[nbc] Re: Cob: bicycle powered cob mixer

[Matthew HALL(SED)]

All,
On a light hearted note, there can be good change and bad change. Take, for example, traffic
lights...if they never changed there would be terrible conjestion on the roads. On  the other hand,
look at gravity...if that changed nobody would like that at all. None of us can say we have all the
answers, but my advice to those involved in the cob-mixer debate would be to not put so much
thought and effort into solving a problem that does not exist. Cob has traditonally been mixed
using manual labour and sweat equity and i see nothing wrong with this. There are a lot of
unemployed people in our society, skilled labour is not as widely available as once was, in the UK
the price of houses is such that a young professional couple (e.g. 2 teachers on an average salary)
can not afford to buy a semi-detached 3 bedroom house, 1 in 5 people are homeless in the world
today, even if a new technology were invented to house them all for free we could not train and
mobilise the industry quick enough to supply the work...

Build with earth - people in a community can dig soil out of the ground, mix it with water and
stack it to make walls for a home. Keep it simple - if something works why try to mend it? If the
only thing standing between a person and the creation of their home is hard work and effort then
most people will have this in abundance. 

Mixing cob is a slow process, but it is also a team effort. There is little point mixing a large
amount of cob in one go and then trying to use it all, better to keep the whole construction
process flowing such that as the material is created it then gets used. In Devon they use a team of
cattle to walk over the cob mix as water is poured on it, any added dung acts as a stabiliser to
increase durability. One bullock can do the work of ten men in mixing cob, this living machine
operates very efficiently while the humans create the cob walls. 

Just a few thoughts shared...
Regards
Matthew

____________________________________________________________________
Matthew Hall BSc (Hons) GradBEng
PhD Research Student
Centre for the Built Environment
Unit 9 Science Park
Sheffield Hallam University
Pond Street
Sheffield S1 1WB
England

Tel: +44 (0) 114 225 3200
Fax: +44 (0) 114 225 3206
E-mail: M.Hall at shu.ac.uk