Building Construction before Mechanization by John Fitchen

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 677 this case most of the social history is lacking. On the other hand, the clear value that the author has gained from his urban perspective may stimulate other scholars to look more closely at social, economic, and—especially—demographic history. Indeed, it is a disappointment in this second volume, in contrast to the first, to find so little com­ parative material in the all but minimal notes. A more technological approach would have added depth to some of the research findings. One would like to see an investigation of the relationship among the widespread fondness for terraces and urban irrigation, water supply, and dispersal. On the basis of a strong claim for the functional and practical nature of Roman architecture, some consideration of exactly how the engineering and technological ex­ pertise of the empire was diffused and managed throughout the prov­ inces is critical to understanding the vast linkage of the urban systems described. We must endeavor to understand the mechanism of how architectural techniques and style were transmitted if we are to un­ derstand at all what the Romans did and finally achieved in the cities they conquered. What, precisely, emanated from the capital? Above all, we must know what urban systems were really operative before the Roman occupation of a given site or region. These are questions difficult to answer but stimulated by the author’s Roman urban per­ spective. And, despite the fact that important dimensions remain unexplored, MacDonald’s An Urban Appraisal makes a valuable con­ tribution in the articulation of fundamental questions about the broader “content” of Roman imperial architecture. Lynn T. Courtenay Dr. Courtenay teaches in the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin— Whitewater. Building Construction before Mechanization. ByJohn Fitchen. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986. Pp. xvii + 326; illustrations, notes, bibli­ ography, indexes. $25.00. John Fitchen is the author of The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals (1961) and The New World Dutch Barn (1968). In Building Construction before Mechanization, he focuses on the practical problems of builders in a past uncomplicated by the special qualities of new materials, unburdened by the development of metal fatigue. To this end he draws information from structures as ancient as the pyramids and as modern as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, from 18th- and 19th-century manuals ofadvice for builders, and from contemporary but traditional native practices in putting up shelter by the Hottentots of South Af­ rica, the Hopi of Arizona, the Dyaks of Borneo, and the Haida of British Columbia. It is an extraordinarily far-ranging book, a mine of fascinating information. Before the modern era, builders were 678 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE restricted for permanent construction to such naturally occurring ma­ terials as stone, timber, cement, mud, and earth, as for example in pise; and for temporary shelter to such materials as skins, felt, bark, saplings, and the like. Fitchen considers the properties of building materials and the way in which builders capitalized on their special strengths and attempted to circumvent their weaknesses. He attributes “the close professional collaboration” of the master mason and master carpenter in the construction of the Gothic cathedrals to “the fun­ damentally different nature and properties of the two major building materials of the time, timber and stone” (p. 147), the one providing resistance to compression, the other to tensile forces. The book gives capsule information on factors such as stresses, dead and live loads, oscillation, and wind. Fitchen explains some of the advantages and disadvantages of var­ ious machines and contrivances used to raise or move loads. The Egyptians avoided the use of rollers to raise their sixty-ton stone lintels to rest on top of columns as much as sixty feet above ground. Instead, they preferred to bring in earth to raise the level of the ground as the columns rose. In this way they could avoid problems with “rollers which need a good deal of attention to avoid jamming or running sideways [particularly because] they are slightly thicker in the middle than at the ends . . .” (p. 79, n. 25). It was of the first importance to minimize the possibility of any damage to the huge lintels. This de­ scription...