One thing I found interesting is that they used to be painted. We find them to look somewhat dark and scary but when they were painted they look very bright and colorful and inviting.
One of, if not the last, Gothic cathedrals is located in the Western Hemisphere. The oldest parts of La Catedral de San Juan de Bautista, in San Juan, PR was done in the gothic style. The Spanish colonists built it in the style they remembered from back home. But it’s not quite as perfect or as detailed as their counterparts in Europe. Much of the building was lost due to a hurricane as those parts of the building were made from local sandstone.
In regards to the question near the end where it was asked if pressure washing these old buildings would be safe, the answer is it depends. There are a few factors that do not have much to do with the material that go into a pressure washer being used safely... One factor would be PSI (Pounds-per Square Inch). Most good pressure washers have some way to adjust them for effective PSI. Even if they don't have a knob, one often has the option of running it with normal water pressure by having it hooked up but the machine off. On gas models one can usually throttle the engine some how to reduce or increase pressure as well. So no pressure washer has to run at it's maximum rating. Another factor is position. Correct distance of the nozzle from a work surface and angle of the nozzle in relation to the surface is very important. It can be the difference between gently lifting off moss and carving a trough. A pressure washer can cut stone and brick just as easily as it can clean wood without deepening grain all dependent on this. Water source. Some pressure washing services that realize the importance of this truck in their own water. They may even have manifolds on the truck that allow them to introduce solutes into their water supply to change the water's effective hardness. Water hardness weighs a lot on the mental math when pressure washing. Tap water is usually alright. But well or spring water might often have heavy elements to it, like calcium or lithium that actually increases water's cutting capacity at high pressures. Generally where damage is a concern soft washing is used instead. Which is basically where a low pressure sprayer (that just has enough pressure to distribute solution) is used to coat the surface in an environmentally friendly detergent. With soft washing it is generally a leave on detergent. It's usually not a very powerful detergent so they want it to really have time to work it's way into the surface of the material and even to let it fully dry so that in blooming it will lift unwanted corrosion from the surface. Then over the course of a few natural rains the detergent and the unwanted ding is rinsed out. I don't know whether they use pressure washing or not. But given the age and importance of the buildings I would think that they would at least employ a lot more soft washing than anything else.
does the late medieval warm period an earlier, reflect in any part the population history chart of france?! an if I may a second thought, arabic numerals must also arrive surely at some point into europes architectures?!.... john hamer thanks for a late saterday night show, very thoughtfull over view u gave
Medieval serfs were much more like Roman coloni (tenant farmers) than they were like Roman slaves. In particular they were virtually identical to the type of coloni called coloni adscripticii, who could not leave the estates where they lived without permission of the landowner.
Mr. Hamer, your lectures are riveting. Thank you.
One thing I found interesting is that they used to be painted. We find them to look somewhat dark and scary but when they were painted they look very bright and colorful and inviting.
One of, if not the last, Gothic cathedrals is located in the Western Hemisphere. The oldest parts of La Catedral de San Juan de Bautista, in San Juan, PR was done in the gothic style. The Spanish colonists built it in the style they remembered from back home. But it’s not quite as perfect or as detailed as their counterparts in Europe. Much of the building was lost due to a hurricane as those parts of the building were made from local sandstone.
In regards to the question near the end where it was asked if pressure washing these old buildings would be safe, the answer is it depends. There are a few factors that do not have much to do with the material that go into a pressure washer being used safely...
One factor would be PSI (Pounds-per Square Inch). Most good pressure washers have some way to adjust them for effective PSI. Even if they don't have a knob, one often has the option of running it with normal water pressure by having it hooked up but the machine off. On gas models one can usually throttle the engine some how to reduce or increase pressure as well. So no pressure washer has to run at it's maximum rating.
Another factor is position. Correct distance of the nozzle from a work surface and angle of the nozzle in relation to the surface is very important. It can be the difference between gently lifting off moss and carving a trough. A pressure washer can cut stone and brick just as easily as it can clean wood without deepening grain all dependent on this.
Water source. Some pressure washing services that realize the importance of this truck in their own water. They may even have manifolds on the truck that allow them to introduce solutes into their water supply to change the water's effective hardness. Water hardness weighs a lot on the mental math when pressure washing. Tap water is usually alright. But well or spring water might often have heavy elements to it, like calcium or lithium that actually increases water's cutting capacity at high pressures.
Generally where damage is a concern soft washing is used instead. Which is basically where a low pressure sprayer (that just has enough pressure to distribute solution) is used to coat the surface in an environmentally friendly detergent. With soft washing it is generally a leave on detergent. It's usually not a very powerful detergent so they want it to really have time to work it's way into the surface of the material and even to let it fully dry so that in blooming it will lift unwanted corrosion from the surface. Then over the course of a few natural rains the detergent and the unwanted ding is rinsed out.
I don't know whether they use pressure washing or not. But given the age and importance of the buildings I would think that they would at least employ a lot more soft washing than anything else.
Generally speaking the period when Gothic was modern was from about 1979 to roughly 1986.
does the late medieval warm period an earlier, reflect in any part the population history chart of france?! an if I may a second thought, arabic numerals must also arrive surely at some point into europes architectures?!.... john hamer thanks for a late saterday night show, very thoughtfull over view u gave
Cher Ami. Wasn't that what Monet called the fog in London?
Medieval serfs were much more like Roman coloni (tenant farmers) than they were like Roman slaves.
In particular they were virtually identical to the type of coloni called coloni adscripticii, who could not leave the estates where they lived without permission of the landowner.
Good call! John seems to be well informed but not expert on some of his analogies.
"Gothic" literature is a missing link to modern Goth kids. Jane Austen lampooned it....
Am I alone, and unobserved- I am
Elizabeth singing was kinda cringy