OT Petrified hessian (burlap)

 

When I was a child, many decades ago, there were still a few structures
around on various farms that dated from the time of the Depression and that
were largely built out of a substance called petrified hessian (hessian
being what Americans call burlap).

To build these structures, a wooden frame would be constructed and then
hessian (burlap) would nailed to the frame whilst being stretched tight.
The hessian would then be painted with a mixture made up of water, alum,
cement, salt and lime.  After about 3-5 coats of this mix, the structure
would be weather proof and the walls stiff and surprisingly durable (given
that even I can remember them and I wasn't born till after WWII).  It was a
very cheap form of putting up shelter and seems to have been used for
poultry sheds and similar structures.

I was wondering if this form of building was used in other parts of the
world but google is surprisingly quiet about it even if I do use burlap as a
search term instead of hessian.  Has anyone come across it before?

 



<http://www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/results/Web/petrified%20hessian/1/417/
TopNavigation/Relevance/iq=true/zoom=off/_iceUrlFlag=7?_IceUrl=true>

 Never came upon petrified hessian but some folks have.

Good Luck!

Bill

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

 



 <http://thesearchenginelist.com/>

 Meant to post this in last reply.

 Bill

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

 

wrote:


Hessian is the British term for burlap.   Burlap is a coarse cloth
made from jute, and also hemp.  I'm sure burlap was coated with all
manner of compounds to add stiffness so it could be used for
temporary/inexpensive construction.  I remember in the early '40s that
a slurry was made of paper mache strengthened with asbestos and laid
up to form corrogated sheets for stiffness that could be used like
modern plywood/fiberglass.  Asbestos was once a very common building
material.

http://www.jutegoods.com/hessian.html?gclid=CPzK8Jrz-58CFWV75QodVj3xlw

Note the portion on "Pit Construction":
http://www.theownerbuilder.com.au/articles/142%20Composting%20Toilet.pdf

Merriam Webster

: hes·sian

noun
Date: 1710
1 capitalized a : a native of Hesse b : a German mercenary serving in
the British forces during the American Revolution; broadly : a
mercenary soldier
2 chiefly British : burlap
---

 

FarmI wrote:

My grandfather was a plumber who worked on some of the first buildings in
Canberra, this would have been about 1915, and he took his new bride to live
in such a structure on site.  He described it as hessian covered with layers
of whitewash but I think it was very likely the mix that you describe
because whitewash alone would not have stayed weather proof for long.

They lived in these "tents" because there were no houses to start with as
Canberra was built on a sheep station.  My eldest aunt was born there and
grandma raised her in their tent while they were there.  In winter the
temperature can drop to -8C and frosty, or you can get howling winds behind
rain at 6C. There only heating would have been wood fires but the tent would
have had almost no insulation ability.  In summer it gets up to 43C,
obviously there was no aircon or domestic refrigeration for plumbers, my
guess is they would have been lucky to get ice for an ice box and that would
not have lasted long.  They were tough in those days.

David