>Do we know of anyone doing mortar analysis in Baghdad?
>
> ][<
An Iranian architect friend from the old Iran tells of working for many
years doing agricultural and village buildings for the Ministry of
Agriculture there. Adobe brick was the common building material, and he
said they did a lot of research into adobe structure stability because of
the high earthquake risk and tradition of collapse in times of quake. He
said they came up with an additive of a certain percentage of asphalt tar to
the adobe mix that really made a difference in preventing the bricks from
shattering and buildings collapsing. Presumably that was used in the mud
mortar too.
He also tells of the perfection required for government buildings by the
Federal Building Inspector. Interior plastered walls were to be so
perfectly vertical and planer (plainish?) that the test was for the
inspector to throw a bag of chalk dust in the air in a room and then seal
the doors for 24 hours. When he returned to inspect, any wall surface or
area with chalk hanging on it had to be redone.
cp in bc
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