THE
AMERICAN ARCHITECT
FOUNDED 1876
STONE AND BRICKWORK
By Frank J. Forster
Illustrated by original photographs made by the author
Masonry construction was one of the first developed and earliest perfected of human crafts. Rough stone masonry and dry masonry walls are found in Crete, the ancient seat of the Mycenaean civilization. Brick was perfected by the Chaldeains and their brick masonry was so sturdy that fragments of it still remain. Most of the construction in Egypt was of stone, the hard limestones of the
lower Nile valley or the even more enduring basalts and granites of the upper valley. Though we can find much to criticize in the Egyptian masonry from the aesthetic standpoint, mechanically it has never been excelled. The masonry construction of the Greeks, as one might expect, was as skillful as their architectural forms were beautiful. Rome added one great innovation, the arch, which was
FARM BUILDING NEAR NANTES, LOIRE, INFERIEURE
A STONE WALL THICKLY PARGED OVER WITH MORTAR. SUCH A TREATMENT GIVES A VERY SOFT TEXTURE TO A WALL. THE SIMPLE TILE CORNICE IS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE WEST-CENTRAL PART OF FRANCE
Copyright, 1928, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.
AMERICAN ARCHITECT
FOUNDED 1876
STONE AND BRICKWORK
By Frank J. Forster
Illustrated by original photographs made by the author
Masonry construction was one of the first developed and earliest perfected of human crafts. Rough stone masonry and dry masonry walls are found in Crete, the ancient seat of the Mycenaean civilization. Brick was perfected by the Chaldeains and their brick masonry was so sturdy that fragments of it still remain. Most of the construction in Egypt was of stone, the hard limestones of the
lower Nile valley or the even more enduring basalts and granites of the upper valley. Though we can find much to criticize in the Egyptian masonry from the aesthetic standpoint, mechanically it has never been excelled. The masonry construction of the Greeks, as one might expect, was as skillful as their architectural forms were beautiful. Rome added one great innovation, the arch, which was
FARM BUILDING NEAR NANTES, LOIRE, INFERIEURE
A STONE WALL THICKLY PARGED OVER WITH MORTAR. SUCH A TREATMENT GIVES A VERY SOFT TEXTURE TO A WALL. THE SIMPLE TILE CORNICE IS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE WEST-CENTRAL PART OF FRANCE
Copyright, 1928, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.