William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter and producer. He is remembered as a foremost western star of the silent era who "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity." During the late 1910s and early 1920s, he was one of the most popular movie stars ranking high among male actors in popularity contests held by movie fan magazines. Hart was born in New York, to Nicholas Hart and Rosanna Hart. William had two brothers, who died young, four sisters, his father was born in England, his mother was born in Ireland. He was a distant cousin of the western star Neal Hart, he began his acting career on stage in his 20s, in film when he was 49, which coincided with the beginning of film's transition from curiosity to commercial art form. Hart's stage debut came in 1888 as a member of a company headed by Daniel E. Bandmann; the following year he joined Lawrence Barrett's company in New York and spent several seasons with Mlle. Hortense Rhéa's traveling company, he toured and traveled extensively while trying to make a name for himself as an actor, for a time directed shows at the Asheville Opera House in North Carolina, around the year 1900.
He had some success as a Shakespearean actor on Broadway, working with Margaret Mather and other stars. His family had moved to Asheville but, after his youngest sister Lotta died of typhoid fever in 1901, they all left together for Brooklyn until William went back on tour. Hart went on to become one of the first great stars of the motion picture western. Fascinated by the Old West, he acquired Billy the Kid's "six shooters" and was a friend of legendary lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, he entered films in 1914 where, after playing supporting roles in two short films, he achieved stardom as the lead in the feature The Bargain. Hart was interested in making realistic western films, his films are noted for their authentic costumes and props, as well as Hart's acting ability, honed on Shakespearean theater stages in the United States and England. Beginning in 1915, Hart starred in his own series of two-reel western short subjects for producer Thomas Ince, which were so popular that they were supplanted by a series of feature films.
Many of Hart's early films continued to play in theaters, for another decade. In 1915 and 1916 exhibitors voted him the biggest money making star in the United States. In 1917 Hart accepted a lucrative offer from Adolph Zukor to join Famous Players-Lasky, which merged into Paramount Pictures. In the films Hart began to ride a white pinto he called Fritz. Fritz was the forerunner of famous movie horses known by their own name, e.g. horses like Tom Mix's Tony, Roy Rogers's Trigger and Clayton Moore's Silver. In 1917, to signify "his patriotism and loyalty to Uncle Sam" he announced would "change the name of his favorite horse from Fritz to one more American." Hart was now making feature films and films like Square Deal Sanderson and The Toll Gate were popular with fans. Hart married young Hollywood actress Winifred Westover. Although their marriage was short-lived, they had one child, William S. Hart, Jr.. In 1921, Roscoe Arbuckle, a silent screen comedy actor, was charged with the rape and manslaughter of an aspiring actress named Virginia Rappe.
The case had many salacious aspects surrounding the sexual injuries found on the victim's body. Many of Arbuckle's fellow actors refused to give any comments to the press. However, Hart who had never met or worked with Arbuckle, made a number of damaging public statements in which he presumed the actor's guilt. Arbuckle wrote a premise for a film parodying Hart as a thief and wife beater, bought by Buster Keaton; the following year, Keaton co-wrote and starred in the 1922 comedy film The Frozen North. As a result, refused to speak to Keaton for many years. By the early 1920s, Hart's brand of gritty, rugged westerns with drab costumes and moralistic themes fell out of fashion; the public became attracted by a new kind of movie cowboy, epitomized by Tom Mix, who wore flashier costumes and was faster with the action. Paramount dropped Hart, who made one last bid for his kind of western, he produced Tumbleweeds with his own money, arranging to release it independently through United Artists. The film turned out well, with an epic land-rush sequence, but did only fair business at the box office.
Hart sued United Artists. The legal proceedings dragged on for years, the courts ruled in Hart's favor, in 1940. After Tumbleweeds, Hart retired to his Newhall, ranch home, "La Loma de los Vientos", designed by architect Arthur R. Kelly. In 1939 he appeared in a spoken prologue for a reissue of Tumbleweeds; the 74-year-old Hart, filmed on location at his Newhall ranch, reflects on the Old West and recalls his silent-movie days fondly. The speech turned out to be William S. Hart's farewell to the screen. Most prints and video versions of Tumbleweeds circulating today include Hart's speech. Hart died on June 23, 1946, in Newhall, California at the age of 81, he was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in New York. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, William S. Hart has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd. In 1975, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; as part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California, H
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Central America, South America, the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and cowboys, in what today is the western United States, western Canada, northern Mexico. Today, it is a sporting event that involves horses and other livestock, designed to test the skill and speed of the cowboys and cowgirls. American style professional rodeos comprise the following events: tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing; the events are divided into two basic categories: the timed events. Depending on sanctioning organization and region, other events such as breakaway roping, goat tying, pole bending may be a part of some rodeos. American rodeo popular today within the Canadian province of Alberta and throughout the western United States, is the official state sport of Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas.
