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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jefferson's fence viewed from above looked like a sine curve. Bricks were just too damned expensive to build a
thick wall, and a straight wall only one brick thick would
fall the first time the wind blew.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There's too much Jefferson trivia, but seeing his wall mentioned here reminds me of three of my favorite bits of triva about Mr. Jefferson:
1. One of his favorite dishes to serve to foreign visitors was macaroni and cheese; this bit of trivia was reported by the chef of Blair House on NPR
2. Mr. Jefferson would not read novels; thought they were frivolous.
3. And Mr. Jefferson refused to play cards, which he considered to be another frivolous waste of time.
I disagree with his view on novels, but his view on cards has made me feel to be in good company, at least, for never having learned to play bridge.
Mav'--I hope you don't mind this bit of a tangent I took. I don't think the 1745 Virginia fence would have been Mr. Jefferson's, however. Jefferson would have been too young in 1745 (about two years old).
As wwh pointed out, I don't think the bricks were curved; they were doubled and the curve itself was formed by the placement of the side-by-side bricks from what I remember of those C'ville visits. I suppose the bricklayer had to be very well skilled in working the mortar. It's hard enough building a straight up and down brick wall--I know because I tried once and failed horribly at it. Anyway, I do believe Jefferson is credited with the serpentine wall, particularly up at UVA, and that date would have been much later than the 1745 in your citation.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oh-ho! Was I ever wrong about those bricks having been doubled, wwh! They are most definitely singly laid in the serpentine wall. Drat! I do get frustrated with my visual memory, which is simply too often all screwed up.
But thanks for pulling up the photgraph!
Edit: Ha! Again! It's the same photograph that Flatlander had pulled up! I just opened Flatlander's, which I hadn't taken a glimpse at yet, and there was the same one as yours, wwh!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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So tell me again, why is it serpentine?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Are you being facetious, Faldage? You did take a look at Flat's and wwh's identical photographs, didn't you?
Hissssssssss
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I was just wondering if the wind only comes from the one direction so the straight section of the wall is unaffected. That's all I was wondering.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ah, I see. That is a very good wondering, Faldage. Here's something from the Net that implies that the serpentine wall is strong even though one-brick wide (completely dousing my original memory of the walls I saw, but didn't!): "Unlike a straight wall design, which is laid with two brick widths for support, the serpentine wall is only one brick wide. The strength comes from the s-like curve. "The arc of the curve gives it its support," said Mr. Maloney as he pointed to the precision-made arcs. "I researched it and did the advance preparation last fall. It takes a bit of engineering." http://www.acorn-online.com/home835d.htm...but I'll look and see whether there might be something to explain why we see the serpentine and also the straight edge brick wall... Perhaps the other one was already there? Or came later?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Flatlander: Somehow I missed seeing your post. I remember seeing AS's, but not yours. I wasted a lot of
time hunting.
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Carpal Tunnel
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while a serpentine wall is one brick wide, (and a well designed one is also 'peek-a-boo'--with a lattice like stucture), it doesn't use 50% fewer bricks, it only uses 30 to 35% fewer bricks (brick were expensive to produce in colonial america)
the structure its self --the corrugatations-- are what give it its strenght. just as corrugated paper is stronger than flat paper.
one of the engineers can explain just why.. but the finer the corrugations, the stronger the structure.. so brown paper is corrugated, and stuck between two layers of cardboard, and you can make paper that will easily support 100lbs or more.. (one paper company has a display of a car sitting on a paper pedistel--)
a serpentine fence works on the same principle.. by having many folds (or curves) you reduce the amount of material needed.(not by half(1 brick wide vs 2bricks wide) but by about 1/3rd..(1 brick wide but 'folded' and the folds use up more material than a straight wall.
(its something like making mini trusses)
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