White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1920-05-16
USE ADOBE TO
BUILD HOMES
Back TO Materials Employed by
Spanish Missions.
CHEAP MATERIAL is SOUGHT
Concerted Effort to Reduce High Cost
Of Building Small Homes Is Being
Made In Many Places-Adobe Seized
uIed for Picturesque Recrudescence
Cool In Summer and Warm in
Winter.


Cool In Summer and Warm in
Winter.
Concerted effort TO reduce the high
cost of building small homes, so as
to place them within reach of fam
lilies of modest incomes, is being made
In many places. Analytical chemists
are finding their services in demand
testing the various qualities Of clay
which 1t IL hoped will furnish the du-
rabllity shown In the adobe houses
built by the early Spanish settlers in
New Mexico, Arizona and California
more than a century since. Many Of
these buildings still extant are as sol.
Id, IL not more so, than they were
when plastered together by their crude
designers and constructors. long be-
fore the Louisiana territory became an
integral part OF the United States of
America.
In an article published in the Post
Dispatch. prepared by Thomas Crane
Young, prominent st. Louis architect,
attention was called to his plan to
make a series of experiments with the
elays In the vicinity of st. Louis, to
see If small homes could not be pro-
yided With a sun-dried mixture of
earth and straw, serving as a substi-
tute for walls of standard brick or
hollow tiles. These experiments, the
ST. Louis Post Dispatch announces,
are stIll under way and are being
watched closely by those who hope for
some satisfactory adjustment OF the
housing problem. which has reached
on acute stage In ST. Louis and most
OF the other large cities.
Adobe Bricks the Thing.
With building costs p~crslstently adj
vaneing and rents keeping pace with
this upward trend. a cheap material
that would serve the purposes OF lum-
Der, brick, stone. tile or concrete
would go n very long way In remov-
ing an admittedly serious menace.
That the adobe Is scheduled for a pic
turesque reerudescenee IS no longer a
matter of speculation. as II has al
ready been taken up on an intensive
scale In southern California, where
some OF the mission buildings hon
structed Of earth still stand as a me-
mortal to the constructive genius OF
the earliest settlers, who came chiefly
from Spain.
Like the Indians and others who
happened along first. they decided that
homes we're essential. Having no
architects. builders or skilled meclian-
les. they took advantage of the mate
rails that nature supplied and nodded
their walls OF mud, with sufficient
straw or grass to make the binding
force necessary TO hold the mass to-
gether. Even where there was no
timber available. they made supports
Of the anne plastic material after sub
jecting It 10 a drying process IN the
hottest focus OF the suns rays. These
pioneers nodded the clay into blocks
much larger than the standard bricks
Of the present day and used the soft
clay instead OF the lime or cement
mortar used I'm modern construction
Simple Process OF Building.
While the construction of the adobe
house IS a slow process, II l. yet SIM
pie and requires no large working
force such as is needed In the build
Ing of a home with brick, tiles or lum-
Der. Out In California. where the
adobe is coming back strongly, women
aud girls have turned builders and
hay. reared some misunderstanding
bungalows. They follow closely the
style OF the mission builders and
work With a genuine zest once they
get their houses under way. In the
Huntington Park district, near Los
Angeles. young women are giving time
and study TO their plans and are get
ting some artistic effects when II
comes to the stucco work on the ex-
terror OF the walls. When the little
homes are completed, Il Is planned TO
train vines that Will spread all over
the structures aud add greatly to their
picturesque beauty.
Though the Spaniards are credited
with the development of the adobe, ex-
cayations made In ancient AsSyria.
Babylon and Egypt have disclosed the
fact that the same material, mixed
with straw and grass, was generally
used for home building by these early
races. They followed the same gen
eral process Of molding the bricks or
blocks 10 a uniform size anu tiie,,
drying them In the sun, before setting
them In the walls. Where n stout
building was desired a very thick wall
WAS constructed, but most OF the
houses had but one thickness Of the
hand.molded forms.
indians Were Pioneers.
The adobe OF southern California
and Arizona In Its crudest state has
always been a delight to the artist.
Part Of the soil, not altogether lovely.
but yet harmonious, they present a
front Of soiidity and unobtrusive dig
nifty that deeply impresses one at
once. The first adobes built by the
y.tt..- IL IoI tiffIa ipaiinnfiop for