but they would not look so
well copied in a very rich, heavily timbered country.”

  RATS AND CHALK

_Note._--Conglomerate chalk is, like cob, vulnerable to the attacks of a
really determined rat.

The outer defences provided by the exterior rendering can be backed up
by the mixing in of broken glass or sharp flints with the substance of
the wall, where such attacks are likely.

  +Marsh Court, Hampshire.+]

  +Brick-and-chalk Vaulting at the Deanery Garden, Sonning+]

    [Headnote: Block Chalk]

  BLOCK CHALK

“Chalk” is a term somewhat loosely used to denote the soft white
limestone--the “_Creta Scriptoria_”--that is cousin to Marl on one side
and to Ragstone on the other.

In its purest form chalk consists of over 95 per cent. of carbonate of
lime in the form of fine granular particles held together by a
calcareous cement, its organic origin being clearly traced in the
remains of the minute sea creatures with which it abounds.

Hewn blocks of chalk have been used for walling and vaulting from
immemorial times, and, where not exposed to direct erosion by the
weather, remain to this day as clean-cut as when they were first
quarried and a very great deal harder.

The filling in of the great vaults at Salisbury Cathedral and in the
Bishop’s Palace are of chalk, whilst innumerable lesser buildings of
more or less antiquity still remain to us as monuments to the excellence
and durability of this stone.

Chalk, too, was often used in combination with flint or brick to build
the engaging chequer-work walls that embellish so many downland
villages.

At Medmenham there are cottages both old and new of hewn rock chalk, and
both the Berks and Bucks banks of the Thames have many buildings to show
of this beautiful material.

Amongst present-day architects Sir Edwin Lutyens was the first to give
hewn chalk an opportunity of showing its quality in serious
architecture, Marsh Court in Hampshire being an instance of more than
local celebrity.

In the great walls at the Bishop of Winchester’s palace, Farnham Castle
in Surrey, the old builders appear to have used bricks, limestone and
chalk proper, according as the several materials were delivered, quite
indifferently, and with results altogether delightful.

Not all chalk is suitable for building, that near the surface being
often far gone in decay and much too friable for such a purpose.

Even when apparently sound blocks have been gotten they are not
infrequently found to be crossed in all directions by planes of weakness
along which they are apt to fall to pieces in the handling.

From this cause the “waste” is sometimes considerable.

The well-known building “stones” from the quarries of Beer, Sutton, and
Tottenhoe in Devonshire are really chalk, but in a form not readily
distinguishable from ordinary free-stone.

The longer that chalk blocks are kept to dry before building-in the
better, and the sun and wind of at least a year should be allowed free
play upon them to dry out their natural sap and render them
“frost-proof.”

During the drying-out process the chalk should, if possible, be
protected from the rain.

For years after being built into the walls of a house, chalk will
continue to dry and harden.

But it is essentially a somewhat porous material, and will quickly
revenge itself on those neglecting its just demands for a sound roof and
a proper damp-course.

In exposed situations new chalk walling is liable to allow the
penetration of moisture under the pressure of the wind unless a cavity
is provided or unless the surface is treated with a silicate or other
“vitrifying” fluid.

Chalk, however, has one shining virtue in common with its great
antithesis--it improves mightily with keeping.

Chalk walls sometimes have youthful vices in the way of porosity that
entirely disappear with advancing years through the closing up of the
surface pores, which eventually makes a cavity and inner lining
superfluous.

IV

_UNBURNED CLAY AND EARTH BRICKS_

  SUN-DRIED BRICKS

The use of sun-dried bricks in this country, is, for no very apparent
reason, almost entirely restricted to East Anglia. There it has been
used for generations with entirely satisfactory results.

Mr. Skipper of Norwich writes of the material as follows:

   *   *   *

“Who, travelling from Norfolk to London, whether by the Ipswich or
Cambridge line, has not noticed the numerous colour-washed or black
(tarred) cottage, farmhouse and agricultural buildings scattered
practically all along the countryside? Some of these are of studwork and
plaster, some of wattle and daub, but many are built of clay made up
into lumps, sun-dried, and built into the walls with a soft clay-mixture
as mortar. No lime _need_ be used, though sometimes it is mixed with the
clay mortar. The preparation, digging, exposure and mixing with short
straw are similar to the Devonshire ‘cob’ work, but in these parts the
worked clay is thrown into moulds, and lumps are formed of, say, 18 in.
by 12 in. by 6 in., or 18 in. by 9 in. by 6 in. for large sizes, and for
inside walling or backing to brick-faced walls, 18 in. by 6 in. by 6 in.
The walls, naturally, are rough in texture and the joints are generally
stopped up and besmeared with a thin coating or almost a wash of clay.
This coating sometimes has lime mixed with it, but it is not necessary.
This is all that is needed to complete the walling, and there is a
building--a malting, that any one can see at Tivetshall Station on the
Ipswich line, about 200 ft. long, 45 ft. or 50 ft. wide and three floors
high, built of lumps 18 in. by 12 in. by 6 in.--that has stood the
weather and weight of its roof for forty years built in this way; 12 in.
is the thickness of its walls. A further stage in finish is to give the
walls two or three coats of coal tar, but it is not essential, though
desirable where stock are kept, as cattle are rather fond of licking the
clay, and they do not use their horns much when walls are tarred. The
highest finish in this work is to cast sand on the last coating of tar
before it is quite dry, and then to colour or whitewash on this. This
accounts for the variety of colourings seen in these buildings, some
even of a kind of pink or red; while some yellow or buff, beside the
white and the black or tarred buildings, and all huddled together or
standing apart, whether covered with thatch or red pan or flat tiles,
look remarkably in harmony with their surroundings. These lump walls
are, of course, built on a base of brickwork, about 18 in. or 2 ft.
high, to keep them free from damp. This kind of walling can be built for
_at least_ 15 per cent. or 20 per cent. cheaper than ordinary 9 in.
brickwork. Thin as these walls are compared with those of ‘cob’ houses,
they are noted for being warm in winter and cool in summer. When
suitable clay is procurable a local builder almost invariably uses clay
lumps when building a house for himself, though to gratify a whim
perhaps, he will case the outside walls--especially the front next the
street or road--with brickwork. But clay lumps he carefully reserves for
inside walls and weight-carrying linings to the outside walls, bonding
the two together very much in the same way as two 4½ in. ‘cavity walls’
are bonded. I am not suggesting that this walling is as interesting
artistically as ‘cob,’ but I do suggest it is a practical, sensible and
_dry_ walling, and if properly done it will ‘last for ever,’ as a local
builder repeatedly said to me when speaking of it. One can easily see
why the cost is light--the sun and the winds do the drying in the spring
months, and no coals are required, and also the clay is often found on
the building site, hence no cartage. Actual building work naturally goes
quickly, as the lumps are large. There is another important point to
notice. One may see a building complete with its roof on and occupied by
its tenant while still awaiting an outside casing of brickwork to be
built round it, either with a view to greater protection or for the mere
vanity of the owner, for while thus left unprotected the lump walls take
no harm from even winter exposure. Now to be quite practical in these
extremely practical days, I venture to suggest that the use of clay
lumps at least for inside walls and linings of outside walls would be an
immense boon to the numerous cottage-building schemes now being
projected. We must not forget that comparatively few bricks will be
available this year, while the cottages are wanted at once. Can these
few bricks be better used than by forming foundations and chimneys for
the clay-lump walls of these cottages? I think not. The cottages could,
of course, be occupied in the late summer or autumn of this year, and
next year when bricks will be more plentiful perhaps the brick casings
could be added, if brickwork _must_ complete them. I make this strictly
utilitarian suggestion solely to meet a very urgent and deep national
need. Personally, I prefer the sight of a cottage built and finished in
the old-established method of the locality. Unskilled labour only is
required, working under intelligent supervision, hence immediate
employment for a great number of men would be provided.”

    [Headnote: Use for Unskilled Labour]

   *   *   *

  +Once Corn Hall, now Council School.+
  Built about a hundred years ago. Still in sound condition
  and quite dry.]

  +A Row of Clay-lump Cottages.+
  The front has been plastered and panelled out. In the upper part
  of the stable building, seen in the foreground, the clay-lumps
  are shown exposed.]

  +Engineering Workshops.+
  Built twenty years ago. The walls are thoroughly sound, despite
  constant vibration, and are perfectly dry, except the brick face,
  which was added for effect.]

The use of sun-dried bricks for the interior partitions of cob and pisé
cottages is worth consideration, as the nature of these materials
demands a thickness of wall which is too wasteful of space to be
acceptable in mere partitioning.

Of the strength of clay-lump walls, there is no question. It was
recently necessary to cut a new doorway in the old clay-lump wall of a
large traction-engine garage, and the blocks removed were thrown into a
heap upon the ground.

The clay happened to be needed for other purposes, for which it had
first to be broken up.

Ordinary hammers proved entirely ineffective, and it was not until heavy
sledges were used that the lumps could be smashed.

The tractor-house in question is a large building some 25 ft. by 100
ft., carrying a heavy roof and constantly subjected to vibration by the
coming and going of the tractors.

The walls are only 12 in. thick, without piers or reinforcements of any
kind, and yet the whole building, which is 26 ft, high at the gables, is
as perfect to-day as when first erected some twenty years ago.

In the same town as this tractor-house, East Harling in Norfolk, is a
council school built of clay lump (converted from the old Corn Hall),
apparently not a pin the worse for a century of hard wear.

Near by there are a number of private houses built of the same material,
some of them reputed to be upwards of 200 years old and certain of them
having considerable architectural merit.