The iconic silhouette image of a "Bucking Horse and Rider" is a federal and state-registered trademark of the State of Wyoming. The Legislative Assembly of Alberta has considered making American rodeo the official sport of that province. However, enabling legislation has yet to be passed. In the United States, professional rodeos are governed and sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and Women's Professional Rodeo Association, while other associations govern children's, high school and senior rodeos. Associations exist for Native Americans and other minority groups; the traditional season for competitive rodeo runs from spring through fall, while the modern professional rodeo circuit runs longer, concludes with the PRCA National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, now held in December. Rodeo has provoked opposition from animal rights and animal welfare advocates, who argue that various competitions constitute animal cruelty; the American rodeo industry has made progress in improving the welfare of rodeo animals, with specific requirements for veterinary care and other regulations that protect rodeo animals.
However, rodeo is opposed by a number of animal welfare organizations in the United States and Canada. Some local and state governments in North America have banned or restricted rodeos, certain rodeo events, or types of equipment. Internationally, rodeo is banned in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with other European nations placing restrictions on certain practices; the American English word "rodeo" is taken directly from Spanish rodeo, which translates into English as "round up."The Spanish word is derived from the verb rodear, meaning "to surround" or "go around," used to refer to "a pen for cattle at a fair or market," derived from the Latin rota or rotare, meaning to rotate or go around. In Spanish America, the rodeo was the process, used by vaqueros to gather cattle for various purposes, such as moving them to new pastures, separating the cattle owned by different ranchers, or gathering in preparation for slaughter; the yearly rodeos for separating the cattle were overseen by the "Juez del Campo," who decided all questions of ownership.
The term was used to refer to exhibitions of skills used in the working rodeo. This evolved from these yearly gatherings where festivities were held and horsemen could demonstrate their equestrian skills, it was this latter usage, adopted into the cowboy tradition of the United States and Canada. The term rodeo was first used in English in 1834 to refer to a cattle round-up. Today the word is used to refer to a public exhibition of cowboy skills in the form of a competitive event. Many rodeo events were based on the tasks required by cattle ranching; the working cowboy developed skills to fit the needs of the terrain and climate of the American west, there were many regional variations. The skills required to manage cattle and horses date back to the Spanish traditions of the vaquero. Early rodeo-like affairs of the 1820s and 1830s were informal events in the western United States and northern Mexico with cowboys and vaqueros testing their work skills against one another. Following the American Civil War, rodeo competitions emerged, with the first held in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1872.
Prescott, Arizona claimed the distinction of holding the first professional rodeo, as it charged admission and awarded trophies in 1888. Between 1890 and 1910, rodeos became public entertainment, sometimes combined Wild West shows featuring individuals such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, other charismatic stars. By 1910, several major rodeos were established in western North America, including the Calgary Stampede, the Pendleton Round-Up, the Cheyenne Frontier Days. Rodeo-type events became popular for a time in the big cities of the Eastern United States, with large venues such as Madison Square Garden playing a part in popularizing them for new crowds. There was no standardization of events for a rodeo competition until 1929, when associations began forming. In the 1970s, rodeo saw unprecedented growth. Contestants referred to; these contestants were young from an urban background, chose rodeo for its athletic rewards. By 1985, one third of PRCA members had a college education and one half of the competitors had never worked on a cattle ranch.
