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Thursday, January 12, 2023
They think they've figured out how Roman concrete lasts so well
even in bad conditions. Interesting, indeed. You can imagine some Roman natural philosopher and an engineer breaking up some chunks of concrete to see how this mix did, and saying "Maybe if we..."
The part I thought was interesting was the fact that the answer was there the whole time. Modern hubris dismissed the chunks of lime as bad or primitive mixing instead of thinking that the Romans knew what they were doing.
A friend built a shower (indoors, residential) of which the walls and pan are a mixture composed of white Portland cement and slackened lime. That's it, no coating or sealant. The walls are impermeable to water.
John of the YT channel Primitive Technology has created a brick impermeable to water. The ingredients are local clay, wood ash, water. The mixture is formed then fired.
He has proven impermeability by submerging the fired brick in water for several days. He compares the weight of the fied brick before and after submerging in water.
Without the wood ash, the brick, even fired to 2,400 degrees American, absorbs water like a sponge.
For durability testing, he uses the Rockwell C durameter. Favorable results. (Hardness is a function of durabilty in this context)
2 comments:
The part I thought was interesting was the fact that the answer was there the whole time. Modern hubris dismissed the chunks of lime as bad or primitive mixing instead of thinking that the Romans knew what they were doing.
A friend built a shower (indoors, residential) of which the walls and pan are a mixture composed of white Portland cement and slackened lime. That's it, no coating or sealant. The walls are impermeable to water.
John of the YT channel Primitive Technology has created a brick impermeable to water. The ingredients are local clay, wood ash, water. The mixture is formed then fired.
He has proven impermeability by submerging the fired brick in water for several days. He compares the weight of the fied brick before and after submerging in water.
Without the wood ash, the brick, even fired to 2,400 degrees American, absorbs water like a sponge.
For durability testing, he uses the Rockwell C durameter. Favorable results. (Hardness is a function of durabilty in this context)
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