James Bogardus Cast-iron Building

To give you an idea of who this man was and what he accomplished I'm sharing his obit with you.

JAMES BOGARDUS's
1874. April 13. James Bogardus, an eminent American inventor, died, aged seventy-four years. He was bora in Catskill, N. Y., March 14, 1800. He began his career at the age of fourteen, in working upon watches. Several inventions marked his efforts in this direction, and obtained favorable notice at exhibitions. The " ring-spinner," in spinning cotton, was his first great invention, mi. Telegraph made in 1S28. A machine from Great usecj in making bank note plates, the first dry gas states. meter, the first rotary fluid meter, a celebrated medallion engraving machine, an engine turning machine, a glass pressing machine, besides other important changes in other machines, were the subject of his inventions. The manufacture of wrought iron beams was suggested by him, and the first complete iron building in the world was erected by him. He was skilled in scientific lines, and some of his Suggestions have been of great value in those directions. His life was full of practical results.

Here's a link with a picture and some history on cast-iron buildings. James built the first one in 1847. Many of the buildings used facades and other used the cast-iron for support beams.

Here is a link to the building built in 1848. Cast-iron Building

In 1856 he wrote a book titled "Cast iron buildings: their construction and advantages." Unfortunately this book is not available for a free download. But much has been written on James Bogardus.

And here is a link to the World Catalogue with the search for the book. Perhaps a location near you has a copy.

Height of Principle Monuments and Towers

This comes from Houghtalings Handbook of Useful Information ©1887. If you're interested in having the scanned images of this book, you can contact me privately.

NAMES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PLACES. . . . . FEET
Pyramid of Cheops. . . . . . . . . Eqypt. . . . . .486
Antwerp Cathedral. . . . . . . . . Belgium. . . . .476
Strasburg Cathedral. . . . . . . . France. . . . . 474
St. Peter's Church. . . . . . . . .Rome. . . . . . 456
St. Martin's Church at Landshut. . Germany. . . . .411
St. Paul's Church, London. . . . . England. . . . .365
Salisbury Cathedral. . . . . . . . England. . . . .400
Cathedral at Florence. . . . . . . Italy. . . . . .387
Cathedral at Cremona. . . . . . . .Lombardy. . . . 355
Cathedral at Utrecht. . . . . . . .Holland. . . . .356
Pyramid of Sakkarah. . . . . . . . Egypt. . . . . .356
Cathedral of Notre Dame, Munich. . Bavaria. . . . .348
St. Mark's Church. . . . . . . . . Venice. . . . . 328
Assinelli Tower, Bologna. . . . . .Italy. . . . . .272
Trinity Church. . . . . . . . . . .New York. . . . 284
Column at Delhi. . . . . . . . . . Hindostand . . .262
Porcelain Tower, Nankin. . . . . . China. . . . . .260
Church of Notre Dame. . . . . . . .Paris. . . . . .224
Bunker Hill Monument. . . . . . . .Massachusetts. .221
Leaning Tower of Pisa. . . . . . . Italy. . . . . .179
Washington Monument. . . . . . . . Baltimore. . . .555(in Houghtalings they had 175 ft)
Monument Place Vendome. . . . . . .Paris. . . . . .153
Trajan's Pillar, Rome. . . . . . . Italy. . . . . .151
Obelisk of Luxor, now in . . . . . Paris. . . . . .110
Egyptian Obelisk, now in . . . . . New York. . . . ---

I'm not certain why they have an error with the Washington Monument but I do know that the construction of the momument was halted during the American Civil War. The Washington Monument officially opened Oct. 9, 1888. Making it the tallest structure in the world. The Eiffel Tower was completed the next year in 1889 taking the title of the tallest structure in the world.

New Yorke & The Brooklyn Bridge

There are events and items in life that you take for granted. One of those items for me was made clear from the movie Kate & Leopold when referencing the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. With that in mind today's excerpt comes from Houghtaling's Handbook ©1884.


First talked of by Colonel Julius W. Adams about 1855. Act of incorporatlonpassed April, 1866. Survey begun by John A. Roebling, 1869. Construction begun January 2,1870. First rope thrown across the river August 14, 1876. Master Mechanic Farrington crossed in a boatswain's chair August 25, 1876. Depth of the New York foundation below high water mark, 78 feet 6 inches. Depth of the Brooklyn foundation below high water mark, 45 feet. The New York tower contains 46,945 cubic yards of masonry; the Brooklyn tower, 88,214. Weight of the Brooklyn tower, about 98,079 tons. Weight of the New York tower, about a third more. Size of the towers at high water line, 140x59 feet; at roof course, 186x58 feet. Height of the towers above high water mark, 278 feet 6 inches. Height of roadway in the clear in the middle of the East River, 185 feet. Grade of the roadway, 8 feet 8 Inches to 100 feet. Width of the promenade in the centre of bridge, 16 feet 7 inches. Width for railway on one side of the promenade, 12 feet 10 inches. Width of carriage way, on the other side of the promenade, 18 feet 9 inches. Width of bridge 85 feet. Length of main span, 1,595 feet 6 inches. Length of each land span, 930 feet. Length of the Brooklyn approach, 971 feet. Length of the New York approach, 1,560 feet. Length of each of the four great cables, 8,578 feet 6 inches; diameter, 15% inches: number of steel galvanized wires in each cable, 5,484; weight of each cable, about 800 tons. Ulti.nate strength of each cable, 15,000 tons. Weight of steel in the suspended superstructure, 10,000 tons. Total cost, 15,000,000 dollars. Opened for traffic in 1888.

