I often think about the Roman Empire because their concrete had quicklime mixed with seawater, which resulted in a chemical reaction leaving patches of undissolved lime throughout the concrete. Therefore, when Roman concrete cracks, rainwater leaks in, hits the undissolved lime, which produces calcium carbonate crystals which fill in the gaps in the concrete as they form. It's literally self-healing concrete!
This is the reason why Roman concrete is so ridiculously resilient that it can last for thousands of years, compared to the few decades that concrete made with modern techniques tends to last. However, after the recipe for Roman concrete was lost to time, it took us about as long to reverse engineer it: it was literally only earlier this year when scientists discovered that the undissolved lime chunks in Roman concrete were not a mistake or a result of bad technique, but 100% the intentional and ingenious key to the concrete's longevity.
Cement production is currently a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and this could be greatly reduced by creating longer-lasting concrete with the recently rediscovered Roman method, or a derivative thereof.
...But chances are that most people who spend any significant amount of time thinking about the Roman Empire are not thinking about concrete, nor gender variant history, city planning, bathhouses and latrines, how the misspellings of vulgar graffiti are used to reconstruct the history of the Romance languages, how Catullus 16 was basically the spiritual predecessor to "Ram Ranch", or all sorts of other genuinely interesting things about the wonders and woes of daily life thousands of years ago... But rather, most people will be thinking about sexy muscle men with spears and shields and racist fashy undertones.
...But chances are that most people who spend any significant amount of time thinking about the Roman Empire are not thinking about concrete, nor gender variant history, city planning, bathhouses and latrines, how the misspellings of vulgar graffiti are used to reconstruct the history of the Romance languages, how Catullus 16 was basically the spiritual predecessor to "Ram Ranch", or all sorts of other genuinely interesting things about the wonders and woes of daily life thousands of years ago... But rather, most people will be thinking about sexy muscle men with spears and shields and racist fashy undertones.
Ancient people deserve better than that.
A lot of popular historical period and period-inspired (various fantasy settings or whatever) fiction tend to revolve around wars and stuff. I think we need more works like Pentiment that tries to connect modern people to the human side of history. Humans in the past were still little weird people like we are today, they just had very different material conditions.
Portland cement and it’s consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
E: I do wanna push back on the “figured it out yesterday” part of the lime cement story though. Builders have known about lime for a long time but concrete is reenforced with steel nowadays. A lime/brine cement would eat through the steel reinforcement in a couple of decades and all those pretty modern cantilever things would fall over.
It wasn’t until recently that we had reinforced plastic rebar to use in the same type of constructions (refer to table 3h for revised tension ratings). That’s why the whole internet is lit up with articles about Roman concrete, because we finally have reinforcement materials to build more with it than a patio grill.
Fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP; also called fibre-reinforced polymer, or in American English fiber) is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The fibres are usually glass (in fibreglass), carbon (in carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer), aramid, or basalt. Rarely, other fibres such as paper, wood, boron, or asbestos have been used. The polymer is usually an epoxy, vinyl ester, or polyester thermosetting plastic, though phenol formaldehyde resins are still in use.
FRPs are commonly used in the aerospace, automotive, marine, and construction industries. They are commonly found in ballistic armour and cylinders for self-contained breathing apparatuses.
i watched that animation of the process of roman road building and it stuck with me. i think i was playing valheim a lot at the time and i wanted to make some intense causeway lol, but i've also taken courses in and helped install a small variety of hardscapes in backyards and small agricultural settings. earthworks and other "built environment" design for supporting human activity is super interesting to me.
i often think about the logistics, materials, and processes of the ancient/pre-modern world. my justification is that the world before the dependency of fossil fuels still has lessons for us, from an engineering and design perspective.
i am not so interested in the philosophy and value system of that era, which i think is the distinction. people who are obsessed with the imagery and pageantry are probably harboring fash tendencies.
I often think about the Roman Empire because their concrete had quicklime mixed with seawater, which resulted in a chemical reaction leaving patches of undissolved lime throughout the concrete. Therefore, when Roman concrete cracks, rainwater leaks in, hits the undissolved lime, which produces calcium carbonate crystals which fill in the gaps in the concrete as they form. It's literally self-healing concrete!
This is the reason why Roman concrete is so ridiculously resilient that it can last for thousands of years, compared to the few decades that concrete made with modern techniques tends to last. However, after the recipe for Roman concrete was lost to time, it took us about as long to reverse engineer it: it was literally only earlier this year when scientists discovered that the undissolved lime chunks in Roman concrete were not a mistake or a result of bad technique, but 100% the intentional and ingenious key to the concrete's longevity.
Cement production is currently a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and this could be greatly reduced by creating longer-lasting concrete with the recently rediscovered Roman method, or a derivative thereof.
...But chances are that most people who spend any significant amount of time thinking about the Roman Empire are not thinking about concrete, nor gender variant history, city planning, bathhouses and latrines, how the misspellings of vulgar graffiti are used to reconstruct the history of the Romance languages, how Catullus 16 was basically the spiritual predecessor to "Ram Ranch", or all sorts of other genuinely interesting things about the wonders and woes of daily life thousands of years ago... But rather, most people will be thinking about sexy muscle men with spears and shields and racist fashy undertones.
Ancient people deserve better than that.
i promise you i am thinking about roof tiles, hypocausts, and pottery on the daily
A lot of popular historical period and period-inspired (various fantasy settings or whatever) fiction tend to revolve around wars and stuff. I think we need more works like Pentiment that tries to connect modern people to the human side of history. Humans in the past were still little weird people like we are today, they just had very different material conditions.
Portland cement and it’s consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
E: I do wanna push back on the “figured it out yesterday” part of the lime cement story though. Builders have known about lime for a long time but concrete is reenforced with steel nowadays. A lime/brine cement would eat through the steel reinforcement in a couple of decades and all those pretty modern cantilever things would fall over.
It wasn’t until recently that we had reinforced plastic rebar to use in the same type of constructions (refer to table 3h for revised tension ratings). That’s why the whole internet is lit up with articles about Roman concrete, because we finally have reinforcement materials to build more with it than a patio grill.
I've never heard of plastic rebar, that's super interesting. i googled it and got "fiber-reinforced plastic," is that what you're talking about?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibre-reinforced_plastic
Yeah all that glass filled polymer and carbon fiber is just those compounds held together with some kind of plastic.
Basalt rebar is the same idea as well.
Tbh a better use for oil than burning the stuff.
i watched that animation of the process of roman road building and it stuck with me. i think i was playing valheim a lot at the time and i wanted to make some intense causeway lol, but i've also taken courses in and helped install a small variety of hardscapes in backyards and small agricultural settings. earthworks and other "built environment" design for supporting human activity is super interesting to me.
i often think about the logistics, materials, and processes of the ancient/pre-modern world. my justification is that the world before the dependency of fossil fuels still has lessons for us, from an engineering and design perspective.
i am not so interested in the philosophy and value system of that era, which i think is the distinction. people who are obsessed with the imagery and pageantry are probably harboring fash tendencies.
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