    [Headnote: “Substantial and Cool”]

(_Extract from “The Farmers’ Handbook,” issued by the Department of
Agriculture, New South Wales, 1911_)

+“Adobe,” or Sun-dried Bricks+

“As their name implies, these buildings are constructed of sun-dried,
but unburnt bricks. For buildings of this character, material like clay,
which is unsuitable for pisé-work, can be used. The bricks are made in a
wooden mould, and are 16 in. long, 8 in. wide, and 6 in. thick. A man
can mould about 100 per day. They are laid in a similar manner to other
bricks, the mortar used being wet loam, or even the material of which
the bricks are made. The cost of making and laying is estimated at about
15s. per 100. Buildings constructed of these bricks are substantial and
cool, and very similar in character to pisé buildings.

“A school-house built of these bricks eighteen years ago by Mr. Nixon,
of Reefton, is still in an excellent state of preservation; in fact,
little, if any, the worse for wear, despite the fact that walls are
unprotected by verandahs or overhanging eaves. During its existence it
has had, first one coat of oil-paint, and later a coat of coloured
limewash.”

   *   *   *

“Clay lump,” then, is one of the many good old building methods that
needs no proving, but only revival and perhaps improvement.

APPENDIX

  WHITEWASH

Whitewashing has been frequently referred to in the foregoing pages as
the most suitable treatment for the exterior of chalk and earth
buildings.

There is, however, a certain prejudice against lime-whiting amongst both
owners and occupiers, owing to the frequent renewal that its adoption
usually implies.

With a view to removing this drawback from a treatment otherwise so
effective, the following recipes are suggested as improvements on the
usual practice.

Ordinary whitewash is made by slaking about 10 lbs. of quicklime with
two gallons of water.

The following recipes are taken from “_White Paints and Painting_”
(Scott), and are reliable:

(1) “_Factory” Whitewash (interiors), for Walls, Ceilings, Posts, etc._:

  (_a_) 62 lbs. (1 bushel) quicklime, slake with 15 gallons water.
    Keep barrel covered till steam ceases to arise. Stir occasionally
    to prevent scorching.

  (_b_) 2½ lbs. rye-flour, beat up in ½ gallon of cold water, then
    add 2 gallons boiling water.

  (_c_) 2½ lbs. of common rock-salt, dissolve in 2½ gallons of hot
    water.

Mix (_b_) and (_c_), then pour into (_a_), and stir until all is well
mixed. This is the whitewash used in the large implement factories, and
recommended by the insurance companies. The above formula gives a
product of perfect brush consistency.

(2) _“Weatherproof” Whitewash (exteriors), for Buildings, Fences, etc._:

  (_a_) 62 lbs. (1 bushel) quicklime, slake with 12 gallons of hot
    water.

  (_b_) 2 lbs. common table salt, 1 lb. sulphate of zinc, dissolved
    in a gallon of boiling water.

  (_c_) 2 gallons skimmed milk.

Pour (_b_) into (_a_), then add the milk (_c_), and mix thoroughly.

(3) _“Light House” Whitewash_:

  (_a_) 62 lbs. (1 bushel) quicklime, slake with 12 gallons of
    hot water.

  (_b_) 12 gallons rock-salt, dissolve in 6 gallons of boiling water.

  (_c_) 6 lbs. of Portland cement.

Pour (_b_) into (_a_), and then add (_c_).

   *   *   *

_Note._--Alum added to a lime whitewash prevents it rubbing off. An
ounce to the gallon is sufficient.

Flour paste answers the same purpose, but needs zinc sulphate as a
preservative.

The following are from “_1,000 More Paint Questions Answered_”:

(4) _Durable Whitewash for Outside Use._--A whitewash that will not rub
off or wash off in rainy weather can be made by mixing one half-pint of
flour to a batter with cold water, then stirring into this boiling water
until it becomes a thick paste.

While still hot it is poured into a pailful of ready-made lime whitewash
and well stirred in.

(5) Another simple method is to add to 2 gallons of ready-made lime
whitewash one half-pint each of molasses and table salt. Must be stirred
frequently while being used.

_Whitewash for Exterior Surfaces._--A formula for a durable whitewash
for out-buildings of rough lumber. The following is reprinted from
“_Popular Mechanics_”:

(6) Place 1 bushel good fresh lime in a barrel with 20 lbs. beef tallow;
slake with hot water and cover with sackcloth to keep in steam. When the
lime is slaked, the tallow will have disappeared, having formed a
chemical compound with the lime. Dry colours may be added to produce any
tint desired.[10]

    [Footnote 10: Experiments and tests carried out for the author
    by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research place
    this receipt at the head of the list.]

It is better to add colour before slaking the lime, but if this is not
feasible mix the colour with alcohol and add it to the strained
whitewash. Thin to easy flowing consistency with clear water.

