h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Walls (Flea Market rescue of a Flea Market rescue) - A87764926
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

Original article: A10150480 - author: Think-Am - U2111883
Original article Peer Review thread: F3840714?thread=2493015
Original article Flea Market thread: F74125?thread=3310579
Second article: A15718133 - author: Vip - U188069
Second article Writing Workshop thread: F5480873?thread=3523408
Third article: A28966729 - author: Skankyrich - U931109 et al
Third article Writing Workshop thread: F8668164?thread=4769703
Third article Peer Review thread: F8668164?thread=6093745
Third article Flea Market thread: F74125?thread=6420462
Fourth article: A87764926 - author: Bluebottle - U43530

Qualifications:
I believe I am qualified to write about walls as Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in The Wall' was number 1 when I was born in January 1980 and I've met the director, Sir Alan Parker, of the film 'The Wall'. I have also walked all along Hadrian's Wall as well as various other castle and town walls. My first and middle names, 'Matthew Lloyd', are an anagram of 'Wall Toed Myth', with my full name an anagram of Drywall Moth Packets.

Notes on this edition of the Walls entry:
I've added a little on the most basic types of brick bonds. There are far more bonds, including the garden wall and rattrap bonds etc, but to go into each one would need an entry for itself.

My first instincts were to mention Wall's sausages and ice-cream as well as the Wall of Sound and these too were mentioned more than once in the previous Writing Workshop and Peer Review threads. No Wallets, Wallabies, Max Wall, Wall-E, Where's Wally, Waltons or Waltzing Matilda made it into this version, I'm afraid, as they're not walls.

There seems to have been a lot of discussion in previous threads about whether the Great Wall of China can be seen from space. This is an urban myth. Just to clarify – there aren't any alien astronomers somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse saying to themselves 'You know, I could get the telescope set up, but where-ever we point it, all we can ever see is that Great Wall of China..'

I must admit I've never heard of the Irishman's Wall. Is it really in the same class as the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall and Berlin Wall?

Nothing will induce me to include any reference to Hole in the Wall. All memories of that television travesty featuring fat Z-list celebrities wearing skin-tight tin-foil outfits being knocked into sheep dips by moving polystyrene while hosts Dale Winton and Anton Dec scream 'Bring on the Wall!' should be allowed to fade.

<BB<

Hi BB

Nice rescue!

Let's see if we can get this into the Guide this time round

As a matter of protocol, would you mind terrible taking out your photo of Hadrian's Wall while this is in PR, please? The artists may very well like to produce a new image for this Entry themselves once/if this Entry is taken for sub-editing and approval for the Guide.


Thanks!

Lanzababy

Okay, Hadrian's Wall photo removed.

Fingers crossed this will be fourth time lucky for this article on walls. If I die or under mysterious circumstances DO NOT RESCUE THIS ARTICLE - it is cursed

<BB<

Would Mariana Cook's book 'Stone Walls: Personal Boundaries' be of any interest?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9619000/9619365.stm


Geggs

To clarify - it's a book of black and white photographs of drystone walls from around the world. I haven't got a copy myself, but it does seem strangely fascinating.


Geggs

Excellent suggestion - I've enjoyed looking at the link you provided and have included it to the article

<BB<

A good entry, Bluebottle.

You talk about a list of World-Famous Walls, and then start with the Antonine Wall. That's hardly world famous. I'd say that even in the UK very few people will have heard of it. If you must include the Antonine Wall, it should be listed after Hadrian's Wall, because it is really an addendum to it.

You've got a repeated phrase in one of the footnotes: 400 Thebans and 400 Thebans.

I think you should abridge the Bible quote about Belshazzar.. it's rather long. (Researcher Bels, who died in 2004, was named after the musical work Belshazzar's Feast which is a setting of this story).

Firewalls are walls in a building which will resist a fire and prevent it from spreading from one part to another.

One h2g2 Researcher lives in a house whose walls are made from wattle and daub, although she probably doesn't want that fact mentioned in the entry.

Wallflowers are a type of flower, as well as the shy, retiring woman who won't get up or is not asked up to dance.

Yes, I have never heard of the Antonine wall either, so it can't be 'famous' - personally I would remove it.

I'd also really shorten the Hadrian's wall paragraph to the bare essentials, as we have an Entry on this. An introduction and a link to the actual Entry is plenty.

I hadn't heard of the Irishman's Wall either but lo and behold http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/Irish_wall.htm

And indeed you have it covered. However, far more important in the history of walls is the group enclosing the Céide Fields in Mayo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9ide_Fields

--the most extensive Stone Age site in the world, containing the oldest known field systems in the world. The creation and development of the Céide Fields goes back some five and a half thousand years.

I've learned a lot about walls at Uni. I already thought about rescuing this myself but there is just too much to say about walls for just one Entry.

I'll go to read this now

'As comedian Eddie Izzard once said, archaeologists always find a 'series of small walls'. Walls have been around as long as there has been society. Society wanted to keep other tribes out, to keep their animals in, and to have shelter from the elements.'

I don't think that the very first walls have been built to keep other tribes out. That's a rather advanced use of walls that needs a higher technology of wall building. Shelter is a bit more reasonable as we can see in the example of various herdsmen huts, often built in conical shapes with stones found on fields.
Stone walls do not really make sense in a nomadic society, so they really are a sign for permanent settlements. The first walls may have been built between fields to get the stones out of the soil, just by putting the stones that are in the way to the side. At the same time these walls protect the crops from being eaten by animals and can also keep goat, sheep or whatever under control. This is certainly a much earlier use of walls than protection from human enemies.


