According to Alasdair M. Brooks:
>
>         A mention was made of Bill Kelso and the slave cabin burning.  This
> can be seen in what can only be described as "graphic detail" (right down to
> the beads of sweat on his face) in the BBC film "digging for slavery."
>         If memory serves, the "slave cabin" was a mock-up built specifically
> for the burning experiment.  It was a - successful - attempt to test the
> theory of post-fire lean-to chimney nail distribution patterns.
>
>         To the best of my knowledge, this also remains the only time that a
> Charlottesville area volunteer fire department is thanked in a BBC
> documentary :-
> :-)
> Alasdair M. Brooks
> Archaeology Lab Supervisor
> Jefferson's Poplar Forest
>
Actually, the cabin was an original log structure.  The chimney
was not completely reconstructed of sticks and mud, but rather
sawn lumber stacked "lincoln-logs" style to approximate the
height and width of an original chimney.  The resulting
conflagration was dramatic, but probably far more so than
original events of that sort.  The folks in the rural trades
area at Colonial Williamsburg had one go up recently that kind
of smoldered and flamed, but didn't resemble a volcano.  Bill
did prove his point though--the pattern of chimney fall did
look like the evidence on Mulberry Row.
 
Scott
 
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