Block Planes

Hi all,

My dad has an incredible antique tool collection. I was hoping to photograph these tools to show on my blog but that wasn't possible without taking apart his display. I managed to pick up a couple of his planes and was surprised to find the bottoms weren't all flat.

Okay, some of you probably knew this but I didn't. My dad went on to explain that the various designs in the planes were for different cuttings, in much the same way we use a router today. This made me think back on the numerous door casings I'd seen over the years in older and Victorian homes and gave me a greater appreciation for all the hard work that went into making them. Think of the crown molding, the chair rails, etc. All of those curves were done by hand.

There's an article in American Woodworker Jun 1999 about Hand-Planned Moldings if you'd like to read further. There are a couple of photographs in which you'll see Wooden Block Planes.

I hope to have some photographs in the future but that will be quite a few months away. In the meantime you can search for Wooden Block Planes and find some images. Few show the bottom of the plane, the actual working edge, but you'll get the idea. And the articles gives you a greater appreciation for how the intrigue molding was made.

Wooden Block Planes have been around for centuries, in 1860 a cast iron bodied planes were developed by Leonard Bailey who sold his patents to Stanley Rule & Level in 1869. This design is still produced today.

If you'd like more information about Block Planes there is a great book out there "The Handplane Book" by Garrett Hack, John S. Sheldon, several pages of which are available for preview at Google books.

Here are a couple of pages from the 1894-1985 Fall Montgomery Ward Catalogue in full scan so you can read the details.
Pages 1 & 2
Pages 3

Nails from Scientific American

Below is an article on cut nails, in other words the nail industry in America. The initial invention was built in 1790 the patent was granted 1795 to Jacob Perkins but changes as well as a valuable industry was created in the United States.

Take from Scientific American Volume 10 ©1864

CUT NAILS.
Wilkinsons and Others.
Among tbe appliances which have multiplied a thousand fold the power of man in molding the substances of nature into forms adapted to the gratification of his wants, there are few that rank higher in importance than the humble little instrument which is named at the head of this article. In numbers, nails far surpass any other thing which is employed in any of the arts, and the part that they play in the construction of our dwellings, ships, furniture and other fabrics is so great that, if they were annihilated, the whole order and movement of life would be changed.

In the old plan of making nails by hand, the end of the nail rod was heated, hammered down on an anvil into the required form, pointed, cut off and headed. In the neighborhood of Manchester alone, 60,000 persons were employed in this occupation, and great numbers in all other parts of the civilized world. By the present plan of cutting the nails, one steam engine drives several machines, and each machine makes a hundred nails per minute; the workman having nothing to do but to lay on the plates, and to put the finished nails into the kegs.

The saving of labor is also very great to those who use the nails. With the wrought nail it was necessary to bore a hole in most kinds of wood before the nail was driven; but the cut nail is so formed that it can be driven into the solid wood without danger ol splitting. Probably five or ten cut nails are driven in the same time as one wrought nail. The cut nail, too, from two of its sides being parallel, and from the roughness of its edge, retains its hold more firmly in the wood.

The machinery for making cut nails Is wholly of American invention, and is the result of a series of efforts by several different Inventors. About the time of the close of the Revolutionary war, two brothers of the name of Wilkinson, who had Iron-works in Cumberland, R. I., cut a lot of nails from some old barrel hoops—" Spanish hoops," as they were called; and these are supposed to have been the first cut nails ever made. The first patent for a nail-cutting machine was granted on the 23rd of March, 1791, to Josiah G. Person, of New York, and from that time to 1817,more than 100 patents were Issued. In 1810, Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, made an elaborate report on this subject, and he estimated that a million of dollars had then been expended in bringing nailmaking machinery to perfection. The machines arc now models of simplicity and effectiveness, and they release a vast number of hands to be employed in the production of wealth in other forms.

Roofing Materials

Roofing materials were somewhat based on where you lived. In the later part of the 19th century if you lived near a train depot you had more options. If however, you moved out to the west with limited supplies your roof would be something different.

Wooden shingles, Thatched and slate singles were available during the 19th century. However tin roofing also was available in the later part of the century.

According to Houghtalings Handbook of Useful Information ©1887 the cost of tin for Flat Seam Roofing (20x28 Tin) ranged from $8.00 a box to $23.00 per box. For Standing Seam Roofing you had the same range. Houghtalings then gives a charge to figure out the cost per square which amounts to four sheets in each box.