    [Headnote: Distempers and Limewashes]

_Cold Water Paint that will stand the Weather._--A formula for making a
white outside coating that will resist the action of the weather and
remain hard even under the influence of moisture and rain. Experiments
with different brands of cold water paints have proved failures.

A really effective cold water paint, in order to resist the elements and
remain white, should contain a white pigment of good body and some oil
in addition to the water, and with this purpose in view the following is
suggested:

(7) To make 100 lbs. of such paint, mix 10 lbs. white, pure in oil, with
10 lbs. bolted whiting, 8 lbs. raw linseed oil, 6 lbs. soft soap (made
with potash), and 26 lbs. soft water.

One quart of pale copal varnish will improve the preparation. The
formula given is of the right consistency to apply on dressed lumber
with the brush. For application on rough lumber or with the spraying
machine it requires more thinning with water and varnish.

The following is taken from Pearce’s “_Painting and Decorating_”:

(8) A London recipe for distemper has the following proportions:
4 “balls” whiting, 2 lbs. Young’s patent size, and sufficient water to
cover the whiting.

(9) A Scotch distemper is described as: 12 lbs. whiting, size as given
previously, 2 ozs. alum, 2 ozs. soft soap. It is very fast, for
passages, schools, etc. Tinting colours for limewash should be
restricted to ochres, umbers, lime blue, lime greens, charcoal or lamp
black, and earthy reds (as Venetian).

(10) External limewash for farm buildings, etc., may be made as follows:
Lime, ½ bushel, slaked with 1 gallon of milk and remainder of water,
1 lb. salt and ½ lb. sulphate of zinc to make it withstand the weather.

Experiments with and practical tests of these and other kinds of
whitewash are being carried out, and the author hopes that he may find
opportunity at some later date of announcing the results obtained.

    [Headnote: Local Materials]

  II

  THE IMPORTANCE OF USING LOCAL MATERIALS

  (_Extract from “Country Life,” November 9th, 1918_)

  300,000 COTTAGES WOULD ENTAIL THE TRANSPORT OF 60,000,000 TONS
  OF MATERIAL

In carrying out any considerable scheme of house building two
difficulties will have to be met. The first arises from the scarcity of
building material; the other from the cost and difficulty of transport.
These, to some extent, can be obviated by the use of local material,
which is to be commended on other grounds as well. Local material fits
into the character of the neighbourhood in which it is found and
maintains its traditions.

Very few people realise the bulk of materials, and in order to help them
the following statement has been prepared to show the materials needed
for each cottage and the total for 300,000 cottages:

  Materials.                                        Weight.
                                         Per One Cottage. Per 300,000.
                                         Tons. Cwts. Qrs.   (Tons.)
  Ballast, sand, gravel                       78 17  0     23,655,000
  Lime                                         5 18  0      1,770,000
  Cement                                      12  8  0      3,720,000
  Bricks                                      85  0  0     25,500,000
  Slates for D.P.C                             0 10  2        157,500
  Chimney-pots                                 0  0  3         11,250
  Tiles                                        7  2  2      2,137,500
  Carcassing timber                            7  0  0      2,100,000
  Complete joinery timber                      1 12  0        480,000
  Cast-iron rain-water goods and sundries      0  9  0        135,000
  Stoves, copper, ash-bin, etc.                0  5  2         82,500
  Nails, screws, etc.                          0  1  2         22,500
  Hair for plaster                             0  1  0         15,000
  Lead flashings, etc.                         0  2  1         33,750
  Sink, waste pipes, draining boards, etc.     0  2  1         33,750
  Sanitary goods                               0  1  0         15,000
  Whitening, distemper and paint               0  3  1         48,750
                                             ---------     ----------
      Total                                  199 14  2     59,917,500
                                             ---------     ----------

It will be seen that to carry out the scheme for 300,000 cottages a
total of close on 60,000,000 tons of material will have to be shifted.
In addition to that, it must be remembered that the cost of material is
very small in comparison with that of building. This will be apparent
from an analysis of the items employed for actual cost and the
percentage which that cost bears to the total cost.

Cottages erected 1912 (semi-detached): total interior area of cottage,
772 ft. super, (parlour, kitchen, scullery and three bedrooms, coal and
W.C.):

                                                 Per House.
 No.          Item.                   Actual Cost.     Per cent. of
                                                         Total Cost.
  1. Sundries                                  8              2·66
  2. Foundations                              16              5·28
  3. External and party walls (_a_)           77             25·41
            Windows and doors (_b_)           23              7·59
  4. Internal partitions                      36             11·88
  5. Ground floor                             18              5·94
  6. Upper floor                              22              7·26
  7. Roof and rain-water goods                34              1·22
  8. Chimney and fireplaces                   30              9·90
  9. Sanitary fittings, water supply and
         drainage                             19              6·27
 10. Staircases                               11              3·63
 11. Fittings                                  6              1·98
                                            ----
      Total                                 £300