'Walls that make up your house are often made of bricks. These are cuboid shapes, usually made of fired clay1 and tend to be 22cm by 7.5cm by 7.5cm2. They are not stacked on top of one another directly, but in order to make walls more stable different patterns of long 'stretcher' bricks and short 'header' bricks are used.'

Every country tends to have their own brick sizes. The basic brick size depends on what a man can easily hold in their hands. The ancient Romans already had a standard brick size, because standard sizes always rationalize building and make things faster. Today a lot bigger brick sizes are sold too.
The patterns of bricks are not really used anymore today because of the bigger brick and concrete stones. They also do not use (as seems to be stated in the paragraph) two different brick sizes but one brick size as you can see here:
http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/meyers/134447/Steinverband

Additionally brick sizes are of course also dependent on:
bricks + mortar = good high for windows
bricks + mortar = good length, like several bricks make one meter or a foot or whatever
in our regions bricks are usually burnt clay but bricks made from just dried clay are still used in many countries

today there is not only water but company already sell alternatives which are I think kinds o glue that are put between the bricks in a very thin layer. This makes building faster.


Drystone walls are as mentioned above probably the first walls that were ever built from stones. The stones can either be used as they are found or brought into a shape with tools.
Advanced stone walls usually have their stones brought to a rectangular shape with various techniques. An opposite example are the stone walls of the Inka, who did not usually go for rectangular shapes because they take longer to build. (read about Inka walls yourself)

The place with most different kinds of stone walls in one place are probably the Easter Islands where you can see pretty much every type of them.

I would not say wattle and daub walls are a thing of northern Europe, I think they were used pretty much everywhere.

If you mention that do you want to mention wooden walls too? And concrete? Clay? Cloth (tents)? Grass? There are probably thousands of ways to build a wall (yes, that's why I didn't rescue this Entry).

I think 'climbing walls' is a little misplaced. You'd have to mention really every wall if you do this.

A fire wall is a wall between two buildings that should keep fire from spreading from one building to the other. Not only garages.

There is also a kind of wall which is made from putting stones vertically into the ground. No idea what it's called in English, in German it's called 'Orthostaten'.

I am quite interested in wall construction methods and materials - but realistically I think that would make a separate Entry in itself, rather than be included in this one.

Even something like 'How to build a simple brick wall for your garden' would be sufficient.

Too many different things in one entry, and the thing becomes cumbersome. Entries need to be sharply focused on their subject and written in a way that is interesting to the reader. Otherwise it degenerates into a list or a text book type of article.

Yes, I really think a broad topic like 'walls' is very difficult.

>>The Pink Floyd album The Wall was about a man who had an inability to socialise with others without panicking.

I've always read it as being about the walls that everybody constructs around themselves in response to life's experiences, and the walls that they have imposed upon them by society, with particular reference to the sort of walls that a vastly successful rock star whose biography was not unlike Roger Waters' might have built.

Hello everyone
It really is gratifying to see so many people wanting to see this entry get into the Edited Guide, and reading thoroughly through to ensure it is the best that it could possibly be. All of your support and suggestions are really appreciated.

Post 7:
You talk about a list of World-Famous Walls, and then start with the Antonine Wall. That's hardly world famous... The Antonine Wall should be listed after Hadrian's Wall, because it is really an addendum to it.
I was going alphabetically, but I can see your point. The Antonine Wall's section has been moved and edited into one paragraph.

You've got a repeated phrase in one of the footnotes: 400 Thebans and 400 Thebans.
I've deleted the footnote as it doesn't add up.

I think you should abridge the Bible quote about Belshazzar.. it's rather long.
Edited more to make it shorter. I like having the Biblical quote as it brings an extra dimension to the entry and I like the language of the King James bible, but if it doesn't work I can try re-writing.

Firewalls are walls in a building which will resist a fire and prevent it from spreading from one part to another. Also mentioned by Tav.
Wallflowers are a type of flower, as well as the shy, retiring woman who won't get up or is not asked up to dance.

Post 8:
I'd also really shorten the Hadrian's wall paragraph to the bare essentials, as we have an Entry on this. An introduction and a link to the actual Entry is plenty.
Agreed. It deserves a mention, but with an entry and University project on the Wall, we do not need to cover it in too much detail.

Post 9:
Link added

Post 10:
Céide Fields sounds intriguing and exactly the sort of thing that should be included in this article, but I would prefer not to paraphrase Wikipedia. This is the sort of thing that h2g2 excels at – bringing together people with different knowledge and expertise who can mention things other people are ignorant of. Recumbentman, are you able to write a short paragraph about this for me to include in the entry? You will be given a credit, naturally.

Posts 11-14
Very thorough, excellent comments! Consequently I have made several changes to the Bricks and Drystone sections, which are now in their own paragraphs rather than listed.
I would like to credit you for your suggestions – do you have any objection?

Post 17
I've always read it as being about the walls that everybody constructs around themselves in response to life's experiences, and the walls that they have imposed upon them by society, with particular reference to the sort of walls that a vastly successful rock star whose biography was not unlike Roger Waters' might have built.
Good point – although I'd always thought it was about some hammers going for a walk...

<BB<

No objections at all, thanks!

I think I'll have more about different walls later.

Tents usually have walls made from textiles, although old/ancient forms of tents can also use tree bark or animal skins.

A 'curtain wall' on the other hand is not a wall made from textiles but a facade that only carries its own weight and is hung from the ceiling/floor structure of the building. The curtain wall facade has been invented in the 19th Century and is the most common facade type for skyscrapers today.