In the body of this work mention is made of a very successful experiment
in Pise de terre made by the officials of a Rhodesian mining company;
the outcome, I am proud to think, of my pre-war advocacy of Pise in _The
Spectator_. No sooner had my introduction been finished than there came
by way of postscript an exceedingly interesting series of photographs,
sent to me by Mr. Pickstone, a gentleman very well known in South Africa
for his fruit gardens, his peaches, and his apricots. On the strength of
what he had read in _The Spectator_, Mr. Pickstone lately undertook to
build a station building and station-master's house for the railway
station at Simondium in the Drakenstein Valley, a place which during the
summer is noted for its great heat. In the January number of the _South
African Railways and Harbours Magazine_, Mr. Pickstone gives a detailed
account of his bold and successful experiment and illustrates it by a
reproduction of some of his photographs. Here is his own account of what
he did.
* * *
[Headnote: Pise--a South African Lead]
"It must have been about eighteen months ago that the railway
administration decided to promote Simondium Siding to the dignity of a
station. As a siding, it had always been a busy place in the fruit
season, during which time a permanent checker had for some years been
kept quite busy, his accommodation being a couple of small tin shanties,
and he had been accustomed to board out where he could. Now we were to
have a 'pukka' station-master and, presumably, suitable premises. The
department quickly got to work and the station-master's house arrived.
It was what one might call a second-hand, or even a third- or
fourth-hand one, consisting of the inevitable sheets of galvanised iron
and the ever-essential Oregon and Swedish timber. Our new station-master
also shortly afterwards arrived, and turned out to be a married man with
a wife and four children. The station-master was not a grouser, but
during the hot summer--and it is terribly hot in the Drakenstein Valley
during that time of the year--he complained to me that it was almost
impossible to hold on, owing to the conditions under which he and his
family had to live. It was just about this time that I saw in _The
Spectator_ a series of articles strongly advocating 'Pise de terre'
construction for buildings of all kinds; especially was it recommended
as a war-time expedient for rapid and economical construction for
barracks and hospitals, and, indeed, it was strongly recommended by Mr.
St. Loe Strachey, the editor, for all sorts of general building and
military purposes. It is a curious fact, which many readers could
verify, that frequently one lives one's life under certain conditions,
and in reality remains absolutely blind to their presence and
potentialities. Here was I, living in a country where some of the most
beautiful old homesteads are on the principle of the 'Pise de terre'
construction, and a large proportion of the older farm buildings in this
district also built of similar material, with the additional pleasing
accompaniment of beautiful beams, ceilings and floors made of colonial
pine--one may advisedly add, the _despised_ colonial pine. Some of these
buildings have stood the wear and use of close on a century, and are
still an object of joy to those privileged to have an eye to see. Here
lived I, as I say, blind to its potentialities for to-day, although it
had been clearly appreciated and carried out with the most charming and
solid results by our great-grandfathers in the old slave-labour days."
* * *
[Illustration:
+Model of a Pise de Terre House to be built in
Three Successive Stages.+
The right wing is planned to be built first as a complete
small cottage, eventually becoming service and servants' quarters.
_Clough Williams-Ellis, Architect_.]
[Illustration:
+Wayside Station of Pise at Simondium, South Africa,
designed by Mr. Herbert Baker.+]
The supervising architect, Mr. Kendall, who was responsible for carrying
out the work to the admirable design of Mr. Herbert Baker, gives the
following description of the way the work was actually executed, which
contains several very useful hints:
* * *
"The construction of walls determined upon was that known as 'Pise de
terre,' consisting of earth walls some 18 in. to 24 in. thick, which owe
their solidity to a simple process of ramming between wooden casings
previously placed in position on both sides. These walls are built in
stages of some 3 ft. in height, the wood casing being raised at
intervals as required. The frames for doors and windows are placed in
position at the right time, and anchored into the walls by means of long
hoop iron ties. These walls, when completed, give a surface almost as
hard as burnt brick, but the external angles present a slight point of
weakness, as from their exposure they would be naturally inclined to
chip away in cases of rough usage. In order to overcome this it was
arranged that irregular brick quoins should be embedded in the angles
all the way up as the work proceeded. The walls, when completed, were
then plastered and whitewashed, and present as good an appearance as
more expensively plastered brickwork. As additional security the weather
sides were given, prior to whitewashing, a coat of hot gas tar direct on
the plaster, which in all exterior work was lime plus 10 per cent.
cement. The roofs are of thatch with a fairly good overhang at the eaves
in order to form a protection for the walls."
* * *
On one point, however, we may reassure Mr. Kendall. I do not think he
need be afraid of his walls being destroyed by the weather even if he
has no overhang. Part of a Pise wall in my cart-shed, built in a very
exposed situation, has no overhang. Further, the wall is not covered by
cement or any other protective covering. The compressed earth was left
quite bare, and yet the three worst winters of alternating wet and frost
known for many years have made no impression upon the wall. It seems to
be both rain-proof and frost-proof.
I may add that Mr. Pickstone informs me in a letter dated February 19th
that the Pise walls have proved an enormous success from the point of
view of protection from the heat. Whereas in an iron building lined with
wood the temperature in the hot weather went up to 104 degrees
Fahrenheit, in the station-master's Pise de terre dining-room the
thermometer registered only 86 degrees. Those who have ever lived where
such temperatures prevail will note the immense advantage gained by the
Pise walls. Such temperatures try strong men and women, and for children
they are positively death-dealing. With so successful an experiment as
that at Simondium before my eyes, I am beginning to feel that I may live
to correct my view that this universal system of building is practised
"no vairs."
[Headnote: The Discovery of the Old]
X