Today, some professional rodeos are staged in air-conditioned arenas. Many other professional rodeos are held outside, under the same conditions of heat, dust or mud as were the original events
John B. Stetson Company
The John B. Stetson Company, founded by John B. Stetson in 1865, was the maker of the Stetson cowboy hats, but ceased manufacturing in 1970. Stetson hats are now being manufactured in Garland, Texas, by Hatco, Inc. who produce Resistol and Charlie 1 Horse hats. Stetson resumed manufacturing in the 1980s, but the company went bankrupt in 1986; the factory equipment and the license to manufacture Stetson hats was purchased by Hat Brands, a company owned by Irving Joel. The John B. Stetson Company was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1865 when John B. Stetson decided to mass-produce a hat like one he had fashioned for himself out of necessity during a lengthy Western expedition. Stetson's Boss of the Plains, with its high crown and wide flat brim, became the prototype for all other cowboy hat designs. A factory in St. Joseph, Missouri produced Stetson hats until parent company, Hatco Inc. closed it in 2004. The second factory in Galveston, continue to turn out the "Boss of the Plains," along with over 100 variations for men and women.
The Philadelphia factory, incorporated in 1891, produced dress hats for both men. Employing over 5,000 workers in various departments, the company turned out more hats than any other during the early 20th century; the Stetson Company was considered innovative for its time. The production of high-quality hat boxes became associated with the Stetson name; these hat boxes depicted Christmas imagery or famous Philadelphia institutions. The Company spread its reputation using marketing techniques and the recording of industrial films promoting its process and product. Hats and copies of the film Birth of a Hat, produced by the Company itself and showing the hat-making process, were distributed to merchants and popular conventions where feedback was recorded and used to make future product; the first significant change in the Company occurred after John B. Stetson's death in February 1906, his position as President of the Company was filled by J. Howell Cummings. Stetson sales declined in the 1950s and 1960s.
Between 1947 and 1968, revenues dropped from around 29 million dollars to about 8 million dollars. Members of John B. Stetson's family decided to sell company stock, Ira Guilden, who controlled Ramco Enterprises Inc. came into conflict with the Stetson family although by 1968, he would have majority interest in the Stetson Company. In the early 1970s, the factory in Philadelphia shut down. Though the clock tower, gymnasium and fitting room were saved from destruction, they burned down in 1980. John B. Stetson gained a reputation as an employer driven by religious morals, he ran the Stetson Company in a paternalistic fashion designed to provide benefits for workers, increase profits, discourage unionization. The Stetson Company provided many benefits for the time such as prizes, Christmas bonuses, shared stock and membership to a building association as well as access to Stetson facilities; these facilities serviced several aspects of an employee's life. In the early 1900s, Stetson added a company library, hospital and athletic fields for recreational use.
The John B. Stetson Building Association assisted over 1,000 employees to purchase homes, over 2,000 children of employees attended Sunday School or Kindergarten on company grounds. One of the most anticipated events at the Company surrounded the Christmas holiday. Employees gathered at the factory auditorium for an annual celebration that featured speeches from the Company President or Santa Claus, a distribution of awards and gifts; these gifts and awards varied according to one's position at the Company. Women received candy and gloves, married men received a Christmas turkey, unmarried men were given hats. Many Stetson employees were immigrant hat-makers with reputations of moving around where work was plentiful; the Stetson Company, to encourage yearlong work and a high retention rate, offered immigrants a portion of annual earnings as a Christmas bonus, increasing each successive year. Some of these immigrant workers were able to become U. S. citizens due to the "Americanization" classes the Company offered that offered English among other subjects.
Specialized positions in the factory utilized the apprentice system. Those recruited to an apprenticeship signed contracts valid until they had reached eighteen years old or completed three years of work. While under contract, they agreed to abstain from marriage. Pay was two dollars per week with an additional dollar for every week worked after the contract was fulfilled. Many apprentices became full-time employees and had the potential to become a foreman due to their loyalty to the Stetson brand. John B. Stetson's tradition of providing annual bonuses, Christmas gifts, facilities for employees were an active attempt to dissuade unions. However, there was a sizable number of union workers at the Philadelphia factory during the early 1900s, they were ordered to work at shops instead. Some of these workers demanded to stay on until Christmas when they received their bonuses and this was allowed. However, the attraction of an end of year bonus was so great that many returned to the factory as non-union workers.
