Evening star., 1923-12-02

| Houses three stories high, built 200
years ago. have turned to stone. In
| deed. an old reference cites an ex-
ample of church at Montbrison.
which was 80 feet long. 40 wide and
| SO feet high. The roof burned off.
/ and. after exposure to frost and rain
! for year :he authorities found that
| the packed earth had been hardened
| to stone by the passing Of time, and
! that the walls still were perfectly
! sound. Nature makes her stone the
| same way. by pressure on clay and
| sand mixtures. Man. by the ramming
| of earth in the mold, supplies the
pressure quickly. giving nature ideal
conditions under which to work She
responds.
Another point which authorities
stress is that pise earth buildings
are drier and cleaner than any other
kind. The earth wall has the power
| of absorbing odors. Farm buildings,
stables. chicken houses and the like,
if made OF earth walls. are absolutely
without odor. and keep an even tenn
perature. which cannot but help in
maintaining healthy stock.
Adobe houses are made of sun
burned brick. They lack the strength
of pise. but their durability has never
been questioned. and more adobe
houses are being built every day in
our southwestern states. Pise is in
finitely superior and less expensive.
Ptse construction contains all the
best principles of masonry, together
with some rules peculiar to itself.
Cnskilled labor, very carefully super
vised. it is true, made the walls of
DR.. Humphreys house. Three men
laid two cubic yards of pise in an
eight-hour day. The material was
right at the site. 1t only was neces-
sary to prepare it by screening, re-
moving all Jumps, vegetable matter
and large stones.
The walls of this new pise house
are 121s feet high and Is inches
thick. They rest on q concrete foun-
dation, which raises the earth wall
off the ground, thus avoiding mois-
ture attacking the earth at the joint
ure. Inside the basement are 12-inch
walls supporting the floor beams and
is 4s feet long and 80 feet wide.
After the loweri walls were all
completed in pise, the second and
third stories were put on in frame.
The pise walls could have been car
ried right on up to the gable and the
partitions inside on the second floor
could have been made of pise at a
lower cost than in frame. But this
knowledge of pise was acquired after
the plans had been made, and It was
considered inadvisable to change. In
cidental1y, Mrs. Humphrey designed
the house, and added many personal
touches which go to make 1t an un-
usually charming residence, and, as
She pointed out, the features being
nodded right in the pise walls, they
cost practically nothing.
DIR. Humphrey is assured now that
pise will make a house stronger than
frame and make absolutely sound
proof walls. The walls may be fin
ished in any fashion desired. Those
partition walls in the cellar were
painted white and yellow. The walls
may be finished with ordinary plas-
ter, or paper may be applied directly
to the hard dry earth wall, as it is
perfectly smooth, like planed wood.
X y + X
IN pise construction a form some-
what similar to that used for
concrete work is employed. 1t must
be made stronger than a concrete
form. however, as tremendous
pressure results from the ramminE
of the earth. A form three feet high
and about ten feet long was advised
by both old-time and modern au-
thorities, and such q one was used
in this building. The planks, of
course, must be perfectly smooth
planed wood.
The wooden frames for the win.
dows. the door lintels. eIectric-wire
conduits. soil pipe, picture moIding
and mop boards may all be laid and
fastened in place firmly by placing
them into the mold and ramming
the earth around them. Have no
fear. they will come out. just try
to knock them out with sledge
Properly rammed earth has an un-
usual grip.
The blocks for the floor beams may
be made with slight taper, or
draft" in molders' parlance. so
they may be easily removed from the
Continued ON. Sixth PaRel