These facts help to clarify the problem. The weight of the building
materials required for an ordinary cottage with living-room, parlour,
scullery, three bedrooms, etc., the house containing cubic contents of
about 11,500 ft., would come approximately to 200 tons per cottage; and
even assuming that there is only an average transport of fifty miles,
this would give 10,000 ton-miles per rural cottage, which is taking it
at a very low average. In each cottage the weight of the brickwork
represents about 42 per cent. of the total weight. It is, therefore,
apparent that every effort should be made to lessen the transit of
materials required for the external walling. If, on the other hand,
local materials are employed, this carriage would be saved and a great
economy effected. Even if this utilitarian consideration were not so
important as it is, the desirability of making all possible use of local
materials is very great from other points of view. It would stimulate
local interest in building and, in addition to retaining the traditions
of the district, give greater hope of retaining and maintaining the
proper architectural aspect of our villages.

It is scarcely necessary to summarise the advantages that may fairly be
expected to flow from this endeavour to make a real start at finding a
solution for the housing difficulty. First and foremost must be placed
the saving in transport. A casual reader may easily imagine that the
difficulties of carriage will vanish with the end of the war, but that
is not so in reality. Any one who has travelled in France must have
noticed engines bearing such names as Liverpool Street, King’s Cross,
Euston, Birmingham, and so on. The meaning of that is that a great deal
of our rolling stock was sent over to France, and at the best will not
be available here for a long time to come. Even the ordinary work of
upkeep and repair has necessarily been neglected owing to the scarcity
of men and other causes incidental to war-time. Transport difficulties
are bound to last for a very considerable period after the peace
settlement, and it would not be at all advisable to delay the
construction of houses so long. The returned soldiers will make us
vividly conscious of the shortage. Nothing could be imagined more likely
to make them look for chances of going abroad than to learn that there
is not sufficient housing accommodation for them in the village in which
they lived before the war, and to which they hoped to return on its
conclusion.

    [Headnote: Cost per Foot Cube]

  EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF _COUNTRY LIFE_,
  JULY 27th, 1918

“Shortly before the war I had occasion to demolish some very old
cottages at Clovelly for the reconstruction of the New Inn. I was so
much struck with the stability of these (although by no means
first-class samples of cob work) that I collected some facts and notes
on the subject from different parts of the county of Devon. Where
bye-laws have been adopted, cob is no longer being used. It is
difficult, therefore, to give an accurate comparison of costs, but after
careful investigation I did arrive at the following results for North
Devon and Scotland. The prices were in 1913, and in both cases for a
five-roomed cottage (assuming four to be built at the same time,
including internal water supply, but omitting any special work necessary
to procure supply, and omitting fencing).

                    Cost per foot cube    Cost per foot cube
                    cob at 2 ft. 6 in.    11 in. hollow brick.
                    thick.
  North Devon         6½d.                  5⅞d.
  Scotland            6d.                   6d.

These prices assumed suitable material on or near site, and allowed
something for the difficulty of getting at least one experienced
cob-worker to instruct the unskilled men. Since 1913 the cost of brick
has risen so much that cob would now be much cheaper, probably as much
as 1d. or 1¼d. foot cube in both cases, and this is likely to be the
case for many years. Suitable material exists in many parts of the
country. If reed straw cannot be had, other reinforcements can be used.
I have seen various materials in use, of which heather was perhaps the
best and most easily procured. I can endorse from experience the comfort
of these old buildings, and the affection of Devon people for them. The
thick walls give all that a house should--protection from heat in summer
and cold in winter. For the contrast, visit the new Garden City at
Rosyth. Many of the houses are attractive, but their thin brick walls,
tile and slate hanging are not suitable to the north and east coasts.
Ask the opinion of the occupants of these new houses. Many of them are
Devon born and bred, and imported from the dockyards of the three towns.
They nearly all complain of the cold, and their views form an
interesting comment on modern construction.”

  IV

  PISÉ TESTS

  (_With acknowledgements to “The Spectator”_)

Through the courtesy of Messrs. Alban Richards & Co. we are able to
publish the results of certain very instructive tests that have been
carried out on Pisé during the past winter. Messrs. Richard’s experience
and Report bring out two points with especial clearness, (1) That Pisé
work, though not impossible under winter conditions, is not ordinarily
desirable unless some means of artificially drying the earth be resorted
to. (2) That the strength of Pisé increases with surprising rapidity as
the work dries out. It should be remarked that none of the samples
tested were made from really good Pisé soil, such for instance as the
red marls or brick earths. With such materials or anything approaching
them, the results would have been even better, as the Report points
out:--

“In conjunction with Mr. Williams-Ellis, we have made certain tests with
a view to satisfying ourselves as to the practicability of _pisé de
terre_ for house construction. In order to obtain what we might term the
minimum or ‘worst’ tests, we decided to erect walls for this purpose in
the winter. This we have done for the last three months, which has been
a very wet period, and the following is a short description of the tests
we have made:--

