Bricks kiln

[andarchen]

One of bricks kilns locates near banchangyu .volume production for Ming's GW and fortress .
Its coordinates is 40°12'0.31"N 119°33'55.01"E

[chinoook]

Is that authentic? It is about one km away from the GW. And is the arrangement of bricks (on the right side) and the place for the fire (left side) logical? Could there be the intended temperature in the whole kiln? Is the size authentic?
Obviously it is built new. Was there an aciant kiln found in this place?


-chinoook

[Kim]

Originally Posted by chinoook

Is that authentic? It is about one km away from the GW. And is the arrangement of bricks (on the right side) and the place for the fire (left side) logical? Could there be the intended temperature in the whole kiln? Is the size authentic?
Obviously it is built new. Was there an aciant kiln found in this place?
-chinoook

Looks original to me. The kilns was found with original bricks still in the kiln - this was also found other places in Hebei. They probably had some problems controlling the temperature inside the kiln. I've seen some examples of almost black bricks that have been fired at too high temperature, but these bad quality bricks seems to have been used at the inside of the wall - normally not visible.

New about the Banchangyu kiln here: http://www.china.org.cn/english/travel/52839.htm

[Kim]

Some schematics of the kilns here:

http://www.meet-greatwall.org/zhuanzhu/wen/zyy.htm

[chinoook]

Of course those are kilns and I also believe those are Ming Dynasty. But I learned that kilns for bricks used in the GW are only about some meters (!) away from the GW (e.g. Gubeikou). They had even been build high up there to reduce the effort of transportation. Kilns so far away of course could have been used but maybe for other builings than the GW. If these are really GW it means that there has been good transportation infrassttructure to the Wall.


-chinoook

[Kim]

Originally Posted by chinoook

Of course those are kilns and I also believe those are Ming Dynasty. But I learned that kilns for bricks used in the GW are only about some meters (!) away from the GW (e.g. Gubeikou). They had even been build high up there to reduce the effort of transportation. Kilns so far away of course could have been used but maybe for other builings than the GW. If these are really GW it means that there has been good transportation infrassttructure to the Wall.
-chinoook

That would only make sense if raw materials could be found locally right next to the wall. I most cases - in the mountains - there would most likely not be any access to raw materials (except stones), so it would be much more practical to "mass produce" the bricks at a central location and then transport them to the wall. Otherwise the raw material (clay, water, sand etc.) had to be transported up to the wall - it would be much easier to transport the finished bricks.

[chinoook]

Originally Posted by Kim

That would only make sense if raw materials could be found locally right next to the wall. I most cases - in the mountains - there would most likely not be any access to raw materials (except stones), so it would be much more practical to "mass produce" the bricks at a central location and then transport them to the wall. Otherwise the raw material (clay, water, sand etc.) had to be transported up to the wall - it would be much easier to transport the finished bricks.

Ok, I can accept that.
At Gubeikou I wondered which clay (and water!) they used for it is in rocky area too. I concluded that there are (maybe) smaller places with "hidden" clay.
By now I wonder more where they got the wood (charcoal?). To my understanding even in early Ming the area was almoust treeless. If they had run a brick factory there they should have used enormous amounts of burning material.
It is somhow stiking that there where is clay everywhere (in the western parts) there had no bricks been used. Was the problem burning material (likely) or water (even likely)?


-chinoook

[andarchen]

Originally Posted by Kim

Some schematics of the kilns here:

http://www.meet-greatwall.org/zhuanzhu/wen/zyy.htm

After reading the schematics of the kilns , the burning materials are local oak tree and pine tree, no source of clay, water information was mentioned .

[chinoook]

櫟屬 <=> Oak tree?
松屬 <=> Pine tree?

I wonder where they got that much wood. Oak tree is _very_ slow growing, Pine tree is fast growing but easy to cut. I would not assume that there had been Pine tree forests in Ming Dynasty close to the Wall.


-chinoook

[andarchen]

Originally Posted by chinoook

櫟屬 <=> Oak tree?
松屬 <=> Pine tree?

-chinoook

Oak tree<=> 橡树
Pine tree<=> 松树