Gypsum, Plaster of Paris

Below is an account of Gypsum & Plaster of Paris from the Kansas Cyclopedia 1912 giving a history of the product with regard to Kansas. Plaster was used long before this period but it is important to the history and development of the product here in the United States. In fact, history tells us that it came into use in Paris, France in the 1700's, which is where the term Plaster of Paris comes from.

Gypsum was first discovered in Kansas by Thomas C. Palmer, who settled in Marshall county in 1857. Noticing that some rocks he had used about his camp fire had burned to lime, he used the product to "chink" his cabin. Subsequent investigation disclosed the fact that the rocks were gypsum. The following year Gen. F. J. Marshall burned some of the same kind of lime and plastered a house at Marysville. In 1872 Judge Coon and his brother began the manufacture of plaster-of-paris with a five barrel kettle at Blue Rapids, and three years later a stone mill was erected, which was conducted for about twelve years. In 1887 two companies were organized at Blue Rapids for the manufacture of cement plaster, and one was organized at Hope, Dickinson county. A mill established at Salina in 1889 furnished the plaster for the buildings of the Columbian exposition at Chicago in 1893. This brought Kansas gypsum to the notice of builders, and in 1898 the American Cement Plaster company was organized at Lawrence. Factories have since been established at Burns, Marion county; Kansas City, Mo.; and Wymore, Neb., all of which use large quantities of gypsum from the Kansas deposits. The United States Gypsum company, with offices in Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Minn., and San Francisco, manufacture a gypsum hollow tile for fireproofing, which has found favor with the architects of the country, and it is certain that the next few years will witness a great development of the Kansas gypsum fields.

Pages 799-800 from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed May 2002 by Carolyn Ward.

Brick Making

A short while ago I mentioned I'd be sharing how bricks were made. Well, I found a website that has it all laid out so, I thought I'd simply pass on the link.

Brickmaking

With most information on the internet it is always wise to make a backup copy of the information you find that might be helpful to your research.

Savannah Gray Brick

ne of the items I came across while researching in Savannah, GA. was a rare brick called the "Savannah Gray Brick." Originally called McAlpin's Gray Brick because it was made from gray clay found on Henry McAlpin's Hermitage plantation located on the Savannah River. I'm not exactly sure when the bricks were first made but they played an important part in the rebuilding of Savannah after the fire of 1820. These bricks were made by the slaves who worked on the plantation. No one today, seems to be able to replicate these unusual bricks.

These bricks today are still found through out the city however they are extremely rare to find. I found a current auction online where someone was selling 400 bricks with a starting bid of $800.

One of the reasons these bricks stood out for me was that I grew up on Martha's Vineyard and we had a the remains of an old brickyard. We also had the Gay Head Cliffs that have been photographed over and over again. I'm fortunate to have some old photographs of myself and my family standing at the Gay Head Cliffs when there still was a giant red cliff that looked like the portrait of an Indian. Today that cliff is gone but it is firmly attached in my memory.

The other reason for us as historical fiction writers to consider bricks, brickyards and anything significant about them is that they played an important part in the lives of those living in the 19th century. Many homes were built with brick and if not the entire home, the foundations and the chimneys.

Here's another tidbit concerning bricks, long before our 19th century. In the building of the first Lutheran church built in Ebenezer, GA was built with bricks. The impressions of those early settler's fingers are still in some of the bricks.

Another time I'll go into the making of the bricks.

Tidbits for Builders

1000 shingles, laid 4 inches to the weather, will cover 100 square feet of surface, and 5 lbs. of shingle nails will fasten them on.

One-fifth more siding and flooring is needed than the number of square feet of surface to be covered, because of the lap in the siding and matching.

1000 laths will cover 70 yards of surface, and 11 lbs. of lathe nails will nail them on. 8 bushels of good lime, 16 bushels of sand, and 1 bushel of hair, will make enough good mortar to plaster 100 square yards.

A cord of stone, 3 bushels of lime, and a cubit yard of sand, will lay 100 cubic feet of wall.

5 courses of brick will lay 1 foot in height on a chimney, 16 bricks in a course will make a flue 4 ins. wide and 12 ins. long, and 8 bricks in a course will make a flue 8 ins. wide and 16 ins. long.

Cement 1 bush. and sand 2 bush. will cover 3 1/2 sq. yds. 1 inch thick, 4 1/2 sq. yds. 3/4 inch thick, and 6 3/4 sq. yds. 1/2 inch thick. 1 bush. cement and 1 of sand will cover 2 1/4 square yards, 1/2 inch thick.

(This information comes from page 79 in Houghtalings Handbook)

Saw Horse

When I saw the image of the sawhorse in this children's primer I was surprised for a moment. Today most sawhorses that carpenters work with aren't in this shape. So, I thought it would make an interesting tidbit for writers. Enjoy!

There is another easy letter besides o and s. It is x. The letter x is easy, because it is shaped like a cross, or like the end of a saw-horse.

