Evening star., 1923-12-02

Il an exceedingly old type known
as "pise de terre" pronounced
pisayD or rammed earth, and new
10 US, though it was practiced 5000
years ago. has just been successfully
accomplished by a Washington sci
enlist, and furnishes an assured So
luton to the present building diff
,culties. which are perplexing both
city and farm dwellers.
Plse gives an absolutely solid-wall-
ed house or barn, church. school or
shed at about one-fourth the cost of
a similar structure in brick, at one
half the cost of concrete and about 80
per cent less than substantial frame.
Plse gives a structure which grows
more solid with the passing years, un-
til the original earth finally turns to
stone. 1t gives a building which, be-
cause of its exceedingly thick but
low-cost walls. is warm in winter and
cool in summer. 1t may be made rat
or vermin proof. 1t may be built by
unskilled labor. Brains mixed with
little of the right sort of earth and
enough muscle to ram with are the
requirements for pise building
The pise construction is well known
In Europe. Many buildings have been
erected with pise in South Africa and
New South Wales. Its popularity has
increased since the war. because of
the higher costs of those common ma
terials which we alE know.
Lyons. in France, is built in a large
part of pise. and many of the old
stone buildings which tourists so ad-
mire and regard with awe, consider
ing the labor Of building with stone,
are simply old pise work rammed
earth. which Were low in cost very
easy to erect and which nature turn
ed to stone in her normal way with
the passage OF time
:. DR.. III. b. Humphrey, a government
scientist living at Glen Echo. Md,
where he has just completed his new
home. had the patience and the cour-
age to pursue this building problem
TO a real, practical solution. The
problem, he argued, has existed in al
, most every century. Therefore, his
tory must have something about old
time. low-cost methods of building.
right track and letters to South
Africa did the rest. y four-year
search was rewarded.
Literature on pise de terre was dis
covered in some old volumes in the
Congressional Library. Ar encyclo-
pedia of 1919 had an article on it. A
, perusal of this and a few laboratory
tests. and DR.. Humphrey started his
home, after expert foreign authorities
had passed on the suitability of the
soil which he proposed to use for the
pise walls. The house is now COM
pleted, the forerunner of lower-cost
homes and small buildings in the
United States; homes of ample size,
warm and dry; easy to heat, cool in
summer; strong, substantial buildings
whose sincerity is apparent from the
thickness of the window embrasures.
= :: = =
EDISE DE TERRE" is actually
rammed earth. Nothing else but
that. The same earth which is taken
out in excavating the cellar may, in
many cases, after some slight treat
Ing site, be used for building the
house walls. Our central and far
west and the south are full of such
natural pise earths. Proper soil ex-
lists on every farm.
"Of course" says the quick thinker,
"the soil must be pretty wet or moist
to build walls" Just wrong. 1t must
be quite dry, so dry that when a
handful of it,. balled up by pressure
of the fingers is dropped to the
ground it returns to its original state
of crumbliness
1T should have plenty of clay"
thinks the theorist. Wrong again.
The best earth is a good loan. But
clay may be mixed with sand or loan,
or soil which is too heavy may be
tempered down with sand to bring
about the proper consistency. Any
soil which makes rutty roads will
make pise walls. In fact, the rut
itself is "pise"-rammed earth
rammed by the passing wheels. Set
the rut on edge and repeat the OPERA
tion several times, and you will have
your wall. The strength will surprise
you. .
A technical test Of pise made from
the soil which DR.. Humphrey used
!; showed that a column of properly
prepared earth. properly rammed,
meausring eighteen inches square at
the base. and forty-two inches high,
which has been dried about sixteen
days. had a crushing strength of