THE Commercial and Agricultural Magazine.

No. XIII.) AUGUST, 1800.

[Vans E

ON THE ANT OF BOILDING IN PISE.

HE. wretched mud-walled cottages, which“are inhabited by the peaſantry in ſome parts of England,“ muſt havs given a very unfavourable opinion of thoſe edifices to our

readers. However, as the art of building in Pisùè differs in

every relpe&(except the material), we hope that circumſtance will’arouſe the curioſity of thoſe whoſe humanity makes them take an intereſt in the habitations of the poor, as weil as of them who may contemplate future barns and out-houſes in the improvement of their farm- yards.

In the year 1791, a pamphlet was publiſhed at Paris by M. Francois Cointeraux, containing a detailed account of this man=- ner of building in the province of Lyons. The Engliſh reader may ſee, in Morgan's Hiſtory of Algiers, that the ſame art is well-known there: ſince a frequent puniſhment of run-away ſlaves is ſtated to be executed by ramming them(alive) into the walls on which they werg employed. The Moors carried the art with them into Spain, where, alſo, it is fill partially extant.

Pisè is a very ſimple manual operation; it is merely by com- preſſing earth in moulds, or caſes, that we may arrive at build- ing houſes of any ſize, or height. We ſhall firſt attempt to de- ſcribe the neceſſary implements in a perſpicuous manner, and afterwards the mode of their application. Beſides the common tools, ſuch as-ſpades, trowels, baſkets, watering pots, a plumb rule, a hatchet, hammer and nails, the only inſtruments re- quired for building in pisè are a mould and a rammer, of which it will be neceſſaryîto give a particular deſcription. Fig. 1, is one fide of the mould, ſeen on the outſide, ten feet by two feet

nine inches; the inſide quite ſmooth. Fig. 2, is the end or head

of the mould, ſeen without; its inſide alſo ſmooth. Fig. 3, a mould put together,(on maſonry, A.), ſeen at the end, previ- ous to its being filled with rammed earth: Fig. 4, 5, fhe piſoir or rammer. Fig. 6, the elevation of a cottage(recently finilh- ed) in pisë. Eb i

The mould is conſtruéted of planks about ten feét long, one inch thick when planed.“Light wood(uſuaily deal) 1s pre- ferred. It is ſupported by four tranſverſe temporary joiſts, B; furniſhed each with two mortiſes(at the requifite diſtance) in which ſtands the poſts D D; theſe poſts are higher than thz fides of the-mould by eighteen"inches, to allow a ſpace for

COM.& AG. MAG.

M. M