Look, now, at this picture, and see if you see any thing in it
that looks like an x.
It is a saw-horse. What is a saw-horse for? To saw wood. Each end of the saw-horse is formed of two bars crossing each other. The lower ends of the bars spread, and form the legs. Don't you see that the lower ends make legs?
The upper ends spread, and make places to rest the ends of the stick of wood in while the man" is sawing it.
Do you see the place where they put the stick of wood in this saw-horse when they saw it? Is there any wood in the sawhorse now? No, there is not. The sticks of wood are lying all about in the snow.
What a cold-looking place! The ground in the yard is covered with snow, and so is the roof of the house. Even the top of the chimney is covered with snow. See, too, how the snow is piled up against the windows, and against the door under the porch! The people ought to come out and shovel the paths.
But perhaps there are no people there. I think that if there were any we should see smoke coming from the chimney.
What is this picture put in here to show you? Do you think you shall know the x whenever you see it after this? Now we will turn over the leaf and see another picture.
Source: Learning to Read ©1856

Sand House for Railroads

I'm not sure that I'd ever given much thought to the Railroads needing or using sand before but below is some basic information on a Sand house build for and maintained in Richmond VA. from "Buildings and Structures of American Railroads."

Sand-house at Richmond, Va., Richmond & Alleghany Railroad.—The sand-house of the Richmond & Alleghany Railroad, shown in Figs. 174 and 175, is a good type of a cheap sand-house, where a limited amount of sand is used.

The house is a low frame structure, 16 ft. 6 in. × 14 ft. 6 in., with an open bin, 6 ft. 6 in. X 14 ft. 6 in., adjoining one end of the building for the wet sand. In operating this house the wet sand is delivered from cars into the open bin, and from thence it is shovelled, as required, through an opening in the side of the building into an interior storage-bin for wet sand. A cast-iron sand-drying stove is located in the middle of the house, which is filled from the wet-sand bin. As the sand dries, it drops to the floor through openings in the sides of the stove, from where it is thrown on a screen placed over the dry-sand bin at the other end of the building. The enginemen are required to enter the house and fill their buckets with sand directly from the dry-sand bin.
The frame is 10 ft. high on the front of the building and 9 ft. on the rear. The principal sizes are as follows: sills, 4 in. x 6 in. ; plates, 4 in. X 4 in.; corner and door studs, 4 in. X 4 in.; intermediate studding, 3 in. X 4 in., spaced about 18 in.; nailers, 3 in. X 4 in.; rafters, 2 in. X 6 in.; posts for bin partitions, 3 in. X 4 in.; rails for bin partitions, 4 m. X 6 in.; floor in bins, 2 in. ; outside sheathing, J-in. vertical boards with battens; roof-sheathing, Jan. boards, covered with tin.
While, as stated above, this is a representative design for a cheap sand-house, it could be improved by roofing over the outer wet-sand bin, and the second handling of the wet sand from the outside bin to the interior one should be avoided.

NYC Houses

Below is a description of a series of houses built in NYC. This comes from "The Manufacturer and Builder" ©1879. What I find interesting in this tidbit is the fact that the author admits that the house has a feel of more overall openness. Enjoy!

On the south side of East Seventy-first street, between Fourth and Lexington avenues, Mr. Chas. MacDonald has just completed three houses, which are well worth the attention of those who admire progress in architecture and approve of a change in the monotonous style of buildings that line our tip-town streets. Each house stands only upon n lot of 16.8x56, and yet there appears to be more room in the hallway than is generally found in n twenty foot house. True, it is done at the sacrifice of space in the front parlor, but the center and rear parlors make up for it in width, thus leaving the front parlor virtually to be used as a large reception room. The dining room is on the first floor in the rear of the parlor and extends across the full width of the house, while the middle room and parlor proper are lighted by a transom light, the dining room being lighted by a dome, giving the entire floor A most cheerful aspect. The rear room is connected with the kitchen by a stairway and dumbwaiter. In the wide hallway created by the cutting of the front room lire largo ornamental closets, adding considerably to the conveniences of a floor that is generally bereft of those foatures. The large front room in the basement is intended for a breakfast room, while the remainder of the basement is divided into a laundry, kitchen and storerooms, and withal there is n good sized yard. The houses are four stories high, of brown stone, and the front might bo called a French Gothic. The plans were made by John G. Prague, architect.

1896 Six Room City Cottage Floor Plans

Below you will find the floor plans for the 1896 Six Room City Cottage and the article written by a fellow concerned about some aspects of the plan. I've chosen to add these comments because it might give you as the author some information as to what your characters might be concerned about with regard to their home or the one they hope to build. Also, I've chosen these plans because you'll see the use of closets, bathrooms and a 19th Century modern kitchen. Another fun fact is these are the basic plans of the house my husband and I rented when he was a college student. The differences were that ours was a duplex (so it was double this floor plan for the entire house) and the right side was the left side in our portion of the duplex. It was a great old house and we have a lot of memories from living there.

