Cork insulation; a complete illustrated textbook on cork insulation ...

CHAPTER IV.
EARLY FORMS OF CORK INSULATION.
17.—Natural <strong>Cork</strong> and Composition <strong>Cork</strong>.—The first men-
tion of the use of cork as <strong>insulation</strong> appears to be by the
elder Pliny in the first century of the Christian era when he
called attention to its use by women as winter foot gear.
Undoubtedly it was utilized as sandals because of its insulat-
ing qualities and its freedom from capillarity. Pliny spoke
of cork bark being used as a covering for roofs. John Evelyn,
the English writer and diarist (1620-1706), mentions that
cork was much used by old people for linings to the soles of
their shoes. The poor of Spain laid planks of cork on the
floor like tiles, to obviate the need for a floor covering that
would be warm to the touch. They also lined the inside of
their stone houses with cork bark, to make their homes easier
to heat and to correct the precipitation of moisture on the
walls. Ground cork and India rubber formed the basic ingredients
of the quiet, resilient floors of the reading rooms
of the British Museum. Bee hives have long been construcced
of pieces of cork bark, because of its warmth to the touch.
Shelves of cork have been used for centuries to preserve ob-
jects from dampness. The primitive races of northern Africa
used cork mixed with clay for the walls of their crude dwell-
ings, and cork slabs as roof tiles. <strong>Cork</strong> was, and still is,
the basis in Europe for certain cenents and plastics for pre-
venting the escape of heat, which are formed to steam pipes,
and hot surfaces in general. Powdered cork and starch were
molded into cylinders to fit pipes of different sizes, and were
then split and made ready for application to pipes requiring
<strong>insulation</strong>, after which the cork composition was spirally
wrapped with cloth and coated with tar or pitch. Narrow
cork pieces were laid around steam pipes, as lagging, wired
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