Earthen FLOORS, are commonly made of loam, and sometimes, especially to make malt on, of lime, and brook sand, and gun dust, or anvil dust from the forge.
Ox blood and fine clay, tempered together, Sir Hugh Plat says, make the finest floor in the world.
The manner of making earthen floors for plain country habitations is as follows: Take two-thirds of lime and one of coal ashes well sifted, with a small quantity of loam clay; mix the whole together, and temper it well with water, making it up into a heap: let it lie a week or ten days, and then temper it over again. After this heap it up for three or four days, and repeat the tempering very high, till it becomes smooth, yielding, tough, and gluey. The ground being then levelled, lay the floor therewith about 2 or 3 inches thick, making it smooth with a trowel: the hotter the season is the better; and when it is thoroughly dried, it will make the best floor for houses, especially malt houses.
If any one would have their floors look better, let them take lime made of rag stones, well tempered with whites of eggs, covering the floor about half an inch thick with it, before the under-flooring is too dry. If this be well done, and thoroughly dried, it will look when rubbed with a little oil as transparent as metal or glass. In elegant houses, floors of this nature are made of stucco, or of plaster of Paris beaten and sifted, and mixed with other ingredients.
FLOOR of a Ship, strictly taken, is only so much of her bottom as she rests on when aground.
Such ships as have long, and withal broad floors, lie on the ground with most security, and are not apt to heel, or tilt on one side; whereas others, which are narrow in the floor, or in the sea phrase, cranked by the ground, cannot be grounded without danger of being overturned.