Six-Boom Cottage for a City Lot.
From N. H. D., Newburg, N. Y.--I am an interested reader of the paper and in studying the plans of workingman’s cottages published from time to time I find some very good points, but the fault with the majority of the plans is that there is no stair hall proper for the two-story portion or else it starts in a cramped section of the building. The floor plan submitted by “ R. _B.” of Meriden, Conn, and published in the September issue is, in my opinion, very convenient. The shape of the bathroom as well as its location is exceedingly odd, as it cuts otf the square angles of the “kitchen and the two bedrooms, but necessitates two doors more than are necessary. The family bedroom is at the rear of the house, and I should like to inquire how the correspondent proposes to warm it. The sink is too far from the stove and the small room marked “entry " at the front of the house is of no use whatever. Another fault is that the cottage takes too much ground for the frontage. This is the fault I find with most of the plans submitted. They cannot be erected on a common city lot of a frontage of 25 feet, and it is well known that in the city a lot 25 feet front will cost anywhere from $200 upward. A house for such a lot is, in my opinion. the best for the workingman. I send herewith the floor plans for a two-story frame cottage. which I consider well adapted for a 25-foot lot. It can be built in a good manner for about $1000 and possibly less. It can. however, be made to cost more, according to the finish inside and out. The frontage is such that by building from 18 inches to 2 feet from the line on one side light are placed under the cables. and a composition consisting principally of plaster of paris and wood chips is poured on, the cables, thus being imbedded in the concrete mixture, which solidifies in a few minutes. The vertical part of the concrete inclosing the floor beams is supported by wire netting passed around the flanges of the beam. If a flat ceiling is required, iron bars are laid acrOsS the bottom would be given to the dining room and bedroom over it, and at the same time there would be a nice passageway to reach the rear of the house and yard. Again, no one could block the light and air from that side. The parlor has a bay window with arch and the dining room has two windows. The kitchen, it will be noticed from an inspection of the plans, may be entered from both hall and dining room, this arrangement giving direct communication between the kitchen and the front door. The pantry is conveniently located to both rooms, while the entry tends to keep the cold air from the kitchen in the winter. The sink is placed near the stove and is convenient for hot and cold water. On the second floor are three good sized sleeping rooms. a sewing room, four closets and a bathroom. The arrangement is such that the sleeping rooms and bathroom can be heated by stoves or other means as may be most convenient. The bathroom is so located that a direct connection is had for water and waste pipes from the sink in the kitchen. The plans show the position of the closets with regard to the

1884 House Plans Part 2

Below are some House plans from 1884 the cost of each of the houses to build is listed beside the house. These are houses and cottages that the lower income and farmers could build.

Single Story House $450 - $550 (depending on whether or not you add the half floor pictured below)

Story & One half House $550

First Floor is the same design as the house above.
Second Story

Country Cottage $550

For additional house plans from 1884 here's a link to a previous post.
1884 Cottage House Plans

1884 Cottage House Plans

Below is a picture of an 1884 basic cottage. The estimated cost of this build was $200.00.

This plan was designed for a simple cottage, with sufficient accommodations for beginners in housekeeping with limited means. It is arranged as the Wing of a larger house to be erected in the future, as indicated in the dotted sketch adjoining the ground-plan.

Here's a link to another blog post I did that has plans for another 1884 house. Heroes, Heroines & History

Sod House

While I was researching information on the construction of a sod house, I discovered this delightful account that is very informative. I hope you gain as much as I have from it. This was published in the Ladies Repository in 1876.


