for: Adobe Systems

Buildings made of sun-dried earth are common in the Middle East, North Africa, South America, southwestern North America, and in Spain(usually in the Mudéjar style), also (16th century texas). Adobe had been in use by indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Southwestern United States, Mesoamerica, and the Andean region of South America for several thousand years, although often substantial amounts of stone are used in the walls of Pueblo buildings. (Also, the Pueblo people built their adobe structures with handfuls or basketfuls of adobe, until the Spanish introduced them to the making of bricks.) Adobe brickmaking was imported to Spain in the 16th century by Spaniards who had traveled to Mexico and Peru. Fact: date=October 2008 Its wide use can be attributed to its simplicity of design and make, and the cheapness thereby in creating it.

A distinction is sometimes made between the smaller adobes, which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks, and the larger adobines, some of which are as much as from one to two yards (2 m) long.

Etymology

The word adobe (1 or 2) has come to us over some 4000 years with little change in either pronunciation or meaning: the word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian (c. 2000 BC) word dj-b-t "mud sun-dried brick." As Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and finally Coptic (c. 600 BC), dj-b-t became tobe "3 brick." This evolved into Arabic at-tub (الطّوب al "the" + tub "brick") "4 brick," which was assimilated into Old Spanish as adobe 5, still with the meaning "mud brick." English borrowed the word from Spanish in the early 18th century.

Composition of adobe

An adobe brick is a composite material made of clay mixed with water and an organic material such as straw or dung. The soil composition typically contains clay and sand. Straw is useful in binding the brick together and allowing the brick to dry evenlyFact: date=February 2007. Dung offers the same advantage and is also added to repel insects.Fact: date=June 2008 The mixture is roughly half sand (50%), one-third clay (35%), and one-sixth straw (15%).

Adobe bricks

The same mixture to make bricks, without the straw, is used for mortar and often for plaster on interior and exterior walls. Some ancient cultures used lime-based cement for the plaster to protect against rain damage. Fact: date=October 2008