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I was reading a book on ancient Rome and found out they had a concrete that gets stronger in water
I was looking through this old book I got from a library sale, 'The Roman Builders', and it mentioned something wild. They said the Romans used a concrete mix with volcanic ash and lime for their harbor walls. The crazy part is that this stuff actually gets harder when it's in salt water, like in the ocean. My regular concrete knowledge says water is bad for it, so this blew my mind. The book said a pier built with it over 2000 years ago is still standing strong today. I always thought our modern concrete was the best, but maybe we lost a trick. Has anyone else come across old building methods that seem better than what we use now?
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wade_kelly775d ago
Honestly, isn't that just a cool fact but not really better? Modern concrete sets way faster so we can build quicker, and we add stuff to make it strong for specific jobs. That old Roman stuff took ages to cure and they didn't have rebar inside it for real strength like skyscrapers need. It was perfect for a harbor wall, but I wouldn't want a bridge made with it today. We figured out different tricks for different things.
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abby_martinez4d ago
Consider the environmental cost of making all that modern cement, though.
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