PISÉ.
Implements for Pisé or Rammed Earth Buildings

Pisé Plant and Implements.
(Reproduced from an old Encyclopædia.)
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Definition.—He introduces his subject thus:

“Pisé-building, in Rural Economy, the name of a method of building with loamy or other earthy matters, which has long been practised with great success, and in a very cheap manner, in some departments of France, and which is now had recourse to with similar advantage in some parts of this country. It has been described, delineated, and recommended by Mr. H. Holland in the first volume of Communications to the Board of Agriculture, and is to be managed somewhat in the manner directed below.”

At great length and with immense detail, the plant, the preliminaries, and the process are each severally described.

The pith of the matter is sufficiently given by the following extracts:

Shuttering.—“For the construction of the mould, take several planks, each 10 ft. long, of light wood, in order that the mould may be easy to handle; deal is the best as being least liable to warp. To prevent which the boards should be straight, sound, well seasoned, and with as few knots as possible. Let them be ploughed and tongued, and planed on both sides. Of these planks, fastened together with four strong ledges on each side, the mould must be made, 2 ft. 9 in. in height; and two handles should be fixed to each side.

“All the boards and ledges here mentioned must be, after they are planed, something more than 1 in. thick.”

Rammer.—“The instrument with which the earth is rammed into the mould is a tool of the greatest consequence, on which the firmness and durability, in short the perfection, of the work depends. It is called a pisoir, or rammer; and though it may appear very easy to make it, more difficulty will be found in the execution than is at first apprehended. A better idea of its construction may be formed by examining the Plate, in which it is delineated, than any words can convey. It should be made of hard wood, either ash, oak, beech, walnut, etc., or what is preferable, the roots of either of them.”

Method of Working.—“Pisé contains all the best principles of masonry, together with some rules peculiar to itself, which are now to be explained.