[Stoves] Effect of mixing sugar and clay?

[Marc Pare]

Hi all,

Does anyone know why folks recommend mixing sugar/molasses with clay when
making rocket stoves?

I keep running into this advice, but haven't found a satisfying
explanation. Some stories:

* Jon and Flip mention it in the build instructions of a rocket stove on
their new site <http://www.rechoroket.com/Home.html>. Some friends of mine
just tried it in Cameroon, and it seems to work. They didn't have a supply
of sugar, though. So they soaked + squeezed some bananas instead.

* In rural Vietnam, a brick kiln engineer explained to me that they lined
the inside of kilns with a traditional refractory material consisting of
clay + rice hull ash + molasses.

* While talking to some old colleagues, I heard that old moonshine stills
in Georgia used to have a clay + sugar mix to seal pipe connections (very
much word of mouth, could have been inaccurate)

* Apparently, in construction, you can retard the setting of concrete by
pouring Coca Cola onto it while it's wet. Useful if a truck gets stuck in
traffic when you're halfway through a pour.

Does anyone know what effect the sugar actually has? Does it just retard
the setting of the clay? Or does it help improve the material properties?
(or does retarding its setting improve material properties when it's
eventually fired?!?)

Best,

Marc Paré
Georgia Institute of Technology
http://notwandering.com
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