What is it? Set 336

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Oh, so it wasn't a bale used as cover after all, you're saying...the image was so small I thought they were small netwrap bales and you were saying that was being used as nesting/protection sites...

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My high school had these. The rods went all the way through the building, looked to be 1" rod as I recall. Stone building built in late 1800's.

This publication calls them "decorative bearing plates." (figure 6)

In my answer for the star I didn't mean to imply that they were only for areas that experience earthquakes, I just changed my answer to read:

"An anchor plate or bearing plate, it's connected to a through bolt, which ties the wall and floor systems together to give extra support to the wall. In earthquake zones they are sometimes called earthquake bolts, though they are also used in many areas that are not prone to quakes."

Rob

Rob

You'll find them in Philadelphia in brick buildings older than about

I agree. The failure method of brick-and-mortar is not "falling outward". Rather, it is "failure in tension" (i.e. the mortar-brick bond fails as the wall stretches as the surface waves go by). Or the bricks themselves fail for the same reason. Settling, even big winds, yes, earthquake resistence, no.

-Zz