THE gold fever of 1859-60, and the consequent rush across the Plains, established a line of sod-houses from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, which have developed one of the most important sections of our country, and opened the door of thousands of comfortable and substantial homes to the honest homesteaders of the West. Fifteen years ago, the belt of country lying between the Rocky Mountains, on the west, and the Missouri River, on the east, and stretching indefinitely north and south, was considered as a worthless waste, a treeless, uninhabitable section, without soil, building material, water, or protection against the biting, blinding storms of Winter, which swept furiously down from the mountain fastnessess of the great unexplored, uninvaded home of the storm king of North America. Today the sod-house, the advance-guard of civilization and enterprise in the extreme West, has developed the agricultural adaptability of the Western Desert, invaded and made public the secret domain of the vEolus of our continent, furnished homes and fortunes to hundreds of thousands of God's children, and developed, by its own peculiar adaptability, the resources and wealth of an important section of our country, the great grain and stock producing region of the Missouri Valley. What the log-hut was to the early settlers of New England, the sod
house, "doby," or "dug-out," has been to the pioneer on the prairies of the Missouri Valley. The same force of circumstances which gave the log-house an important position in the history of the eastern half of our great country, has made the sod dwelling an equally important factor in the development of the western portion, and entitled it to a place beside its earlier, but scarcely less substantial or respectable, brother at the Centennial Exposition, and in the history of the great country of countries, the home of the honest toiler, of whatever race or condition.
Strange as it may appear to those unacquainted with the fact, there are tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people in the Missouri Valley, living to-day in houses of sod, turf taken from God's green sward of the great West, laid up with mortar which nature kindly furnishes prepared, and plastered inside with the sandy loam which underlies the black alluvium from which the varied vegetation springs. Within these homes, comfortable beyond the log or frame house of the timbered regions, and equally cleanly and healthful, families are reared, the elements of education dispensed, seeds of piety sown, and the foundation of future fame and fortune successfully laid. Beneath their fostering influence the great fertile but treeless plains have been brought under cultivation, the elements have been made subject to the wants of mankind, towns have sprung up in the uninhabited waste, the iron horse has been called to his duty in their domain, the great agricultural wealth of the country developed, and the desert made to blossom as the rose. To the sod-house of the West belongs honors innumerable, belongs the credit of the thrift and prosperity with which the Missouri Valley is to-day graced and made happy.
It was my fortune, in 1859, to visit the then uninhabited and almost unknown section west of the Missouri, and to witness the construction and practical test of the then novelty, a dwelling composed of turf from the surrounding prairies. It has been my fortune since to watch, with a considerable degree of interest, the development of this to be great grain and stock belt of the Union, and to note, with the care which its novelty and peculiarities suggested, the influence which this great factor, the sod-house, has had in determining the growth and importance of the country. The cry of gold in the Pike's Peak region drew, at the date mentioned, large numbers of people thither, to supply whom with food became the business of the settlers then scattered along the Missouri River, within a few miles of its waters, and in reach of the scanty forests with which its banks are fringed. All provisions, clothing, and mining accouterments were freighted across this then uninhabited section, nearly a thousand miles in width, by teams of horses and cattle. Along the roads which these freighters had laid out, and which all the travel followed, enterprising "ranchemen," bent upon securing a portion of the profits of the season, established themselves for the sale of needed articles to the freighters, whose trips then occupied months instead of, as now, days, and for furnishing meals to the passengers on the stage-coaches, a line of which had been early established. The tents and temporary shelters, which these caterers had provided themselves, soon becoming insufficient, they cast
about for some more commodious and substantial shelters for themselves and guests, the numbers of which were rapidly increasing. In the earlier days of military rule in that region, many of the buildings at Forts Kearney, Leavenworth, and other military posts, had, for want of timber, been constructed of adobe, or sun-dried bricks, the art of making which had been learned from the Mexicans, with whom the military on the western plains had been brought in contact. These were used in some instances by the ranchemen, until the idea of using sods instead suggested itself to the inventive genius of the necessitated housebuilder, and the sod-house became a success. The method, source, and result of the two were so nearly related that the name of adobe, or "doby," as it was every-where known, which properly belonged to the sun-dried bricks, was also given the sod; and henceforth the sod, or "doby," house became an important element of life in the Missouri Valley.
Constant association or familiarity with "doby" failed, in this instance, to breed contempt; and the Missouri Valley settler, who, in freighting his farm products across the plains (and nearly everyone did so), became more thoroughly acquainted with and accustomed to the sod-house, came to recognize its value, and to look upon it as a valuable aid in the economy of prairie life. Those who had substantial wooden homes on the Missouri so far recognized the practical value of "doby" as to make immediate use of the principle on their farms, in the construction of sod out-houses, and various buildings which they might chance to need; and thus the sod-house took another step in advance, and demonstrated its practical utility and durability beside its more pretentious wooden prototype. From this point the transition was easy. The son, who had grown up familiar with the "doby," and been thoroughly convinced of its use and durability, becoming of age, and desirous of erecting a claim shanty on government land, and making a homestead his own by a temporary residence a few days of each year thereon, readily adopted the sod-house as a visible habitation, the material for which was convenient, and the practicabihty thoroughly tested. Later, when the want for a permanent home came about, with the fashion already inaugurated, and the practicability and cheapness especially apparent, there was little difficulty in the adoption of doby as the material for a dwelling, and the home to which the willing, true - hearted, devoted bride was borne. Of the hundreds of thousands of young couples who have made their homes on the prairies of the Missouri Valley, probably more than half owe their first home together, and much of their success, to doby.