The Stetson has become "a symbol of Western pride and bravado, this hat, with its large crown and wide brim, has graced the heads of America's most treasured Western heroes, from old-time favorites like actors John Wayne, Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger, Timothy Olyphant, as Raylan Givens and country singer Gene Autry, to modern-day popular artists like Garth Brooks and Larry Hagman as J. R. Ewing on the television series Dallas." J. R.'s hat is now displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History'
Mercury poisoning
Mercury poisoning is a type of metal poisoning due to exposure to mercury. Symptoms depend upon the type, dose and duration of exposure, they may include muscle weakness, poor coordination, numbness in the hands and feet, skin rashes, memory problems, trouble speaking, trouble hearing, or trouble seeing. High level exposure to methylmercury is known as Minamata disease. Methylmercury exposure in children may result in acrodynia in which the skin becomes peels. Long-term complications may include decreased intelligence; the effects of long-term low-dose exposure to methylmercury are unclear. Forms of mercury exposure include metal, vapor and organic compound. Most exposure is from eating exposure at work. In fish, those higher up in the food chain have higher levels of mercury. Less poisoning may occur as a method of attempted suicide. Human activities that release mercury into the environment include the burning of coal and mining of gold. Tests of the blood and hair for mercury are available but do not relate well to the amount in the body.
Prevention includes eating a diet low in mercury, removing mercury from medical and other devices, proper disposal of mercury, not mining further mercury. In those with acute poisoning from inorganic mercury salts, chelation with either dimercaptosuccinic acid or dimercaptopropane sulfonate appears to improve outcomes if given within a few hours of exposure. Chelation for those with long-term exposure is of unclear benefit. In certain communities that survive on fishing, rates of mercury poisoning among children have been as high as 1.7 per 100. Common symptoms of mercury poisoning include peripheral neuropathy, presenting as paresthesia or itching, pain, or a sensation that resembles small insects crawling on or under the skin. Mercury irreversibly inhibits selenium-dependent enzymes and may inactivate S-adenosyl-methionine, necessary for catecholamine catabolism by catechol-O-methyl transferase. Due to the body's inability to degrade catecholamines, a person suffering from mercury poisoning may experience profuse sweating, increased salivation, hypertension.
Affected children may show red cheeks and lips, loss of hair and nails, transient rashes and increased sensitivity to light. Other symptoms may include kidney dysfunction or neuropsychiatric symptoms such as emotional lability, memory impairment, or insomnia. Thus, the clinical presentation may resemble pheochromocytoma or Kawasaki disease. Desquamation can occur with severe mercury poisoning acquired by handling elemental mercury; the consumption of fish is by far the most significant source of ingestion-related mercury exposure in humans, although plants and livestock contain mercury due to bioconcentration of mercury from seawater, freshwater and lacustrine sediments and atmosphere, due to biomagnification by ingesting other mercury-containing organisms. Exposure to mercury can occur from breathing contaminated air, from eating foods that have acquired mercury residues during processing, from exposure to mercury vapor in mercury amalgam dental restorations, from improper use or disposal of mercury and mercury-containing objects, for example, after spills of elemental mercury or improper disposal of fluorescent lamps.
All of these, except elemental liquid mercury produce death with less than a gram. Mercury's zero oxidation state exists as vapor or as liquid metal, its mercurous state exists as inorganic salts, its mercuric state may form either inorganic salts or organomercury compounds. Consumption of whale and dolphin meat, as is the practice in Japan, is a source of high levels of mercury poisoning. Tetsuya Endo, a professor at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, has tested whale meat purchased in the whaling town of Taiji and found mercury levels more than 20 times the acceptable Japanese standard. Human-generated sources, such as coal-burning power plants emit about half of atmospheric mercury, with natural sources such as volcanoes responsible for the remainder. An estimated two-thirds of human-generated mercury comes from stationary combustion of coal. Other important human-generated sources include gold production, nonferrous metal production, cement production, waste disposal, human crematoria, caustic soda production, pig iron and steel production, mercury production, biomass burning.
Small independent gold-mining operation workers are at higher risk of mercury poisoning because of crude processing methods. Such is the danger for the galamsey in Ghana and similar workers known as orpailleurs in neighboring francophone countries. While no official government estimates of the labor force have been made, observers believe 20,000–50,000 work as galamseys in Ghana, a figure including many women, who work as porters. Similar problems have been reported amongst the gold miners of Indonesia; some mercury compounds organomercury compounds, can be absorbed through direct skin contact. Mercury and its compounds are used in chemical laboratories, dental clinics, facilities involved in the production of items such as fluorescent light bulbs and explosives. Many traditional medicines, including Ayurvedic medicine and Traditional Chinese medicine contain mercury and other heavy metals. No scientific data support the claim that mercury com
Lucius Beebe
Lucius Morris Beebe was an American author, photographer, railroad historian and syndicated columnist. Beebe was born in Massachusetts, to a prominent Boston family, he attended both Harvard University and Yale University, where he contributed to the campus newspaper, Harvard Crimson, the humor magazine, The Yale Record. During his tenures at boarding school and university, Beebe was known for his numerous pranks. One of his more outrageous stunts included an attempt at festooning J. P. Morgan's yacht Corsair III with toilet paper from a chartered airplane, his pranks were not without consequence, he proudly noted that he had the sole distinction of having been expelled from both Harvard and Yale, at the insistence of the president and dean. Beebe earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1926, only to be expelled during graduate school. During and after obtaining his degree from Harvard, Beebe published several books of poetry, but found his true calling in journalism, he worked as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, the San Francisco Examiner, the Boston Telegram, the Boston Evening Transcript, was a contributing writer to many magazines such as Gourmet, The New Yorker and Country, American Heritage, Playboy.
