Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-10-16
Adobes as q Building Material

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The early settlers of the Far West,
although fresh from the woodland re-
gions of the Mississippi Valley, and the
New England States, were not slow in
| abandoning the log-caoin, and adopt
ing instead the sunbaked adobe houses
of their Mexican neighbors- The old
Mexican adobes are large and clumsy,
| being twenty-four inches long. twelve
| inches wide, and six inches thick, aud
so heavy that both hands of the ma-on
are employed to lift and place them.
thus requiring the trowely to be laid
down m handling each piece. This
was too understandable for the brick
| layers, who demanded more conEen-
lent size. and adopted dnnension
piece of nodded earth or clay.
one-half inches thick, five inches
wide, and ten and one half inches long,
is now the common adobe of this coun-s
| try. There are blue adebes, { white
! saleratus odobes, and common adobes
! pronounced .'dobys'D. Both the
white and blue adobes are made from
| beds of clay found in the lowlands.
| These clay beds are more or less inn,
pre9nated with an alkaline salt. The
common adobes are made from any
| loamy or clayey soil with sufficient adj
heslve properties to permit the pieces
being handled when dried or baked.
Formerly adobes were made at the clay
beds, thus forming the adobe yards to
be found everywhere near the towns
and villages. These ..doby YARDS
bear some resemblance to the country
brick-yardsz OF the Middle States, but
lack the debris of the kilns, the kiln.
stacks, the piles of fuel, and the sheds
of the yards that were made in rainy
climates. In some OF these adobe
yards the common pud-mill of the old
fashioned brick-vard is occasionally
seen. The adobes made from clay
mixed by these mills, are not consid-
cred nearly as strong as those made in
the more primitive way of treadins and
mixing the material with the feet. &
Adobes are made at the yards as
follows: Selecting place on the bed
of clay convenient to water, or where
reaching to the nearest irrgati NO
where the clay is to be excavated.
A space is cleared of the salt grass and
rabbit brush, and levelled for dry
'iirgs floor. The ''doby'' maker, with
"a boy to assist. digs out one or more
yards OF clay, forms mound so shaped
as to soak up WATER throws or runs
water upon it and leaves it to soak
over night. In the morning this clay
is. mixed by treading into rather stil-
fer mass than can be worked through
mill.
The ''doby" maker then commences
to mould by forcibly throwing double
handfuls of the mud into the moulds,
leveling them Oft with q sweep of the
hands, and pushing the mould to the
boy who empties it on the drying
floor. -
Another mould is filled while the
carrier is emptying the first. and so on.
An average days work is five hundred |
adobes, but from eight hundred to a
thousand are frequently maze by rapid |
and skillful workers. After being par
TALLY sun-baked, they are turned up on
edge, and when sufficiently dry are
placed in convenient piles. 1t takes
these adobes in summer weather, about
one week to dry.
The, 1oadiug, atransportat;on, and'tn-
loading of these adobes made at the
yards, damages q large number by |
knocking off the corners and edges, |
and it is now customary to have them |
made where the building is to be erect
ed. The clay is piled at convenient !
place, and water procured by digging |
out small temporary ditch. -
Common adobes are always made on |
the site where they are to be used, fire.
quently from the earth eXcavated from |
the cellar These are made either by |
foot or machine. according to the guam |
tity required. They are used either for |
the inner side of walls or for division |
walls, where they are not exposed to |
the weather. In the order of durabili- |
Jy. when exposed to the weather, the |
..white saleratus doby'' is all that could |
be desired.
In examining carefully the wall of |
house erected twenty nine years ago, |
this variety shows no appreciable wear,
while the blue adobes intermixed in |
the same wall are more or less weather |
beaten and worn. This wall has a |
southern exposure. and has stood tic |
beating rains from the south and west |
since tirst erected. In the same dwell
ing the walls facing east and north |
show no marks of weather wear. APP
pearing smooth and in as good order as
if but recently constructed on
Agricatiturist. ss - rs.trf
Andrew Carnegie ON CeyIon.