  “1. Two walls were erected measuring 14 ft. long, 9 ft. high and 18
  in. thick, spaced 20 ft. apart, with short return ends to each wall.
  Wall plates were placed centrally along the top of each wall, on
  which were placed 9 in. by 3 in. wood joists, at 16 in. centres,
  across the 20 ft span. In order to obtain the minimum results we
  allowed the shutters to remain until the test was ready to be
  applied, so that walls did not have an opportunity of drying or
  hardening. This condition was thought necessary, as it is quite
  reasonable to expect that if _pisé de terre_ cottages are erected,
  considerable weight might be placed on the walls immediately the
  shuttering is struck. We then proceeded to test the walls to
  destruction. The floor space provided for by the joists referred to
  above measure 220 super. feet, the load was then applied gradually.
  The load applied totalled 16½ tons, which is equivalent of 168 lbs.
  per super. foot of floor space, under which the wall collapsed,
  which, in our opinion, provides a factor of safety of three to the
  normal load which a cottage floor would have to bear.

“We are convinced that very much better results can be obtained in this
method of construction with walls which were first dried before the load
was applied. Further experiments are to be made to procure further data
on this subject. In addition to the above tests, we have submitted to
the National Physical Laboratory, blocks made of _pisé de terre_, from
poor to medium soil, for testing purposes, and the following are the
results which have been obtained:--

“The following Report shows results of Tests made by the National
Physical Laboratory.

    [Headnote: Pisé Tests]

  “REPORT ON TESTS OF BUILDING BLOCKS OF PISÉ DE TERRE SENT FOR TEST
  BY MESSRS. W. ALBAN RICHARDS & CO., LTD.

“_Tests made on January 14, 1920._

“First set of three blocks sent in November 1919.

“These blocks were composed of a fine gravel containing very few and
very small stones. The material was said to be similar to that used at
Merrow Down, near Guildford, Surrey. It appeared to be very similar to
Farnham gravel.

“The blocks were tested in compression, one within twenty-four hours of
arrival at the laboratory, and the others after drying for a time in the
laboratory. For results of tests see Table I.

  TABLE I

  ----+------+--------------+----+----+-------+-----+-------+----------
      |      |              |    |    |       |   LOAD.     |
      |      |              |Age |Area|Density+-----+-------+
      |      |              | in | in | lbs.  |     |in tons|
      |      | Dimensions   |days|sq. | per   | in  |  per  |
  No. |Marks.|  in inches.  | *  |ft. |c. ft. |tons |sq. ft.| REMARKS.
  ----+------+--------------+----+----+-------+-----+-------+----------
  UT1 |  3   |    9×9×9     | 1  |·562| 131   |0·70 |  1·66 |Cracked
      |      |              |    |    |       |1·04 |  2·47 |Collapsed
      |      |              |    |    |       |     |       |
  UT2 |  1   | 8·9×8·9×8·9  | 9  |·550| 125   |4·27 | 10·50 |Collapsed
      |      |              |    |    |       |     |       |
  UT3 |  2   |8·95×8·95×8·95|16  |·556| 117   |2·31 |  5·57 |Small
      |      |              |    |    |       |4·23 | 10·20 | cracks
      |      |              |    |    |       |     |       | appeared
  ----+------+--------------+----+----+-------+-----+-------+----------

    [*: Age after arrival at laboratory.]

“Second set of blocks sent in December 1919.

“This set consisted of six blocks in three pairs, each pair having been
rammed with a different quantity of water.

“One of each pair was tested within twenty-four hours of arrival at the
laboratory, and the others after drying in the laboratory for twenty-six
days.

“The material used was not homogeneous, and the mixture consisted of a
very clayey loam, a fibrous loam, sand and large stones. The clayey
material gave rise to surface cracks as the blocks dried.

“For results of tests see Table II.

  TABLE II

  ----+------+------------+----+----+-------+-----+-------+----------
      |      |            |    |    |       |   LOAD.     |
      |      |            |Age |Area|Density+-----+-------+
      |      |            | in | in | lbs.  |     |in tons|
      |      |Dimensions  |days|sq. | per   | in  |  per  |
  No. |Marks.| in inches. | *  |ft. |c. ft. |tons |sq. ft.| REMARKS.
  ----+------+------------+----+----+-------+-----+-------+----------
  VW1 |  1   | 8·9×9×8·5  | 1  |·555| 106   |0·45 |0·81   |Cracked at
      | dry  |            |    |    |       |     |       | one corner
      |      |            |    |    |       |0·51 |0·92   |Collapsed
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       |
  VW2 |  2   |   9×9×9    |26  |·562| 105   |2·15 |3·84   |Collapsed.
      | dry  |            |    |    |       |     |       | Material
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       | quite dry
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       | in interior
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       |
  VW3 |  3   |9·1×9·1×8·9 | 1  |·570| 134   |0·55 |0·96   |Collapsed
      | wet  |            |    |    |       |     |       |
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       |
  VW4 |  4   |8·8×8·8×8·9 |26  |·546| 110   |3·20 |5·86   |Collapsed.
      | wet  |            |    |    |       |     |       | Material
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       | quite dry
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       | in interior
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       |
  VW5 |  5   |  9×8·9×9   | 1  |·558| 126   |0·60 |1·08   |Bulged and
      |medium|            |    |    |       |     |       | cracked
      |      |            |    |    |       |0·69 |1·24   |Collapsed
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       |
  VW6 |  6   | 8·8×8·8×7  |26  |·546| 109   |3·33 |6·10   |Collapsed.
      |medium|            |    |    |       |     |       | Material
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       | slightly
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       | damp in
      |      |            |    |    |       |     |       | the interior
  ----+------+------------+----+----+-------+-----+-------+----------