The method of construction is not unlike that of the brick dwelling, except that mortar is not always used in laying the sods. A "breaking" plow, such as is used in subduing prairie-grass, and preparing the soil for cultivation, turns the sod in strips, perhaps a foot in width, and of indefinite length. They are then cut in pieces about two and a half feet long, by means of a spade, and are ready for the wall. They are laid up with as much care and nicety as the native skill of the builder can produce, and the edges carefully trimmed with a sharp spade, so that the wall, when completed, is as smooth, and, after being thoroughly dried, is also equally as solid as a brick wall. Window and door frames are set in as in the construction of brick buildings, and the houses are covered sometimes with shingles, sometimes with a thatch of the long prairie grass from the low grounds, and sometimes with several layers of sod cut to turn the rain and make tight joints. Frequently they are divided into several rooms by walls of sod, and occasionally they are two or more stones in height; but usually they are built but one story in height, and with only one room, which is subdivided by light wooden partitions, or in some cases by blankets. The walls, when completed, are plastered smoothly inside, and, being thoroughly whitewashed, present a neat and eminently
healthful and cleanly appearance. The "best room" is papered and carpeted, the walls adorned with pictures, while the vines trained about the door and windows lend their cheerful and refining influence, and the whole, when once inside and the idea of "sod-house" forgotten, has a homelike and cultivated appearance scarcely warranted by the exterior. In Winter, the sod-dwellings are easily warmed and but little affected through the thick non-conducting walls by the furious gales which sweep down from the north-west, bringing snow and ice and wintery desolation; while in Summer, they are, with proper ventilation, probably the coolest and most healthful habitation that could be devised.
Frequently, in order to save time in the construction, a location is chosen on an abrupt hill-side, and an excavation made which, with the wall built up around it, forms the house on the same plan that "side-hill basements," with stone walls and "cellar-kitchens" are constructed. This, while securing ease in construction, precludes proper ventilation and light, and is usually only resorted to temporarily by those with whom time or assistance are lacking, and, after a year or more of useful existence, these "dugouts," as they are termed, give way to the more pretentious and comfortable "doby."
As for the dwellers in these curious homes, the devotees of " doby," they are in all respects the same as humanity elsewhere. The farmer, and they are mostly farmers, rises at early dawn and labors throughout the day at the plow or in the harvest-field, and at night, with a prayer for divine protection and guidance, seeks that rest which honest toil affords. The children grow up strong and vigorous on the homely, healthful fare; they obtain the rudiments of an education in the doby school-house, and learn the story of the cross at the Sabbath-school and Church. During the Summer season, they wander over the prairies gathering flowers or hunting the eggs of the prairie-chicken, and in Winter, with the parents, after the crops are secured and the Autumn's tasks completed, they gather at the fireside of evenings, and, while the corn, the principal fuel in this prairie region, crackles and burns brightly in the fire, they peruse the weekly paper published at the county town, discuss neighborhood gossip, feast upon pop-corn and molasses-candy, or join in singing familiar hymns from their Sunday-school tune books or Church melodies. Spelling - bees, singing - schools, Grange and Good Templar " lodges" are as numerous with them as in the sections further east, and there are the same society heart-burnings, the same striving after dress and dignity, and the same marrying and giving in marriage that characterize society every-where, whether in dwellings of sod or brick or marble.
To the West the sod-house has been the means of unparalleled development and usefulness; to those who have adopted it, it has been a means of wealth and contentment, for a home and a means of support are both. To the treeless but fertile prairies it has brought settlers innumerable, who could not have come but for it; to the settlers it has given homes and the means of making their own the lands which may be had by a residence and cultivation. Many there are who,
had they been obliged to purchase building material and transport it hundreds of miles by wagon, must have waited many a weary year, but who, through the aid of "doby," not only made themselves a shelter and a home, but secured for themselves the fertile acres which may be had for the taking in this asylum for the persecuted, poverty-stricken sons of men every-where.
All over the western country, from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, and from Dakota to the Rio Grande, doby reigns supreme. Not that all the residences are thus built, for there are in places many wooden dwellings; and in the towns and along the railroads and rivers, houses of wood, and sometimes of brick and stone, have taken the place of the less pretentious sod-dwellings; but in the newly settled regions, the sections which God's poor seek out in which to struggle with fortune and build houses for the families he has given them, doby is the priceless treasure, the boon which enables them to obtain a foothold, the free gift of nature, which furnishes shelter, and the medium through which come the blessings of home and happiness, and a trust in God and his overshadowing providence.

