[Stoves] Stoves Digest, Vol 4, Issue 13

[Anand Karve]

Dear Crispin,
dung + clay mixture is used for plastering internal and external walls of a
house. Even the mud floors of the huts are plastered with this mixture.
Farmers store their grain in huge bamboo baskets of 5000 litre capacity of
which both the internal and external surfaces are plastered with this
mixture. After the cooking is over, the clay stoves are coated with this
plaster every day. Cattle dung is not considered to be a dirty substance in
our culture.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 7:18 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <
crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Dear AD
>
>
>
> That is really interesting. So it can render a profound change in
> characteristics…
>
>
>
> Has the dung-water+clay chemisty been heard of in your area? It is a labour
> only alternative to concrete.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Crispin
>
>
>
>
>
> *+++++++*
>
>
>
> 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
>
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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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