Slashdot Mirror
Domain: romanconcrete.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to romanconcrete.com.
Comments · 10
-
Re: Modern Technology
If there was something genuinely better about their concrete...
A quick search shows there really was something better about their concrete:
Ancient Roman Concrete Is About to Revolutionize Modern Architecture
Discovery of 'Lost Recipe' for Ancient Concrete Provides Foundation for Future Cities
The Riddle of Ancient Roman Concrete -
Use Roman Concrete -- no rebar necessary.
imho, whoever figures out how to 3D print structures using Roman Concrete will win.
"A most unusual Roman structure depicting their technical advancement is the Pantheon, a brick faced building that has withstood the ravages of weathering in near perfect condition, sitting magnificently in the business district of Rome. Perhaps its longevity is told by its purpose . . . to honor all gods. Above all, this building humbles the modern engineer not only in its artistic splendor, but also because there are no steel rods to counter the high tensile forces such as we need to hold modern concrete together."
Source: http://www.romanconcrete.com/docs/spillway/spillway.htm
See also:
Businessweek Article
romanconcrete.com
Wikipedia Article -
Use Roman Concrete -- no rebar necessary.
imho, whoever figures out how to 3D print structures using Roman Concrete will win.
"A most unusual Roman structure depicting their technical advancement is the Pantheon, a brick faced building that has withstood the ravages of weathering in near perfect condition, sitting magnificently in the business district of Rome. Perhaps its longevity is told by its purpose . . . to honor all gods. Above all, this building humbles the modern engineer not only in its artistic splendor, but also because there are no steel rods to counter the high tensile forces such as we need to hold modern concrete together."
Source: http://www.romanconcrete.com/docs/spillway/spillway.htm
See also:
Businessweek Article
romanconcrete.com
Wikipedia Article -
Re:Is it safe?
Isn't concrete a pretty durable material?
-
Re:Elephant in the Room
The formula how to make such concrete was just rediscovered a year ago.
From what I remember, while verifying that it was the Roman recipe(which varied over time) was fairly recent, we have dams that were built using formulas very similar to the Roman recipe long before we knew it was close to the Roman formulas.
The Upper Stillwater Dam, for example, built in 1987, uses a lot of Roman techniques.
The Hoover Dam is expected to last a lot longer than 50 years, partially due to it's use of non-reactive aggregate.
Pay extra attention to your materials and construction methods and you can easily create concrete that will exceed 50 years. For example, use stainless steel for the inner container and fiber for the reinforcement to help prevent cracking.
-
Re:De Architectura
What a bunch of crap! Yes, you're absolutely correct: this is all (literally) ancient history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_concrete
"Vitruvius, writing around 25 BC in his Ten Books on Architecture, distinguished types of aggregate appropriate for the preparation of lime mortars. For structural mortars, he recommended pozzolana, which were volcanic sands from the sandlike beds of Pozzuoli brownish-yellow-gray in color near Naples and reddish-brown at Rome. Vitruvius specifies a ratio of 1 part lime to 3 parts pozzolana for cements used in buildings and a 1:2 ratio of lime to pulvis Puteolanus for underwater work, essentially the same ratio mixed today for concrete used at sea.[2]"
Also, back in 1993:
-
Re:A truly horrible ideaDo you really want to live in a concrete house in the English climate? Concrete is good for tropical and warm climates where rainfall is not too high, but in the UK where humidity is high most of the year it is a recipe for damp and mould. And, as the formet Soviet Union showed us, it does not make for a particularly attractive architecture. Nothing to do with concrete. You can build pretty much anything you like with concrete. The Romans used it thousands of years ago.
http://www.romanconcrete.com/photos.htm -
Re:Sounds perfect for Florida...You are right, because old wood tools and concrete structures are impossible to find.
The main problem with most plastics is that they have no part in the natural recycling process. That doesn't mean they are structurally intact for ages. Just take a peek at an old car with a cracked plastic dashboard if you think that all plastic is always long lived. Mind you, when you get specific, there are plastics that have a long life - but in and of itself, "as used in construction, plastic is more durable than wood or concrete" is not an open and shut case.
By the way, I want to watch you shuffle on the walls!
-
Re: Windows not as securable as UNIX
Actually, I think the Romans invented concrete.
-
Bamboo is coolI spent some time working in Nigeria and watched the local people erecting 4+ storey buildings using bamboo as scaffolding and for supporting newly laid concrete floors.
My Structural engineer friend told me that Bamboo is better than steel if used properly and since it just grows like grass it's basically free.
A bamboo bycicle would be neat but, as a natural product you aren't going to get uniform material to work with so every bike would probably be completeley different to an other. You wouldn't be able to mass produce these things.
Doing a little googling I found this report about using bamboo instead of steel in reinforced concrete.
any way that's my bit out of the way.
A