Beebe re-launched Nevada's first newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise, in 1952. He wrote a syndicated column for the New York Herald Tribune from the 1930s through 1944 called This New York; the column chronicled the doings of fashionable society at such storied restaurants and nightclubs as El Morocco, the 21 Club, the Stork Club, The Colony. Beebe is credited with popularizing the term "cafe society", used to describe the people mentioned in his column. In 1950, Beebe and his long-time romantic partner, photographer Charles Clegg, moved to Virginia City, where they purchased and restored the Piper family home and purchased the dormant Territorial Enterprise newspaper; the newspaper was relaunched in 1952, by 1954 had achieved the highest circulation in the West for a weekly newspaper. Beebe and Clegg co-wrote. In 1960, Beebe began work with the San Francisco Chronicle, where he wrote a syndicated column, This Wild West. During the six years that he wrote the column, Beebe covered such topics as economics, journalism, history, justice and travel.
Beebe was a noted gourmand. He had his own column, Along the Boulevards, in Gourmet, wrote extensively for Holiday and Playboy about restaurants and dining experiences around the world; some of the restaurants he covered include The Colony, The Stork Club, The Pump Room, the 21 Club, Simpson's-in-the-Strand, Chasen's. A noted wine aficionado, he was a member of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. In addition to his work as a journalist, Beebe wrote over 35 books; these dealt with railroading and café society. He was the first writer to use a painting by Howard L. Fogg, noted railroad artist, on the cover of a book. Many of his railroad books were written with his longtime companion Charles Clegg. Beebe was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 1992. Along with Clegg, Beebe owned the Gold Coast and The Virginia City; the Gold Coast, Georgia Northern / Central of Georgia No. 100, is now at the California State Railroad Museum. After Beebe and Clegg purchased The Virginia City, they had it refurbished and redecorated by famed Hollywood set designer Robert T. Hanley in a style known as Venetian Renaissance Baroque.
Beebe in the Virginia City The Virginia City has been restored and operates as an excursion car. Beebe and Clegg wrote about and photographed the Virginia & Truckee Railroad and worked unsuccessfully with other railroad fans to preserve it, their fame was such that they were caricatured in "Copperopolis," by Carl Fallberg. Beebe was a noted partisan of the Cunard Line and passenger liner travel in general, he wrote several articles about trans-Atlantic passage on Cunard ships during the "Golden Era" of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. A noted boulevardier, Beebe had an baroque wardrobe. Beebe's clothing included 40 suits, at least two mink-lined overcoats, numerous top hats and bowlers, a collection of doeskin gloves, walking sticks and a substantial gold nugget watch chain. Columnist Walter Winchell referred to Beebe and his wardrobe as "Luscious Lucius." Beebe's sartorial splendor was recognized when he appeared in full formal day attire on the cover of Life over the title of "Lucius Beebe Sets a Style."
Many of Beebe's articles and columns addressed men's traditional fashion. He was fond of English bespoke tailoring and shoes and wrote glowing articles about noted court tailor Henry Poole and Company and noted bootmaker John Lobb, whom he patronized on a regular basis, he liked ties from Charvet in Paris, men's hats and wrote of the history of the bowler hat. In 1940, Beebe met Charles Clegg while both were houseguests at the Washington, D. C. home of Evalyn Walsh McLean. The two soon developed a personal and professional relationship that continued for the rest of Beebe's life. Beebe had been involved with society photographer Jerome Zerbe; the pair lived in New York City, where both men were prominent in café society circles. Tiring of that social life, the two moved in 1950 to Virginia City, Nevada, a tiny community that had once been a fabled mining boomtown. There, they reactivated and began publishing the Territorial Enterprise, a fabled 19th-century newspaper that had once been the employer of Mark Twain.
