Brian,
I am working on the PTN print newsletter. Would you mind if I used this
with slight editing to include in the PTN print newsletter?
I pretty much like it just the way it is tho I might remove the 1st line.
Thanks,
][<en
Robinson wrote:
>Jeffrey and fellow BPers, ,
>
>We gave burning a rick a try and here is the story.
>
>First, it was difficult in Savannah to get the proper mix of materials Jeffery
>specified. Firewood is expensive ($225 per cord) and, of course, everything is
>cut, split, and very dry. Also all you can get commercially is oak since most
>folks don't want to burn pine due to the build up of pitch in their chimneys and
>the subsequent possibility of chimney fire. As a result our rick was too small
>(about 5'-6' in diameter and 5' high) and burned too fast (totally ash in about
>6 hours). On the bright side, the circular design with the hole in the middle
>worked great. The rick was never in danger of collapse, the shells continued to
>drop into the middle as the rick burned down, and the burn was from the inside
>of the rick to the outside. Packing the rick very tight in a spoke fashion kept
>the free flow of oxygen from getting to the fire. One big problem we had was
>that it was a windy day (5-10mph gusts all day) and this caused the rick to get
>super hot and burn faster than it would have on a calm day.
>
>We tried to slake the shells anyway and got nada.
>
>Proposed for next rick burn:
>
>Get a better assortment of wet and dry wood and build the kiln larger and closer
>to Jeffrey's specifications. This will take more time to assemble and since we
>are doing this burn in the middle of Savannah in a big field logistics of
>delivery of material creates a big headache.
>
>Questions:
>
>How long and how hot is the rick supposed to burn? We have been working under
>the assumption that we need to achieve 1000 degrees F for 10-12 hours. How hot
>does a wood fire this size burn? Is there any problem caused by overburning the
>shells? Should we get an infra red thermometer to measure the heat? Shooting a
>thermometer directly at the fire seems pointless since the reading will be way
>high. Do slaked shells react in a manner just like slaked limestone based
>quicklime? I have never seen burned shells slaked so I don't know what to expect
>as far as the reaction? I plan on taking some shells over to our pottery
>department and burning them in a pottery kiln under controlled conditions to see
>what results. I am looking at burning them at 1000 degrees for 10 hours. Does
>this seem right?
>
>We also built a small kiln based on Gerard Lynch's plans for a small kiln for
>comparison. Here is this story...
>
>Our kiln was about 3' wide, 4' long and 4' high. We used modern hollow bricks
>and lime mortar filling in everything as we went up. Unlike Gerard, we used wood
>instead of coal to fire the kiln. It took a while (about 5 hours) to get the
>kiln super hot. Reasons for this were that we were using oak and it took a while
>to establish a good bed of coals and the kiln was very green so there was a lot
>of moisture inside the walls that had to evaporate. The kiln developed a number
>of small cracks due to the heat (we expected this) but the cracks did not hinder
>performance. Looking inside the kiln we could see that the shells in the rear
>were getting really hot (they were essentially translucent red) while those in
>the front were cooler. On our next attempt we will try to do a better job of
>evenly distributing the coals once the kiln really starts cooking. We had to
>knock off at 8 pm so the kiln burned from 9am - 2pm in a warming phase and
>really burned well from 2pm until 8pm. We will try to slake some of the shells
>tomorrow (they were left in the kiln to cool). We don't expect much since we
>were only able to burn them at a nice rate for 6 hours.
>
>Questions:
>
>Once again, we need to get better info on how long and how hot to burn the
>shells. The fun thing about the kiln is that we can easily regulate the
>temperature. Does the size of the shell impact the parameters for burning time
>and temperatures?
>
>Overall, we learned a lot and we think we can easily work the kinks out of our
>systems. I have seen several "interpretive" rick burns over the years but they
>never actually produced anything usable. We hope to perfect our process so that
>we can do a better job of informing the public as to how quicklime was actually
>made on the colonial coast. Although I know it is possible, I have never seen an
>oyster shell converted to quicklime. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
>Photos and video of our rick and kiln effort can be seen at
>http://www.myspace.com/professor_robinson . Keep in mind that the first videos
>of a rick burn on my site are from a NPS "display" we saw in October.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Brian
>
>Brian Scott Robinson, MHP
>Professor
>Savannah College of Art and Design
>School of Building Arts
>Historic Preservation Department
>P.O. Box 3146
>Savannah, GA 31402
>
>912 525 6940 office (Tues/Thurs)
>912 262 2650 home (students emergency only)
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>Brian Scott Robinson, MHP
>Professor
>Savannah College of Art and Design
>School of Building Arts
>Historic Preservation Department
>P.O. Box 3146
>Savannah, GA 31402
>
>912 525 6940 office (Tues/Thurs)
>912 262 2650 home (students emergency only)
>[log in to unmask]
>
>--
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>uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
><http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>
>
>
>
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
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