Just a Kiln (I think)

jeffmeyers

I think this is a kiln. Captured with an IR-converted Nikon D70s.

Jack'll do

Nice one jeff. I love the vegetation growing out of the top.

jeffmeyers

Jack'll do wrote:

Nice one jeff. I love the vegetation growing out of the top.

Thank you, Jack. Does anyone know if this really is a kiln?

MLangton

As a country boy trapped in the city... That sure looks like an old grain silo.

Great pic!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo

TonyCooper

jeffmeyers wrote:

Thank you, Jack. Does anyone know if this really is a kiln?

I'm going with silo. The iron rungs up the left side indicate there was a need to climb to the top. The vertical sides indicate that it was built for storage.

There are some similar constructions down here where there are the ruins of sugar or rice mills. They were furnaces, though, not as wide, and tapered to the top. Usually, if it's a furnace, there are other ruins around the site.

Silos stood alone. I've seen glazed block silos that were built before present-day concrete casting methods were practical. They were built from the ground up as opposed to pouring concrete down into forms. They didn't have the high-reach equipment to pour down.


Knowing where in the country it was shot would give some indication.

eL eSs Vee

I'm also going with silo. I see no evidence of fire (there's no soot anywhere on it) and that's a wooden door where the firebox would be on a kiln; not exactly a good idea where high temperatures are involved.

Whatever it is, that's a very well done photo. I really like it.

jeffmeyers

Okay. Okay. I give in. It's a silo! Thank you for the gracious comments, everyone!

Gary752

As a young lad, I worked on quite a few farms, and that is definately a silo. For a long time, farmers would use these to store chopped up green corn stalks, often called silage. This was fed to the cattle. The common problem with silage was as it would dry in the silo, it would produce a lot of heat, and eventually combust. If the silo was connected to the barn, and if it caught fire, it would also burn down the barn. That is why you now see them a fair distance from the barn. Those who couldn't afford to build a silo, would simply dig a huge trench, line it with plastic, insert the silage, then cover it with plastic, and then cover that with dirt. Then as they needed some, they just dug the dirt back a little, pull the plastic back and take what they needed.

GaryB

pyry

I was thinking a kiln in the middle of the field would be a bit out of place, but a (spontaneously self-combusting) silo fits better

Nice shot of it too

jeffmeyers

pyry wrote:

I was thinking a kiln in the middle of the field would be a bit out of place, but a (spontaneously self-combusting) silo fits better

Nice shot of it too

Good point. This silo is actually right next to an old farmhouse. I just isolated it in this shot. That's what one thing that made me think it might be a kiln.