Rafael Guastavino

exemplified by our own work for the past five years.

in countries where we can find in the market enough guaranteed brands of of different setting degrees

only can be obtained when we can depend upon the materials with mathematical regularity, and with powerful apparatus for determining their reliability

The first work of importance of this character [I] constructed in Spain... in 1868—the manufactory of Batllo in La Corts de Serria. ...Afterwards I built others. In some cases the risk and danger caused by the irregularity of the materials …

[W]ant of proper s, and of an invariable brand on which to base... calculations, was one of the main obstacles which beset the n and n architects.

this want of attention is explained by the lack of s proper... for such... construction.

but they did not make a study of it, notwithstanding the fact that they were constantly walking over floors constructed on this system in which plaster was used

Up to the year 1868 the professors of the academy of .., a city where s are more in use than in the rest of the world, did not... to pay any attention to this style of construction until important applications had been made... And when at …

The other cements called Medina, introduced shortly after, had the same defects. Mr. Aspdin, on the 21st of October, 1824, took out a patent for the formula of the celebrated . This cement was given the name of Portland by... Mr. Aspdin, …

The modern that Mr. Parker invented and patented in 1791 and 1796 was so dear, and the conditions of setting were so slow, that its introduction into buildings was much retarded. This cement, in the beginning, was called Parker's cement; …

The time that s began to be generally used in modern days was from 1845 to 1850, and from this date commenced the renaissance of the "Cohesive Construction."

In Spain, where this system has been used and is still in use on a larger scale than in any other country, there does not exist any treatise, or a single work, on the theory of this construction, or a single scientific explanation of this …

have not bricks of dimensions and conditions suitable for the cohesive form

[A]ll the timbrel arches of the Renaissance epoch existing in Italy... [and] Spain are constructed with plaster material, which does not meet the exigencies of good construction. Consequently... no technical academy in Spain or Italy has …

[I]n general building it was only used in small spans, such as eighteen to twenty inches between beams, three tiles being used to two courses of bricks set flat over the centre; and in this state it... remained until the present...

[T]his construction was used only in large buildings, such as convents, palaces and churches, where the walls were very thick, amounting to one-third of the full span, and where the character of the building was a guarantee that the …

In some cases the timbrel vaults were used as a ceiling and floor, having two or three thicknesses of tiles with plaster, and the haunches were filled with light pottery; this pottery was leveled over with rubbish and mortar, finishing …

exposed to the weather or subject to alternate changes of humidity and dryness.

to supply walls of enormous thickness.

[T]he architects of the Pontificate... had only common air-lime and plaster.

did not have... the material or the skilled hands. They therefore used plaster, and thenceforth the timbrel arch was introduced

The architects of the Renaissance

In the construction of St. Sophia the Byzantines used baked clay and of Vesuvius, or -stone.

This anomaly is due to... disuse of the hydraulic mortars of the Romans, Arabians and Byzantines, because the art of manufacturing these materials, which constituted the basis of their cohesive construction, was lost.