Brick Road Versus Steel Roads

I recently had an experience of riding along an 11 mile stretch of the "Old Brick Road" in Florida. It was built in 1914 so it's too late for this blog. However, the experience had me thinking about the development of roads during the 19th Century. Below is an article from Industrial Management ©1897 talking about whether a steel road was better than a brick road.

The General Government Fostering Good Roads.
IN an elaborate article in Brick (July 15) the subject of good roads is treated: first, historically, beginning with the ancient Roman roads and their builders; second, from an engineering standpoint; and, lastly, in its present aspects in the United States. What the general govemment is doing to further good-road building is also set forth at considerable length, in a quotation from a letter written by W. E. Curtis to the Chicago Record. The department of agriculture has directed General Roy Stone, chief of the bureau of good roads, to construct and exhibit an example of a steel road at the Nashville Exposition. The use of this material for roads in regions where stone and gravel are scarce and where the soil is deep and sticky will, in the opinion of Secretary Wilson, be "the easiest solution of the good road problem" for such localities. At present prices these steel roads can be cheaply constructed. Flat, or slightly trough-shaped, bars of steel are to be used as supports for the wheels of vehicles, and, to prevent the slipping of horses, the rails will be transversely indented sufficiently to afford a foothold for the calks of horseshoes without materially affecting the smoothness of the surface for the wheeltreads. The joints of the flat bars. or rails, will be made strong enough to prevent them from giving way under use, and thus forming depressions. While forty pounds per ton is the average required to pull a load on a level macadam road, it is claimed that eight pounds will do this about $2,000 per mile work on a steel road. In this respect, however, a good brick road can be scarcely inferior to steel. It is believed that a good brick road will outlast a steel road. Another way in which the government is helping on the cause of good roads is by using the agricultural experiment stations as sources of instruction in road-building to the public at large. On this point Mr. Curtis says: “ The limited funds at command have not encouraged any practical work in this direction, but cobperation has now been established by the director of roads, under which the manufacturers of road machinery furnish the necessary plant free of charge, the county or city authorities provide the material and the labor of men and teams, and the government furnishes an engineer to oversee the work and instruct students and visitors, and pay for one or two skilled operators for the machines. In this way avery slight outlay of public funds accomplishes a large amount of instructive work." Experiments with brick roads are already in progress in some of the western States. At Monmouth, in central Illinois, a road of vitrified brick set on edge in a single course on a bed of sand between oak plank curbs is now undergoing probation, _and is regarded with favor. Brick trackways, with intervening gravel paths for horses, have been proposed. Where macadarn roads are practicable. and under the most favorable c0nditions,—z'.e., where laborers can be obtained for seventy-five cents per day, where fuel for steam power is cheap, and where suitable road metal is close at hand,—they may be constructed and bridged for $100 per mile for each foot -of width. Thus a road thirty feet wide would cost 3,000 per mile. Good gravel roads cost from $1,000 to $2,000 per mile. The material for the heaviest class of steel roads costs, at present prices, $3,500 per mile; for lightest steel roads the cost of material is estimated at $1,000. For long lines of the heavier class of roads, it is thought, the steel will ultimately cost Brick for roadbuilding will cost more per mile than steel for tramways, but, taking the intermediate path for animals and the side ways into account–for these must be well built and maintained also, we are inclined to agreed with Brick that a road paved from curb to curb with vitrified brick, is in proportion to its costs, the best road known to modern engineering.

Portland Cement

When I hear the term of Portland Cement I always thought that the stuff came from a manufacturer in Portland...NOT! Okay below are some basic tidbits on Portland Cement from 19th Century sources:

The term ''Portland Cement" as here used means an artificial cement made by mixing in certain known proportions, clay and chalk containing silica, alumina, iron, and carbonate of lime, and burning this mixture to the point of incipient vitrifaction and then reducing this burned product to an impalpable powder.
The term "Portland Cement" primarily means an artificial mixture. The term "Natural Portland" has very much the same meaning as natural artificial would have.
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In the making of Portland cement. The selection of the raw materials, their proper treatment by the different methods in general use. The burning of this material with the types of kilns used. The reduction of the clinker to cement powder and its proper storage.
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Source: Portland Cement it's Manufacture ©1895

PORTLAND cement is generally made from two material (chalk and clay), which are mechanically combined previous to calcination, the proportions of which are therefore always liable to variation; and as the results obtained will have different properties, the necessity of testing at once becomes apparent, not solely to detect a bad or imperfect cement, but also to determine the peculiar properties which the particular cement under consideration may posess, and as a guide to the means to be employed in order that it may be used to the best advantage.
Source: Portland Cement for Users ©1890

And lastly this tidbit from The Encyclopaedia Britannica ©1833 to help understand how the word 'cement' was used.
CEMENTS, substances employed to nnjte together by their solidification from a soft or liquid state, and without mechanical rivets, things of the same or of different kinds. Stony cements may be natural, as the lime employed for mortar, and the so-called Roman cements; or they may be artificial, as Portland cement, made by calcining mixtures of chalk with clay or river-mud (see Building, Vol iv. p. 459) Roman contains more clay than Portland cement, and seta more rapidly. A good artificial water cement is obtained by heating for some hours to redness a mixture of 3 parts of clay and 1 part of slaked lime by measure. Another hydraulic cement may be made by mixing powdered clay and oxide of iron with water. A very hard stone cement is prepared from 20 parts of clean river sand, 2 of litharge, I of quicklime, worked into a paste with linseedoil. Paper-pulp, mixed with size and plaster of Paris is used for moulded ornaments. Keene't marble cement is plaster of Paris which has been steeped in strong solution of alum or sulphate of potash, and calcined and ground. It is slaked with alum solution when used. In Martin's cement, pearl-ash is employed as well as alum. Parian cement contains borax. Selenitic cement is a mixture of calcined gypsum, sand, and hydraulic lime. A cement used for cracks in boilers is a mixture of clay 6 parts and iron filings 1 part with linseed-oil. For steam-joints, ox-blood thickened with quicklime is employed. The iron-rust cement consists of 100 parts of iron turnings, with 1 part of sal-ammoniac; this is an excellent cement for ironwork. For water-tight joints, equal parts of white and red lead are worked into a paste with linseed-oiL A serviceable packing for connecting pipes, making joints, filling cracks in retorts,