Posted on 03/17/2011 7:00:58 AM PDT by decimon
So in other words; if you build it right the first time, even if it costs a little more, it holds up better.
Hmmm.... Who would have thunk it.
I think it is a mistake to take the knowledge of the Roman engineers lightly and assume they used this special lightweight concrete by accident.
They built many specialized projects out of concrete using various techniques that could be used today. I remember one article on FR about the way they built a harbor in the eastern Med by setting down forms under the sea to build concrete piers. I think they were ‘internal cured’ concrete as well.
Then there are their acqueducts with concreted tunnels and pipes that had to have very precise ‘drops’ to harness gravity to move the water while still keeping the flow under control.
Once the Roman engineers were gone, the world lost the formula for concrete for a millenia.
Somewhere in the FRchives there’s a topic or two about a recently discovered room that apparently was the only survival of the Aurea.
I wholeheartedly agree.
They were also better than pretty much anyone at building enormous wooden ships.
I gonna take this opportunity to re-recommend the novel, “Pompeii”, by Robet Harris to our God, Graves, & Glyphs faithful readers as the subject matter of concret brought it to my attention again.
NOt your average story of the Vesuvius eruption, the novel is seen through the eyes of the chief engineer of the enormus aqueduct, the Aqua Augusta, that brought water from the mountains to the city.
The failure of the aqueduct because of seismic activity becomes the focal point of the story and serves as a backstory to give the reader so much wonderful information on Roman engineering in general and hydrolic engineering in particular.
Wish I still had pics of the concrete canoe I was project manager for my junior year of college, won the regional “best final product” trophy.
12,000 PSI floating concrete, less than 1/2” thick max.
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