[Stoves] Stoves Digest, Vol 4, Issue 13

[Anand Karve]

Dear Crispin,
the natural soil in this part of India is black in colour (it is called
vertisol). It is extremely clayey. It swells when wet and contracts when it
dries, producing cracks in the process. So, it is absolutely useless for any
kind of construction. Our region was colonised about 2500 years ago. The
soil in old human settlements shows a distinctly whitish colour. It does not
expand when wet and does not crack on drying. This soil is prefered for any
kind of construction work. People kept their cattle penned next to their
houses. Archaeologists tell us that the vertisol gets converted into the
whitish soil due to the chronic mixing with animal dung
Yours
A.D.Karve
On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 8:28 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <
crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Richard
>
> I have seen only the original pamphlet on the clay setting method, but it
> was definitely a PCorp publication so it should be available by now. I
> don't
> think anyone knew much about the chemistry at the time. He built houses and
> drains around them using the method.
>
> Regards
> Crispin
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Good questions Kevin,
>
>  I am embarrassed to say that I have never pursued the issue, an admission
> made worse by the fact of having extolled Biogas tech widely in Tanzania
> through most of the 70's . Question is if the bath is acid as Crispin
> implies through his description of the mentioned peace corpsman,  what
> effect would  that have on the  fiber content of the dung so essential for
> wet process briquetting ? We would need the fibers intact.
> As also related to Crispin's story about the use of the decanted liquid for
> solidifying clay: I'm just wondering Crispin; did you get any idea of the
> thermal properties of the resulting clay-cement ? Would it in other words
> be
> good for stove insulation and/or structure ?
>
> Richard
>
>
>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)

*Please change my email address in your records to: adkarve at gmail.com *
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