    [*: Age after arrival at laboratory.]

    Seal of
  NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY _Signature of Director_

“From the second set of blocks it would appear that it is better to ram
with too much moisture than with too little. It will be noted that the
density of the wet block was 30 per cent. more than that of the dry
block, so that a wall could be carried higher with the dry material than
with the wet, although such a wall would never gain the strength which a
wet one would upon drying.

  CONCLUSIONS

“We are of opinion, having regard to the fact that the house at Newlands
Corner (Guildford four miles) has weathered the winter, without showing
any signs of dampness, that _pisé de terre_ will make a thoroughly dry
house.

“We consider that the tests made are satisfactory, and prove that this
form of construction is of a sufficiently sound nature to be employed in
the building of houses. With really suitable material, such as a light
brick-earth or marl, it is considered that the results already obtained
might well be 100 per cent. better.”

We are informed that additional tests are now proceeding with regard to
the water-proof and weather-resisting qualities of Pisé, the results of
which will be duly published.

_INDEX_

INTRODUCTION:

  Chalk walls, 18
  Cheap materials, the search for, 13
  Pisé de craie, 16, 17, 107
  Pisé, experiments with, 15
    in moulds, 19, 20
    in South Africa, 22, 23
  Pliny on Pisé de terre, 25
  Rammed chalk, 16, 17, 107

GENERAL SURVEY:

  Building materials, shortage of, 26
  “Ersatz” products introduced during the War, 26
  House famine, the, 27
  Local materials, use of, to avoid transport, 29
  Lutyens, Sir Edwin, and Mr. Alban Scott, cottage by, 30
  Rural housing, suitability of cob and pisé for, 28

I--COB:

  Allen, Mr. C. B., his reference to Devon cob, quoted, 47
  Baring-Gould, Rev. S., on cob, quoted, 47
  Beauty of cob, 35
  Bernard, Mr. Charles, his account of Sir Walter Raleigh’s cob house,
      45, 46
  _Book of the West, The_, by Rev. S. Baring-Gould, reference to cob
      in, quoted, 47
  Building, 37, 38, 39
  Carpentry and joinery, 41, 42
  Chimneys, 44
  Cob tradition, 52
  Composition, 36
  Cost, 35, 50
  _Cottage-Building_, reference to cob in, quoted, 47
  _Country Life_, letter to, relating to cob work, quoted, 115, 116
  Design, 44, 45
  Devon cob, 47
  Drying, 39
  Elizabethan cob houses still existing, 34
  Former conditions returned, 52
  Foundations and base, 40; result of bad, 34
  Fruit walls, of cob, 47, 48
  Fulford, Mr., of Great Fulford, on cob, 50-52
  Gimson, Mr., his description of building cob, quoted, 35
  Hayes Barton, Sir Walter Raleigh’s house at, 45, 46
  Hipped roofs, 41
  Joinery, 41, 42, 43
  Masonry and carpentry, 41, 42
  Method of building, 36-45
  Mixing, 37
  Northcote, Lady Rosalind, her description of Sir Walter Raleigh’s
      house, 46
  Primitive methods, 47
  Protection, 43
  Protective wash, 51
  Raleigh, Sir Walter, his cob house at Hayes Barton, 45, 46
  Rats, 44
  Reed thatch, 46
  Rendering, 51
  Roofing, 51
  Shuttering, 51
  Strength, 44
  Thickness of walls, 40
  Traditional building material in Devon and Wessex, 33
  Training of ex-soldiers, 52

  II--PISÉ:

  Bolts, 86
  Bonders, 69
  Building procedure, 71, 72, 74, 75
  Capabilities, 57, 58
  Corners, 68
  _Cyclopædia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and
      Literature_, on pisé, quoted, 59-71
  Damp-course, 86
  Definition of Pisé de terre, 57, 59
  Durability, 82
  _Earthwork, A Manual on_, quoted, 73-76
  Empandeni, pisé work executed at, 78, 79, 80
  Excavation, 86
  Etah Jail, pisé work executed at, 76, 77, 78
  Fillet, 87
  Floating, 86
  Foundations, 74
  Frames, 87
  France, introduction of pisé into, 57
  Gorffon, Monsieur, reference to his treatise on pisé, 57
  History, 57
  Indian and Colonial practice, 73-88
  Introduced into France by the Romans, 57
  _Journal de Physique_, by the Abbé Rozier, quoted, 58
  Lintels, 87
  Locale, 58
  Method of building, 58-62
  Method of working, 60, 61, 62
  New South Wales, pisé work in, 81-88
  Origin, 58
  Picture-rail, 87
  Plant required, 85, 89, 90
  Plastering, 75
  Pliny, references to his account of pisé, 25, 57
  Plugs, 86, 87
  Protection, 75
  Rain, 67
  Rammer, the, 59, 60
  Ramming, 62, 76
  Rate of work, 63
  Rendering, 70
  Rods _versus_ bars, 75, 76
  Rozier, the Abbé, his _Journal de Physique_, quoted, 58
  Shuttering, 59, 88, 89
  Shutter ties, 73
  Skirting, 87
  Soil blending, 64
    preparation of, 66, 67
    suitable, 63, 74, 86
    tests, 63
    to ascertain quality of, 65
  Speed of building, 70
  Stability, 82
  Strength, 69
  Studding, 87, 88
  Theory and science of pisé, the, 62-73
  Ventilators, 86
  Virtues of pisé, 72
  Wire netting, use of, 87, 88

III--CHALK:

  Block chalk, 117, 118
  Chalk compost, historical, 107
    composition and uses, 108, 109
  Chalk conglomerate, 114
  Chimneys, 110
  External rendering, 110
  Frost, 109
  Garden walls, 111
  House walls, 112
  Old and modern examples, 112-115
  Rats and chalk, 116
  Rendering, 110
  Repairs, 110
  Roof, 111
  Strength, 110
  Timber, 109
  Winterslow cottages, the, 115, 116

IV--UNBURNED CLAY AND EARTH BRICKS:

  “Adobe,” use of, in New South Wales, 124
  Age of clay-lump buildings, 124
  East Anglia, use of sun-dried bricks in, 121
  Method of making, 121
  New South Wales, use of sun-dried bricks in, 124
  Skipper, Mr., on sun-dried bricks, quoted, 121
  Strength of clay-lump walls, 124
  Thickness of clay-lump walls, 122-124

APPENDIX:

  Cold-water paint, recipe for, 129
  Cost, an analysis of building, 131
  _Country Life_, letter to, relating to cob work, quoted, 132, 133
  Distempers, recipes for, 129
  Local materials, importance of using, 130, 131
  Weight of building materials, table of, 130
  Whitewash, recipes for, 127, 128

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Pliny, _Natural History_, Bk. XXXV, chapter xlviii, quoted at end of
Introduction:

  “_Have we not in Africa and in Spain ... erected by Hannibal._”

The standard numbering of this passage is XXXV.lxi. With punctuation and
capitalization adjusted by transcriber to match translation:

  Quid non in Africa Hispaniaque e terra parietes, quos appellant
  ‘formaceos’, quoniam in forma circumdatis ii utrimque tabulis
  inferciuntur verius quam struuntur? Aevis durant, incorrupti
  imbribus, ventis, ignibus omnique caemento firmiores. Spectat etiam
  nunc speculas Hannibalis Hispania terrenasque turres iugis montium
  inpositas.

Illustration reproduced from 1819 Encyclopædia:

Immediately below the picture is the almost illegible text:

  J. F. delin. / Lowry / Published as the Act directs 1817
  by Longman Hurst Rees, Orme & Brown Paternoster Row.

Errors and Inconsistencies (noted by transcriber):

  [Headnotes]
  Pisé--a South African Lead
  The Discovery of the Old
    [_these two notes were transposed to fit the text_]

  [Illustration: / +The Newlands Waggon-house.+ / Interior.]
    [final . missing]
  force of the south-westerly storms.”  [single for double quote]
  This requires no hair, and is easily applied.”  [close quote missing]
  have always been found perfectly sound  [“prefectly”]
  “Strangers who have sailed upon the Rhône  [open quote missing]
  “There is every reason for introducing  [open quote missing]
  “Pisé is a material readily obtainable  [single for double quote]
  merely improvements of mechanism.  [. missing]
  the misguided enthusiasts responsible
    [line-end hyphen in “mis-/guided” invisible]
  it is generally bonded in in the ordinary way  [not an error]
  Chapter III. _CHALK_ / § I. GENERAL
    [there are no sections II, III...]
  fixed to wood blocks built in in a similar way  [not an error]
  [*: Age after arrival at laboratory.]
    [duplicate footnote added by transcriber:
    tables were printed on a single page]