Beebe and Clegg shared a renovated ma
Straw
Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, rice and wheat, it has a number of different uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder and basket making. Straw is gathered and stored in a straw bale, a bale, or bundle, of straw bound with twine or wire. Straw bales may be square, rectangular, or round, can be large, depending on the type of baler used. Current and historic uses of straw include: Animal feed Straw may be fed as part of the roughage component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement, it has a low digestible nutrient content. The heat generated when microorganisms in a herbivore's gut digest straw can be useful in maintaining body temperature in cold climates. Due to the risk of impaction and its poor nutrient profile, it should always be restricted to part of the diet, it may be fed as it chopped into short lengths, known as chaff.
Basketry Bee skeps and linen baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique is known as lip work. Bedding: humans or livestock The straw-filled mattress known as a palliasse, is still used in many parts of the world, it is used as bedding for ruminants and horses. It may be used as bedding and food for small animals, but this leads to injuries to mouth and eyes as straw is quite sharp. Biofuels The use of straw as a carbon-neutral energy source is increasing especially for biobutanol. Straw or hay briquettes are a biofuel substitute to coal. Biogas Straw, processed first as briquettes, has been fed into a biogas plant in Aarhus University, Denmark, in a test to see if higher gas yields could be attained. Biomass The use of straw in large-scale biomass power plants is becoming mainstream in the EU, with several facilities online; the straw is either used directly in the form of bales, or densified into pellets which allows for the feedstock to be transported over longer distances.
Torrefaction of straw with pelletisation is gaining attention, because it increases the energy density of the resource, making it possible to transport it still further. This processing step makes storage much easier, because torrefied straw pellets are hydrophobic. Torrefied straw in the form of pellets can be directly co-fired with coal or natural gas at high rates and make use of the processing infrastructures at existing coal and gas plants; because the torrefied straw pellets have superior structural and combustion properties to coal, they can replace all coal and turn a coal plant into an biomass-fed power station. First generation pellets are limited to a co-firing rate of 15% in modern IGCC plants. Construction material: In many parts of the world, straw is used to bind clay and concrete. A mixture of clay and straw, known as cob, can be used as a building material. There are many recipes for making cob; when baled, straw has moderate insulation characteristics. It can be used, alone or in a post-and-beam construction.
When bales are used to build or insulate buildings, the straw bales are finished with earthen plaster. The plastered walls provide some thermal mass and ductile structural strength, acceptable fire resistance as well as thermal resistance, somewhat in excess of North American building code. Straw is an abundant agricultural waste product, requires little energy to bale and transport for construction. For these reasons, straw bale construction is gaining popularity as part of passive solar and other renewable energy projects. Composite lumber: Wheat straw can be used as a fibrous filler combined with polymers to produce composite lumber. Enviroboard can be made from straw. Strawblocks Crafts Corn dollies Straw marquetry Straw painting Straw plaiting Scarecrows Japanese Traditional Cat's House Erosion control Straw bales are sometimes used for sediment control at construction sites. However, bales are ineffective in protecting water quality and are maintenance-intensive. For these reasons the U.
S. Environmental Protection Agency and various state agencies recommend use of alternative sediment control practices where possible, such as silt fences, fiber rolls and geotextiles. Burned area emergency response Ground cover In-stream check dams Hats There are several styles of straw hats that are made of woven straw. Many thousands of women and children in England, large numbers in the United States, were employed in plaiting straw for making hats. By the late 19th century, vast quantities of plaits were being imported to England from Canton in China, in the United States most of the straw plait was imported. A fiber analogous to straw is obtained from the plant Carludovica palmata, is used to make Panama hats. Traditional Japanese rain protection consisted of a mino cape. Horticulture Straw is used for mushroom growing. In Japan, certain trees are wrapped with straw to protect them from the effects of a hard winter as well as to use them as a trap for parasite insects, it is used in ponds to reduce algae by changing the nutrient ratios in the water.
The soil under strawberries is covered with straw to protect the ripe berries from dirt, straw is used to cover the plants during winter to prevent the cold from killing them. Straw makes an excellent mulch. Packaging Straw is resistant to being cru
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