On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:00:23 +1100, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given
wrote:

When I was a child, many decades ago, there were still a few structures
around on various farms that dated from the time of the Depression and that
were largely built out of a substance called petrified hessian (hessian
being what Americans call burlap).

To build these structures, a wooden frame would be constructed and then
hessian (burlap) would nailed to the frame whilst being stretched tight.
The hessian would then be painted with a mixture made up of water, alum,
cement, salt and lime. After about 3-5 coats of this mix, the structure
would be weather proof and the walls stiff and surprisingly durable (given
that even I can remember them and I wasn't born till after WWII). It was a
very cheap form of putting up shelter and seems to have been used for
poultry sheds and similar structures.

I was wondering if this form of building was used in other parts of the
world but google is surprisingly quiet about it even if I do use burlap as a
search term instead of hessian. Has anyone come across it before?

Hessian is the British term for burlap. Burlap is a coarse cloth
made from jute, and also hemp. I'm sure burlap was coated with all
manner of compounds to add stiffness so it could be used for
temporary/inexpensive construction. I remember in the early '40s that
a slurry was made of paper mache strengthened with asbestos and laid
up to form corrogated sheets for stiffness that could be used like
modern plywood/fiberglass. Asbestos was once a very common building
material.

http://www.jutegoods.com/hessian.htm...FWV75QodVj3xlw

Note the portion on "Pit Construction":
http://www.theownerbuilder.com.au/ar...g%20Toilet.pdf

Merriam Webster

: hes·sian

noun
Date: 1710
1 capitalized a : a native of Hesse b : a German mercenary serving in
the British forces during the American Revolution; broadly : a
mercenary soldier
2 chiefly British : burlap
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