Scientists have finally discovered the forgotten formula for the concrete the Romans used.
Scientists have finally discovered the forgotten formula for the concrete the Romans used.
The secret to Roman concrete lies in its unique mineral formulation and production technique. As the researchers explain in a press release outlining their findings, “The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock. For underwater structures, lime and volcanic ash were mixed to form mortar, and this mortar and volcanic tuff were packed into wooden forms. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated—incorporating water molecules into its structure—and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together.”
The Portland cement formula crucially lacks the lyme and volcanic ash mixture. As a result, it doesn’t bind quite as well when compared with the Roman concrete, researchers found. It is this inferior binding property that explains why structures made of Portland cement tend to weaken and crack after a few decades of use, Jackson says.
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Scientists have finally discovered the forgotten formula for the concrete the Romans used.
The secret to Roman concrete lies in its unique mineral formulation and production technique. As the researchers explain in a press release outlining their findings, “The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock. For underwater structures, lime and volcanic ash were mixed to form mortar, and this mortar and volcanic tuff were packed into wooden forms. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated—incorporating water molecules into its structure—and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together.”
The Portland cement formula crucially lacks the lyme and volcanic ash mixture. As a result, it doesn’t bind quite as well when compared with the Roman concrete, researchers found. It is this inferior binding property that explains why structures made of Portland cement tend to weaken and crack after a few decades of use, Jackson says.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
We can’t use Roman concrete…what will all those unionized road construction workers do if bridges don’t crumble and roads don’t erode.
If Rome had unions there would be no Pantheon standing today.
Good one, jwing.
FIDVCIA ARCHITECTVRVS ROMANVM
Thanks D.K.
Yea, it speaks to the “genius” of the modern collevtivist ideology doesn’t it? NOT!
I’m certainly not espousing that the humanitarian conditions of the Roman Empire were anything to emulate…they were hideous, but the engineering genius of Rome’s civil engineering is astounding, even by today’s technological standards.
A monthly “tribute” may be required for use of this formula. I’ll have some of the boys stop by to talk it over whit-cha.
Yo, Tawk about your concrete shoes.
Nice one guys. Your right though.
We have been adding fly ash to concrete to make it harder and denser for many years. The only problem is that is expensive to add to the relatively cheap concrete.
Part of that problem is that a large portion of fly ash is contaminated with heavy metals, poisons, and those need to be brought down to a safe level before its allowed into the concrete mix.
And you can bet that the green gargoyles will classify volcanic ash as hazardous waste for the same reasons and not let it be used in construction. Unless something real expensive gets done to it to make it safe.
Our loving environmentalists through their care for us and our environment will find a way to keep this from being used.
Even though by adding the poisoned ash to concrete basically sequesters it away from people for about a thousand years or more.
We only touch the surface of the concrete so we only get the toxins from the surface material. And really how much could that be in the end?
2,000 years later, we begin to understand.