Research

Documentary - How to build a bread oven? This documentary is a step-by-step practical guide for building a traditional brick bread oven. Watching these episodes, you can start building your own woodfired oven to bake proper bread the way our grandparents used to. English subtitles are being made and will be added shortly. There are 5 episodes and 3 extra films.

Concrete insulating layer based on vermiculite This text can only be consulted in Dutch.

Making concrete and mortar This text can only be consulted in Dutch.

Cementing and impovering agents This text can only be consulted in Dutch.

Which wood to use?

The start In 2007 the MOT received a donation from what could be the last pumpmaker in Flanders, Oscar De Wagter from Hansbeke near Nevele. This man not only donated his tools, he also explained how to drill a wooden pump. His story was the start of our pump drilling project.

Placing the pump Water was a necessity in every yard and house, in land cultivation and craftsmen's workshops... Before constructing a new house, a well had to be dug to supply water for making the mortar, certainly in remote places. The location of a pump was well thought about, usually not far from the kitchen. Sometimes a pump was installed in or at the side of a building in the form of a small pump house or lean-to. Water pumps only protrude low above the ground (approx. 60-100 cm). There are strong regional differences in wells and pumps. We made a model as shown in the drawing on the right. In areas with shallow water, such as the Meetjesland, short pumps with a fixed handle transverse to the pump rod were found. Elsewhere, a long, pivoting hand crank was used.

Squaring the trunk Although not strictly necessary, it is recommended to debark the tree butt and remove the sapwood, the outer wood with the latest growth. Despite watering, these outer layers between the heartwood and bark can contain nutrients, making the pump susceptible to weathering, fungi and wood-boring insects. Removing this outer layer is done by squaring the trunk. This can be done both before and after the boring process. A practical benefit of squaring beforehand is that you take excess weight off the trunk which makes it lighter to handle. The trunk is fixed with heavy iron clamps low above ground level. After removing the bark with the barking shovel, we opted in this experiment to square the trunk in an octagonal shape using broad axes. You can use a carpenter's adze, but this works a lot slower. The octogonal shape works best for removing the sapwood and fixing the trunk on the boring trestle and in the well. After squaring, the diameter of our pump body was reduced to...

RCB: particulars SubjectUnder the description ‘trade catalogue’ the RCB includes five types of document: announcements commemorative books periodicals instructions for use catalogues You will find more information on this in the articles “Reclame als bron voor de geschiedenis van de technieken” (Advertising as a source for the history of techniques) and "The repertory of belgian trade catalogues". The catalogues of booksellers and publishers are not included, nor those of antiquaries (paintings, manuscripts etc.) and advertisements for services.LimitsFor practical reasons the Directory is limited to documents published before 1950, but doubtful cases are also included.We only include documents which were published in Belgium, or by a Belgian firm abroad.ReferencesAddresses are included literally as they appear in the publicity. Only the name of the district or town may, if necessary, have been translated using the language of the part of the country where the document was published.If...